WATCACE

Unlike many of the undergraduate and graduate forms of higher education which had their origins in Europe, the cooperative plan of education is a distinctly American philosophy of higher education. It includes all of the academic requirements of other types of higher education plus learning while doing and applying what is being studied while still a student.

The basic concept in cooperative education of alternating on-campus study and off-campus work emerged at the turn of the century, and was first applied experimentally by Herman Schneider at the Engineering School of the University of Cincinnati in 1906.

Currently there are over 350 institutions of higher education in the United States offering some form of cooperative education to an estimated enrollment of 110,000 students with approximately 95,000 actively participating. These students are currently earning a gross income of $280,000,000 per year and are placed with over 5,000 employers here and abroad. Another 200 programs are in the planning stages.

Cooperative education has often erroneously been associated exclusively with engineering programs. This misconception arises because of its origins with Schneider in the engineering field. In recent years, and particularly since 1946, the growth in other areas such as business administration, liberal arts, and education has been instrumental in the accelerated development of cooperative curricula.

The post-war interest in cooperative education prompted Charles F. Kettering to suggest that the Thomas Alva Edison Foundation sponsor a conference on cooperative education in response both to this explosive growth in the field and to prepare for the challenge of the future. The conference convened in Dayton, Ohio in May, 1957. In the aftermath of this first national conference on cooperative education, it was suggested that a research study of the values of cooperative education be undertaken. In 1958, Dr. Samuel B. Gould (then President of Antioch College), Dr. Ralph W. Tyler, and George E. Probst drafted a proposal requesting support for such research. The study was begun with a grant from the Fund for the Advancement of Education. Dr. Tyler was appointed chairman of the study committee and Dr. James W. Wilson, who was then at the Rochester Institute of Technology, was appointed its executive director.

The purpose of the research was to appraise the major aspects of cooperative education and to compare students and graduates in cooperative programs with those whose education did not include a systematic coordination of work and study experiences. Dr. Wilson and his staff compiled data over a two-year period and the conclusions of the research study were published in 1961. In this publication, the study committee recommended that cooperative programs be widely expanded to include many more colleges and universities as it had proved to be a superior form of education.

When the study was made public to a group assembled at the Princeton Inn, the question was raised as to how to implement such a recommendation. The shelves of libraries are filled with studies of this kind that are collecting dust with little hope for implementation. It was decided that action could be generated by forming an organization to be called the National Commission for Cooperative Education. It was envisioned that this Commission would be a nonprofit organization with a board of trustees that would be responsible for raising money to support a budget for underwriting a missionary thrust with colleges and universities. In early 1962, this Commission was formed and one of its first tasks was to compile information about the existing programs and to promote the cause of cooperative education by working with people in the major media areas. As more and more colleges and universities became interested, the Commission offered free consulting services to help them plan their cooperative programs.

In 1964, the Ford Foundation became interested in cooperative education as they were receiving requests from colleges and universities to assist them in financing the starting-up costs of a cooperative program. One of the difficulties in adopting the cooperative plan at any institution is finding adequate funding for the first two or three years while the program is being developed. In 1965, the Foundation made its first grants to cooperative education and asked Northeastern University to submit a proposal to establish a consulting center for these grantees to turn to for aid and assistance in the development of their programs. As a result, the Center for Cooperative Education was founded at Northeastern University. Subsequent centers have also been established at the University of South Florida, the University of Detroit, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and others.

In the meantime, the Federal government began developing a keen interest in cooperative education, and the National Commission was called upon to give testimony before both the House and Senate committees considering higher education legislation. In 1965, the Higher Education Act was passed, and one segment of this Act, called Title III, was an authorization of financial assistance to developing institutions. One of the fundable actions that can be taken by a developing institution is the installation of a cooperative program. This was the first time that Federal funds were made available for the development of this type of program.

However, in order to qualify for Federal support for cooperative education, a college or university first had to be a developing institution, thus eliminating many from potential funding. In the higher education amendments of 1968, Congress authorized, under Title IV D, Federal support specifically for cooperative education. Therefore, grants for cooperative education programs were no longer restricted by the developing institution requirement. Within this legislation, any college or university could apply for Federal support for its cooperative education programs.

During the last fiscal year, 1971-1972, the appropriation for cooperative education under Title IV D was $1,700,000. Although at this time the 1972-1973 amount has not been voted upon, the Nixon Administration has requested $10,750,000 as the funding for Title IV D. It is also anticipated that a similar amount will be requested in the 1973-197 4 budget.

Cooperative education has achieved much of its success in response to events of national importance. First was President Johnson's decision to initiate the War on Poverty which resulted in a great demand for educational programs to service the youngsters from underprivileged .and impoverished backgrounds. Cooperative education, for obvious reasons, has always been a vehicle that lends itself well to this type of student. Then, on top of this crusade, came the awakening of the American people to the long-ignored racial injustices in this country. Again corrective programs were initiated and the special role of cooperative education proved to be an effective means of bringing people into the mainstream of society. Thirdly, the student revolution on the campuses against the war and the social injustices led in turn to a widespread questioning of the relevance of higher education. Students were having a difficult time accepting what they were being taught in the classroom in light of what was happening in the world around them. Again an educational program which occasionally dips students into the reality of life beyond the campus offered some means of bringing more relevance to a college education.

