FORUM offers professionals chance to finish degree

SYRACUSE - Empire State College's FORUM Management Program targets professionals who, for a variety of reasons, have yet to earn a bachelor's degree.

These individuals often take the time to finish their college education for personal satisfaction, explains Gary Boyer, the school's marketing and outreach specialist.

"A big motivator seems to be, 'I have a daughter going to college, I need to have a degree myself," he says.

Yet other students have a more practical reason for enrolling in the program, he continues.

"The vast majority of students has either been told outright or figured out that in order to get promoted to the next level, they need to have a [bachelor's] degree," Boyer says.

About 70 to 80 percent of students has an associate's degree or two years of related college experience before entering the program, Boyer says.

Boyer believes that FORUM is one-of-a-kind; he says. While universities in Central New York offer executive master's of business administration prograins, he considers the FORUM program the only executive-targeted bachelor's of business administration, he says.

Empire State College, which was formed in 1971, created the FORUM program in 1986.

The program's model combines independent study with structured classroom time that full-time workers can incorporate into their schedules, Boyer explains.

FORUM functions differently from most undergraduate educations. Each semester, students must participate in three, weekend-long residencies. These two-day seminars bring students together to meet with faculty and industry experts.

The residencies group students who are interested in similar topics into meetings. For example, students targeting human-relations management and those specializing in labor management will have their own separate discussion groups, explains Michele Ball, FORUM's program coordinator.

Between residencies, students develop their own individual courses alongside advisers, whom Empire State College calls mentors. Each mentor recommends a combination of work to develop each student's major, Boyer explains.

"The hardest thing for people to understand is that we don't have a list of majors," he says. "It's entirely customized. You decide as a student what courses you will take and the degree you want."

The Syracuse FORUM program employs seven mentors on its faculty. About 15 or 16 additional industry professionals perform adjunct tutoring to FORUM students.

FORUM consists of two 20-week terms per year, and most students complete the program within a two-year time frame depending on the number of credits they elect to take and the number of "lifeexperience" credits they earn before starting the program, Boyer explains.

On average, the school awards students between 30 and 50 credits before they begin the 128-credit program. FORUM managers determine life-experience credits.

Credits cost $400 apiece when students enroll in fewer than 10 per semester. From 10 to 16 credits, students must pay a flat rate of $4,000, giving students an incentive to take more than the basic requirement, Boyer explains.

Empire State College quantifies prior learning by looking at the degree plan for a particular student and identifying the areas of study in which an individual already has college-level learning. The school assesses a student's level of knowledge about a subject through questionnaires and interviews, Ball says.

Although Empire State College has locations throughout New York State, the FORUM program is only offered in three locations Syracuse, Buffalo, and Albany. Individual residencies are held in each region. Seventy-two students, from 56 different employers, participate in the Syracuse FORUM program currently, but Boyer would like to increase participation to about 100 students per semester, he says. Empire State College has 1, 100 students total in Syracuse, he says.

Of the more than 17,000 students enrolled in Empire State College statewide, about 5,000 take part in the FORUM program.

FORUM is not an acronym. The all-capital spelling is the logo design, Boyer xplains.

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