FAST TRACK Globe University

Note from Nipsy Dandy Doodle:
Maybe if Dr. Ihlenfeldt had spent less time "outsourcing local jobs to Florida", and more time spent preparing to provide Internet classes properly, Globe would not have students driving to MN for school. Quite possibly, some actual inhouse staff providing expertise vs. calling an 800 number in Floriday might have helped. Too late, Bill, but then Bill is retiring, living off some Collegis pension most likely.


Fast track Globe University

Plans to start classes in Eau Claire in a little more than six months as part of an aggressive growth plan.
By Eric Lindquist
Leader-Telegram staff

Though the first bulldozer has yet to move dirt at the proposed site for Globe University's campus in Eau Claire, officials from the Minnesota-based private college expect classes to begin June 30.

The Eau Claire Plan Commission approved a site plan Monday for the school's 31,200-square-foot building near the northwest corner of the Interstate 94-U.S. 53 interchange. The target date for starting construction is Nov. 1.

Globe executives have yet to apply for approval from the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board for the Eau Claire campus - their first in the state - but that hasn't stopped them from planning nine other Wisconsin campuses in the next decade.

Yes, Globe is all about fast - from its ambitious startup schedule to the amount of time it projects students will need to get trained for new careers.

"Our goal is for students to come in to get training and their degree and to immediately start working in their chosen career field," said Jeff Myhre, chief operating officer of Globe University/Minnesota School of Business.

Even Globe's niche - what is known as a "career college" - is the fastest growing area of higher education, Myhre said.

Indeed, annual enrollment at career colleges - for-profit postsecondary institutions that provide professional and technical career-specific educational programs - shot up more than 17 percent from 2003-04 to 2005-06, according to the Career College Association.

Despite their apparent need for speed, Globe and its sister institution, Minnesota School of Business, hardly qualify as fly-by-night operations.

While the subject matter has changed - from topics such as penmanship and shorthand to today's business, medical and computer offerings - both have been providing specialized career training programs since they were founded more than 120 years ago.

The proposed Eau Claire branch of the Globe system will consist of one building with 14 classrooms, a library, a student commons and office space for student services, career services and administration, said Myhre, whose family bought Globe in 1972 and Minnesota School of Business in 1988.

Thanks to significant online course offerings and flexible scheduling, the campus should have the capacity to serve up to 1,000 students. Myhre projected the Eau Claire campus would graduate about 250 students annually in five years.

That expansion of training is welcome news to at least one local business community leader.

Bob McCoy, Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce president, said the Chippewa Valley already is fortunate to be home to several higher-education institutions, and the addition of Globe will make it a better environment for workers and employers.

"Any time you can enhance the opportunities for employees, I think it's a great thing," McCoy said. "Whenever you can get more training, regardless of your level of education, it's a chance to improve yourself and make the company you work for a better employer. We all need more education."

Older student body

Globe students in Eau Claire will be able to earn two-year associate degrees, four-year bachelor's degrees and even a master's of business administration degree.

While the college will offer all of the general education classes needed to fulfill requirements for a bachelor's degree, most of the students at other Globe campuses enroll with at least two years of transfer credits from previous degrees or from time at another institution, Myhre said. The 10 Globe University/Minnesota School of Business branches in Minnesota and North and South Dakota accept transfer credits for up to 75 percent of a degree.

"We really have our own niche," he said. "We try to service adult learners and people who really just want to get their degree and start working."

Globe campuses also serve some traditional students just out of high school.

"But if they're interested in dormitories, fraternities, football games and all of those social aspects of campus life, we don't have any of that," Myhre said. "Many of our students are married and have kids and jobs and active lives outside of school."

Nate Herrmann, who has been named campus director for the Eau Claire branch, speaks from experience when he advocates the career-college concept. He attended Globe and received an associate degree in 1998 and a bachelor's degree this year. He has worked for the system for 10 years, the last four in Utah, where Globe's owners manage two Utah Career College campuses and are preparing to launch a third.

Herrmann, serving as regional director for the Utah campuses, expects to start his Eau Claire duties in December. After growing up in Minnesota, he is looking forward to returning to the Upper Midwest.

The idea for expanding to Eau Claire came about when Globe officials noticed that some students at their Woodbury, Minn., headquarters campus were driving from Eau Claire and Menomonie.

"I think there is demand for our kind of programs everywhere," Herrmann said, noting that Globe campuses typically attract students who live within an hour's drive.

Workplace changes

A key factor in the growth of career colleges is the increasing frequency of job changes among American workers, Myhre said, adding, "These days a lot of people are choosing not to stick with one career field for their whole life."

Globe officials haven't made a final determination about what programs will be offered in Eau Claire, but preliminary plans include business administration, accounting, business management, health care management, information technology, paralegal, medical assistant, veterinary technology, massage therapy and criminal justice.

Herrmann said the career college will set up program advisory boards that will seek input from area employers about what skills they want students to have, including experience working with specific software programs.

"We don't want to be teaching students something they're not going to be using immediately upon graduation," he said.

Courses will be taught by about 10 full-time faculty members and 30 adjunct instructors - community residents who work in the field they will be teaching.

"We feel the best way for our students to learn is from current industry professionals," Herrmann said, suggesting that may be more applicable to today's workplaces than instruction from professors who have been away from their fields for a while.

Different option

Leaders from UW-Eau Claire and Chippewa Valley Technical College said they don't view the planned new campus in town as a threat, although Globe's programs likely will overlap somewhat with offerings at the much larger state-sponsored schools.

"I don't see it as a negative. I see it as a positive," said CVTC President Bill Ihlenfeldt. "Competition keeps us all sharp. I think it just provides another alternative to the community."

Globe's arrival will expand the region's capacity to educate its work force, he said, noting that CVTC typically educates slightly less than half of the area's needed workers in the fields for which it offers programs.

For instance, CVTC's offerings in criminal justice - a program area that also may be offered by Globe - are full every year, Ihlenfeldt said.

"As needs arise, the private sector is going to try to meet them and make a profit," he said.

UW-Eau Claire Chancellor Brian Levin-Stankevich said Globe officials apparently have identified a market in the Chippewa Valley for serving specific kinds of adult students.

"We don't see it as competition," Levin-Stankevich said. "I think it will serve a different kind of student than UW-Eau Claire. It's not a comprehensive university by any sense."

Enrollment and employment exemplify the differences in scale between Globe and Eau Claire's public higher education campuses. Globe ultimately is expected to have about 800 to 900 full- and part-time students and employ about 60 people in Eau Claire, compared with about 10,600 full-time students and 1,293 employees at UW-Eau Claire and 6,140 full-time students and 340 employees at CVTC.

Career colleges have extremely different standards of accreditation than state universities, Leven-Stankevich added.

"I encourage people to check out all their options," he said. "Students ought to be smart consumers about what educational institution best meets their needs."