Adult Education Expands
July 2002
COLUMBUS - Ohio Dominican University recently announced that it will open a new off-campus site in Dublin this fall to meet the growing demand for quality college education for working adults.
The move will allow Ohio Dominican to double enrollment in its popular adult education program, LEAD, and become one of the top colleges in the growing market of offering higher education alternatives for today’s busy professional.
The new 6,000-square foot facility is located at 5550 Blazer Parkway, across the street from the Tuttle Crossing Mall. It is the second off-campus site the Catholic college has opened in a year. The Easton facility (4449 Easton Way) opened in August 2000 and reached its 500-student capacity this summer. LEAD classes are also offered at the college’s main campus at 1216 Sunbury Road in Columbus.
LEAD (Learning Enhanced Adult Degree) is an accelerated degree program that enables students to complete a degree while balancing job, family, and other obligations. Students attend class in small groups, one night a week and complete classes six weeks at a time. The classroom experience is reinforced with smaller weekly study groups. The program offers an Associate of Science degree in business, a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration, and in January is scheduled to begin offering a Master’s of Business Administration.
LEAD began in 1995 and has seen remarkable growth. Since 1998, the LEAD program has more than doubled from an enrollment of 159 in the summer of 1998 to a predicted enrollment this August of well over 500. By this time next year, LEAD is expected to serve at least 700 students and by 2005, the college hopes to provide quality adult education through the LEAD program to more than 1,000 students.
“This is part of a national trend. More and more people are realizing that in today’s economy, a college degree is necessary for both professional and personal success,” said Ohio Dominican University President Dr. Jack Calareso. “However, while flexibility and access are important, academic quality is critical.”
Since 1970, the number of college students over the age of 25 nationally has nearly doubled, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. In 1970, 28 percent of college students in the United States were over age 25. Today, more than 50 percent are over 25. And the number continues to rise.
Only 25 percent of adults over age 25 have a college degree in Columbus, the lowest percentage among major metropolitan areas in Ohio, according the latest U.S. Census. The Census reports that college graduates on average earn $22,000 more per year than non-college graduates.
“Our 90-year tradition as a Catholic liberal arts college uniquely qualifies Ohio Dominican to meet this growing demand in a way that other schools can’t. At Ohio Dominican, working adults get the best of both worlds: a boost in their careers, and even more importantly, academic quality, personal growth and development of character and moral understanding they will carry with them throughout life,” Dr. Calareso said.
Ohio Dominican has been a leader in adult higher education locally and nationwide. The college was the first in Central Ohio to offer weekend college classes.
The new Tuttle Crossing facility features four state-of-the-art classrooms, each equipped with high-tech digital audio-visual centers and 28 network ports and power jacks to enable every student to plug in their laptops and log live into the Internet at anytime. Enrollment at Ohio Dominican University includes an IBM ThinkPad laptop computer.
Students interested in the LEAD program can call 614-473-9003 or 800-955-OHIO.
