Opinion: Reinventing Springfield

Springfield is clearly lacking in one thing. It lacks a post-secondary educational institution. The State gambled a few years back on a new solution to that lack, the gamble, however, imploded.

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978567451              Reinventing Springfield  •  George McNaughton October 02, 2010 06:31 PM EDT  •  Gather  •  Springfield's proposed exercise in re-branding invokes a process, namely "reinventing."  It is not clear, however, what exactly is to be reinvented.  I would suggest that Springfield is clearly lacking in one thing.  It lacks a post-secondary educational institution.  The State gambled a few years back on a new solution to that lack, the gamble, however, imploded.  •  The idea was a good one.  Its execution was bad.  The idea was that if you combined a high school, a technical center, and community colleges in one building you could create a situation where a seamless web of education running from the 9th to 14th grade would occur.  •  It could have worked, but it didn't.  The reason it failed to work was no one bothered to force the post-secondary institutions to have Springfield as a hub.  The result was that CCV and VTC and some other State Colleges set up teaser units.  Teaser units are where you offer one or two courses, normally introductory courses, which are part of a degree program.  The student signs up for these courses and then later discovers that he or she cannot complete the degree at the teaser unit, but either has to attend at a hub or run around the State to other teaser units to get the other necessary credits.  •  Since CCV credits are not easily transferrable out of state, that means the student has to attend the hub or transfer to UVM or another State College in order to complete his or her degree or write off the credits as a loss.  •   The result of having teaser units in Springfield resulted in an implosion of the much heralded Howard Dean Education Center (HDEC).  At this point, there is no sense in trying to break through the turf barriers in an attempt to resurrect HDEC.  What is needed now is for the State to authorize the River Valley Technical Center to grant Associate degrees.  It is important that it be authorized to grant the degrees themselves, not just offer courses which can be treated as college credits.  Only by offering the degrees themselves, can we be assured that a real full service post collegiate presence will be available in Springfield.  •  This is not the only action that needs to take place, however, Springfield still needs a college presence beyond the associate degree.  However, it is unlikely that we will get funding for a full undergraduate program, and UVM has made it clear that it has no intention of creating branch campuses.  What Springfield needs is a Graduate Institute offering MA and Phds.  But that is the second step, what is needed first is the authorization to a locally controlled entity, the River Valley Technical Center, to offer associate degrees.  •