Meanwhile, many colleges and universities began to feel the pressure of a financial squeeze, particularly private institutions, and within this group those that were church supported. The financial advantages of cooperative education for increasing enrollments and providing more income to the institution became the motivating force for many presidents and trustees to turn their institutions toward cooperative education.

In 1972, three major reports that dealt with reforming higher education made favorable references to the cooperative plan. Each one encouraged more institutions to make a wider use of this alternation of study and off-campus experience to increase and enliven their educational offerings.

All of these factors, when combined with the Ford Foundation interest and availability of Federal dollars, caused a rapid acceleration in the acceptance of cooperative education as something more than it had ever been in the past. This is reflected in the astonishing numbers of colleges and universities that are adopting cooperative education. Recently, 630 institutions applied to the Federal government for $25,000,000 to finance cooperative education programs.

We are only beginning to understand the significance of these changes and to react to their implications. One of our foremost concerns is to develop a working definition that will include all of the aspects of present day off-campus experience and cooperative education. For many years, the leaders in the field maintained, as stated by Schneider and reiterated in the Manifesto written in the 1940's, cooperative education could only be defined in terms of engineering and/or professional education. As a result of this point of view, many of the new institutions adopting field and experiential programs felt alienated, and therefore, formed their own separate societies to meet their needs. Thus, in 1964, the Cooperative Education Association was formed. Last fall, another organization, called the Society for Field Experience Education, held its initial meeting on the campus of Hofstra University.

As more and more colleges and universities are developing some form of off-campus experience, this problem is becoming extremely critical. Some would argue that since these new programs no longer follow the "true path" of cooperative education, they should not be of concern to us. I have always accepted the merits of each of these programs and felt that they were each a part of the all-encompassing umbrella term of cooperative education. Therefore, to me, paid and nonpaid jobs, internships, experiential, and off-campus experience programs were all legitimately within the larger concept of cooperative education.

Today we are faced with a very sensitive and critical moment in the life of the movement. This gathering here in New York is the largest we have ever assembled. If all indications are true, it is not inconceivable that within the next five to ten years, 50 percent of all the colleges and universities in the country will offer some form of off-campus opportunity to their students. This means approximately 1,500 institutions of higher education. If this becomes a reality, our employing firms and agencies will be confronted with an overwhelming number of education people contacting them about placing students. Of concern also is determining the number of assignments that the economy can successfully support.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, we at Northeastern University feel that the time has come when we must develop a new approach. Therefore, we have established an Institute for Off-Campus Experience and Cooperative Education to provide consulting assistance to participating member colleges initiating cooperative and other forms of off-campus education, develop paid jobs and other off-campus opportunities for students in these colleges, provide an information exchange service of available jobs and experiences, and conduct training for the staffs of the participating colleges.

The Institute will expand upon Northeastern's traditional concept of cooperative education as paid employment in career-related areas and seek to provide opportunities for a wide variety of off-campus experiences both in this country and abroad. In addition to paid positions of employment, students also may elect unpaid off-campus experiences with volunteer organizations and social agencies as well as internships in local, state, and Federal governments, independent study and research, and travel here and abroad.

With one central organization structuring paid and experiential opportunities with a large number of employers and other users, significant economies would be achieved through eliminating the duplication of cost and effort inherent in many colleges simultaneously attempting the same task. These savings will make possible off-campus programs for larger numbers of students in many more colleges.

In some instances, the Institute coordinators will develop jobs over the entire country; in other cases, regional offices with full-time experience developers will be established on the campuses of participating institutions. In addition the Institute will organize a staff of overseas-based experience developers to provide employment, travel, and study opportunities abroad.

The job and experience information will be fed into an automated career education center that will provide knowledge of available opportunities to participating colleges.

In order that the value of the off-campus experiences can be maximized for all students, each campus will have its own counselor staff responsible for assisting students in achieving a clearer perception of what they have learned about themselves and the world in which they live.

The Institute will be implemented in five stages over a five-year period. During each successive stage the number of colleges will be increased and the number of students participating in the off-campus programs from each college will also increase.

The Institute will be self-supporting after the initial five years through an appropriate fee structure to the participating institutions. These fees will be a combination of a retainer fee plus a charge per student served. It is expected that the retainer fee will be $2,500 per year and the initial student service fee will be $120 per student per year.

In conclusion, from my own work with many thousands of students and graduates of Northeastern, I have seen how cooperative education fulfills its purpose of combining study and study-related work in a unified learning process, compounding the mastery of knowledge, information, and techniques with realistic experience. Our students gain a sense of the relationship between academic study and the practical aspects of life, including an awareness of the importance of work, and good workmanship, and the wise use of time, energy, and money.

Of equal importance is the fact that this process of education establishes a direct interaction between the colleges and universities and the industrial, business, professional, and public agencies that operate our economy. We estimate that there are over 5,000 employers in both the public and private sectors who employ cooperative students through relationships more directly with colleges and universities. We have moved a great distance from our original specialization in engineering, and now there are cooperative programs for a very broad spectrum of academic disciplines and career aspirations.

In effect, the cooperative schools are increasingly becoming a source of those human resources necessary to operate and to manage the economic apparatus of the nation, and unless mankind reverts to a sylvan primitive existence, our technology education is a social invention that has come of age at this time of search for new directions in education and for new means to cope with the problems of a highly technological society.