Updates to faculty layoff plan and other stuff

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vatusay
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Leatherneck10 wrote: Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:56 pm
wiu712 wrote: Tue Mar 12, 2019 8:09 pm The above-referenced WQAD News report makes it sound like the "weight" of the Quad Cities campus has the potential to bring down the entire Western "ship".

Might be time to move everything back to Macomb.
The major mistake made in the QC was offering traditional undergraduate programs. There's simply no need for so many on site Bachelor's degrees. Accepting freshmen was a colossal error and it destroyed our relationship with Black Hawk College. Freshmen students on that campus get worse than a community college experience and pay double the c.c. tuition for the honor.

The QC should return to its focus - graduate programs in business and education with a handful of accompanying programs the local labor market needs, including counseling, supply chain, accountancy, human resource management, engineering, engineering tech, and law enforcement. BA in English? RPTA? Liberal Arts and Sciences? No way. There was never a demonstrable need for a full campus in that market, and to go all in on bricks and mortar non-residential higher education in the 21st century? Terrible idea. To do it at the undergraduate level? Borderline criminal.
You are using “borderline” awful loosely.

Couldn’t agree more.
#ALLIN #YOLO
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sealhall74
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I would make a pitch to the U of I System. Let us in and we will give you the QC facilities. You can move your Nursing Program and maybe a few other relevant things into that space. They are probably leasing space just up the street. The state just needs to start taking a "Macro"-planning approach to education. But today, down in Springfield, no doubt each university will be on their own begging and pleading with the lawmakers to just give them more dollars because that will fix the problem.
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wiu712
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sealhall74 wrote: Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:53 amI would make a pitch to the U of I System. Let us in and we will give you the QC facilities.
Former governor Bruce Rauner wanted to start a satellite campus for the University of Illinois in the Quad Cities. Perhaps the U of I would be interested in that Moline riverfront building.
Leatherneck10
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sealhall74 wrote: Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:53 am I would make a pitch to the U of I System. Let us in and we will give you the QC facilities. You can move your Nursing Program and maybe a few other relevant things into that space. They are probably leasing space just up the street. The state just needs to start taking a "Macro"-planning approach to education. But today, down in Springfield, no doubt each university will be on their own begging and pleading with the lawmakers to just give them more dollars because that will fix the problem.
UIC has offered nursing in the Quad Cities for decades. They teach graduate programs on the ground in Moline. There *might* be an opening for the BSN in the QC, but students can get their RN at the QC area community colleges and then finish their BSN online from UIC (the number 1 nursing school in the United States!) My guess is U of I would not be interested in teaching a full on site BSN in the Quad Cities. It's simply too expensive to offer.

I suspect U of I would have little to no interest in the Quad Cities. The most profitable program they could offer there (MBA) is already offered by a strong competitor (University of Iowa) in Davenport. The QC population base is on the Iowa side. Having the University of Iowa an hour away makes the QC an unattractive market for competition.
LocalYokelFan
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Leatherneck10 wrote: Thu Mar 14, 2019 9:54 am
sealhall74 wrote: Thu Mar 14, 2019 6:53 am I would make a pitch to the U of I System. Let us in and we will give you the QC facilities. You can move your Nursing Program and maybe a few other relevant things into that space. They are probably leasing space just up the street. The state just needs to start taking a "Macro"-planning approach to education. But today, down in Springfield, no doubt each university will be on their own begging and pleading with the lawmakers to just give them more dollars because that will fix the problem.
UIC has offered nursing in the Quad Cities for decades. They teach graduate programs on the ground in Moline. There *might* be an opening for the BSN in the QC, but students can get their RN at the QC area community colleges and then finish their BSN online from UIC (the number 1 nursing school in the United States!) My guess is U of I would not be interested in teaching a full on site BSN in the Quad Cities. It's simply too expensive to offer.

I suspect U of I would have little to no interest in the Quad Cities. The most profitable program they could offer there (MBA) is already offered by a strong competitor (University of Iowa) in Davenport. The QC population base is on the Iowa side. Having the University of Iowa an hour away makes the QC an unattractive market for competition.
I don't know about this. I'd love IL to go into the Quad Cities and bully around Iowa a bit. Iowa is a good school, but it's not close to IL in most subjective areas. I don't buy for a second that Iowa's MBA is even on the same playing field as IL's (US News MBA Rankings - IL @ #47 tied with Iowa State, Iowa's Tippie is "NR". Overall "National University" ranking - IL @ #46, IA @ #89, IaSt @ #119). No reason IL wouldn't be able to compete in a few different arenas up there - Engineering (light years better than any IA school), nursing, business, and a whole host of others. WIU doesn't quite have the cache IL does and it's obviously been difficult for them to make their mark up there. But UIUC!? That's a brand that stands a chance in a competitive, growing urban market. I hope our leaders take a close look at that, my eyes (admittedly naive) see a win-win.
wiu712
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From Mark Maxwell (WCIA-TV, Champaign):

House Republican Rep Dan Brady, who is the point person on higher ed for the House GOP, said there is little to no chance that the statehouse approves emergency funding for Western in an interview today.
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Tere North
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If WIU wants to help QC survive without hurting Macomb, the only real hope is to have a few specific programs offered only at QC, with lower division frosh/soph gen-ed work done online.

Engineering is there. Build it and run with it, including moving the robotics on the Macomb campus up to QC. Only consider adding anything else when it can be established there is a real demand for it. And no commuting faculty. Paying driving time is a waste of money. Plus, the head of the QC campus is simply a Dean for whatever programs are offered ONLY there, not on Macomb, e.g., Dean of Engineering & .…, NOT at VP level

Any/all lower division gen-ed MUST be online only.
Leatherneck10
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UIUC’s MBA is 72 credits. Out of state it is 20k per semester. It’s around 12k instate. That’s 5 semesters of study, minimum. Iowa’s MBA is a flat fee 30k, in state or out. Iowa residents in the QC will not pay 100k for a UIUC MBA. UIUC’s MBA is better, but not 70k better, especially for workers who want to remain in the QC. An Iowa MBA is more than acceptable.

What is hard to understand is how Western’s MBA, at a ridiculously low 12k, in state or out, cannot break through in the QC, even against St Ambrose’s, a non AACSB accredited degree.
LocalYokelFan
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Leatherneck10 wrote: Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:01 pm UIUC’s MBA is 72 credits. Out of state it is 20k per semester. It’s around 12k instate. That’s 5 semesters of study, minimum. Iowa’s MBA is a flat fee 30k, in state or out. Iowa residents in the QC will not pay 100k for a UIUC MBA. UIUC’s MBA is better, but not 70k better, especially for workers who want to remain in the QC. An Iowa MBA is more than acceptable.

What is hard to understand is how Western’s MBA, at a ridiculously low 12k, in state or out, cannot break through in the QC, even against St Ambrose’s, a non AACSB accredited degree.
Most people don't pick their MBA program based on tuition. $70k savings in tuition could literally be 2-5 years in salary payback between a top tier and average MBA program. Competing primarily on price, whether it's making widgets, providing professional services, or educational services, is a race to the bottom. Cutting prices to gain market share rarely works for long. Better to be good and add value.

Also, disagree with Tere on engineering in the QC. WIU isn't a good engineering school. Stop spending $ on things you're not good at. There are things WIU does well, engineering isn't one of them.
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sealhall74
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Engineering could, repeat could, be a winner QC program but need to establish the framework. Look to Brookings for the model. Kids there intern at Daktronics while going to school. We would need to work with Deere and the RI Arsenal in a similar way. Maybe some of that is already going on or maybe we just need to do it better.
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