Frederic D. Washington, Special to The Times Published 8:00 a.m. CT Oct. 20, 2020

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Recently, BIZ, a business journal for northwest Louisiana featured Louisiana State University in Shreveport, or LSUS as the fastest-growing university in the state.

The feature referred largely to the growth of enrollment in online graduate degrees in the fields of business and education.The news is in stark contrast to headlines between 2010 and 2014, where topics covered a potential merger with Louisiana Tech University, a new chancellor, and the overhaul of LSUS branding to align with the LSU Systems commitment to one brand.

The source of those headlines came from what was perceived as a comprehensive university that was struggling to attract and most importantly retain students. This would become in part a motivation towards the schools Quality Enhancement Plan of 2015, which is something schools present at their accreditation renewal as an ongoing commitment to improving learning outcomes.

More: LSUS reports enrollment increase, top-ranking as fastest-growing higher ed institution

By 2015, LSUS like many schools stripped the GRE and GMAT testing requirements, which were previously used as a quality control factor to determine admissions to graduate-degree programs. During that same time, the marketing and recruitment format for the online degree programs had changed. The admissions office and the academic departments handled marketing and recruitment for online programs, until the university partnered with a Dallas-based education consulting company, Academic Partnerships, or AP.

According to publicly published faculty senate meeting minutes, on March 16, 2017, university administrators acknowledged that Academic Partnerships would collect half of revenues generated from students they recruited to the Master of Business Administration and Master of Education Programs. This means, LSUS pays Academic Partnerships $1 for every $2 earned.

By comparison in Spring 2014, Concordia University in Portland, Oregon, boasted its designation from US News and World Report as the fastest-growing university in the state. Concordia was founded in 1905 as a normal school for priests and male teachers and evolved to a four-year co-educational private university.

As years went by the school sought to provide academic programs that were of interest to the community. The school had implemented online learning as early as the mid-2000s but experienced a modicum of success in growing its population.

That changed in 2010, when the school reached out to a for-profit education consulting firm, HotChalk. The partnership with HotChalk would grow the enrollment in the Master of Education programs by the thousands from year to year. HotChalk was tasked with marketing and recruitment of the online education programs afforded by Concordia University. According to The Oregonian, Concordia reportedly awarded more Master of Education degrees than any college or university in the country in 2016.

While enrollment numbers would continue to climb and remain at levels that rivaled online graduate programs across the nation, financial sustainability was a major issue for an institution that was reportedly fast-growing.The university would experience difficulty in making good on loan payments, and reached out to its parent, the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod for financial support.That financial support washed away as the conservative leaning body frowned upon LGBTQ programming on the Portland campus.

On Feb, 7, 2020, administrators at Concordia University announced it would close, as a result of a changing educational landscape and mounting financial challenges. While there were plans in place for students to complete their degrees at other schools, there were still more questions than answers. How could the fastest-growing school in the state cite financial reasons for its closure if there had been so much growth? College is not free, therefore with record enrollment should come higher revenues for Concordia, right? Wrong.

The aforementioned partnership with HotChalk provided name recognition, and perhaps a larger alumni base for the school, but at great cost. According to Inside Higher Education and The Oregonian by the year 2024, Concordia would only receive $1 of every $3 made in revenues. HotChalk would pocket the rest.

Frederic D. Washington(Photo: Submitted Photo)

Are partnerships between private corporations and public or nonprofit schools, less beneficial to one party in the long run? The Concordia story represents how growth does not necessarily constitute sustainability if there are unfair elements at play. For the most part, schools are mission driven organizations, whereas profit driven organizations like HotChalk and Academic Partnerships are only concerned with their bottom line.

The growth achieved through partnerships with companies comes with great scrutiny in academia. While online education is rapidly growing, it cannot fully replace learning experiences that appeal to diverse learning styles and needs. During a Feb.17, 2017 faculty senate meeting, LSUS faculty expressed concern that the growth of online programming would dilute from the scope and mission of the university, and further expressed their concern regarding the lack of communication, and academic freedom with regard to Academic Partnerships.

Faculty senate members have also questioned on multiple occasions if it is ethical for Academic Partnerships to collect 50% of the tuition dollars collected by LSUS. While growth has been achieved in online programming, the institution still has a responsibility to aggressively address face to face enrollment in programs.

In the case of Concordia, the rapid expansion of online programs seemed to distract from pressing issues regarding the overall sustainability of the school. With four provosts within the last four years, turnover with three the deans in the College of Arts and Sciences, and marginal increases in the freshman population, could online growth at LSUS be distracting from truly assessing sustainability?

More: Letter: Louisiana State University Shreveport - our university

According to the minutes of the Sept.8, 2020 faculty senate meeting, the 2020-21 budget for LSUS is $61.5 million. Of that number, the state appropriates $8.5 million, representative of a near decade of divestment in higher education from the State of Louisiana.

Like most schools in the state, LSUS operates largely off student tuition and fees. For the students in the academic programs that represent the largest portion of growth, that means massive student loan receipts, as graduate students do not qualify for federal grants. The school promotes a 14%increase in incoming freshman to the media, because it sounds better than reporting the raw number of about 50 additional students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has crippled the economy and that impact is expected to be experienced at the state level and could lead to additional divestment in state schools like LSUS. Dependency on fickle state support and tuition receipts driven largely on student loans, is not representative of responsible, sustainable growth.

The LSU System, which is the parent for LSUS prides itself on being involved in all 64 of the parishes across the state. If this pride point has any significant validity, LSUS should position itself towards programming and a framework that supports and represents the community it serves, in addition to those around the world. The current climate of growth represents a marketing and recruitment firms ability to recruit students to enlarge their bottom line. Such partnerships would lead one to believe that higher education has resorted to renting accreditation to exist.

With full disclosure: Dr. Frederic Washington of Shreveport is an educator and served as the Academic Counselor for the College of Arts and Sciences at LSUS between 2017 and 2019. He also earned degrees with distinction from LSUS and Concordia University.

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Frederic D. Washington: Fastest-growing university in the state, but at what cost? - Shreveport Times