After a yr of finessing the construction of and incomes regulatory approval for a first-of-its form greater schooling community, two greater studying establishments with very completely different scholar physique demographics have formally joined forces to develop their college students’ entry to extra tutorial packages.

The Coalition for the Frequent Good is a nonprofit partnership—not a merger— between Otterbein College and Antioch College. On the floor, the 2 non-public establishments appear very completely different: Otterbein is a small liberal arts faculty in Ohio that principally serves undergraduates, whereas Antioch is a personal establishment with a number of campuses in 4 states centered on grownup learners and workforce improvement.

However by way of the creation of this new, nonprofit partnership introduced Tuesday, leaders of each establishments say the coalition would be the “first nationwide system of upper schooling of affiliated universities organized round a shared mission,” in keeping with a information launch. By this mannequin, Otterbein, with out abandoning its identification as an undergraduate-focused establishment, will now have the ability to supply its college students extra pathways to graduate {and professional} diploma packages by way of Antioch’s current packages.

Finally, the coalition plans to herald extra companion establishments and develop its geographic attain and choices even additional.

William Groves, chancellor of Antioch and the newly appointed vp of the coalition, stated that in its conceptual levels, management checked out comparable fashions between different non-public, nonprofit establishments. These included the Nationwide College System, which absorbed certainly one of its associates final summer season, and the TCS Training System, and is geared toward offering its faculty companions efficiencies for again workplace companies.

“We needed to do one thing completely different, and a mission wanted to be central to that. Our Antioch mission wanted to be the identical because the mission of the companion or affiliate establishments. It wanted to be what we name ‘the justice league,’” Groves stated. “With a shared mission and a shared tradition round that mission, there was a a lot higher alternative for achievement for all the opposite issues we needed to perform.”

The coalition’s ensuing shared mission entails “educating college students not solely to advance their careers however to advertise our pluralistic democracy, social, racial, financial and environmental justice, and the frequent good,” in keeping with a information launch.

A Recreation of ‘Whack-a-Mole’

To make {that a} actuality, Antioch and Otterbein spent roughly $2 million on consulting charges.

Based on John Comerford, president of Otterbein and the newly appointed president of the coalition, ironing out the finer particulars of the plan—corresponding to reaching affiliation and working agreements—was like enjoying a recreation of “whack-a-mole.” As quickly because it resolved one potential drawback or obstacle, “one other would emerge,” he stated. In reality, the staff labored proper up till the deal closed on June 30 negotiating agreements with insurance coverage firms.

The coalition additionally spent months working with the Increased Studying Fee—each Otterbein and Antioch are already accredited by the HLC—to design a governance and operational construction that ensured that the revolutionary mannequin would meet the accreditor’s requirements.

“HLC welcomes the chance to work with establishments looking for new paths to satisfy scholar wants and guarantee a wholesome future,” Barbara Gellman Danley, the accreditor’s president, stated in an announcement. “Brainstorming with HLC allowed us to counsel the establishments on insurance policies, whereas working by way of the alternatives and challenges. We help innovation and agility. It’s protected to say they realized from us, and we additionally admire the artistic concepts that is likely to be replicable for others.”

The fee has formally authorized the creation of the brand new construction and the Ohio Division of Increased Training adopted with its approval; post-closure approvals from the U.S. Division of Training are pending. The federal company didn’t reply to requests for remark in regards to the creation of the coalition.

How It Will Work

Because the settlement stands now, a shared board, made up of 4 members from every establishment and one unbiased member, will oversee all choices that have an effect on the coalition as a complete. These choices may embody taking up new debt or launching new packages to stop overlap, particularly within the realm of grownup schooling.

Below this settlement, in keeping with the Ohio Division of Increased Training, “Antioch will then be a enterprise unit of that shared entity, and Otterbein will develop into a subsidiary of this new dad or mum entity.” On the similar time, “Otterbein can even stay a separate company and diploma granting establishment,” sustaining its personal board, its current HLC accreditation, state authorization and federal post-secondary identification quantity.

The coalition is able to transfer ahead with realizing a imaginative and prescient that’s been within the works since 2018.

“Our view was: ‘Let’s do one thing distinctive. Let’s do one thing that permits each events to have their very own identities as companions, their very own boards, their very own tutorial packages,” Groves stated. The intent is to “work towards offering alternatives for college kids that collectively are past what we may do individually.”

College students could have elevated alternatives to pursue academic choices at each establishments underneath the coalition mannequin. The establishments will mix their graduate packages (overseen by Antioch) to supply college students entry to extra packages.

For instance, Antioch is within the course of of making a brand new Graduate Faculty of Nursing and Well being Sciences, that in flip will develop Otterbein’s graduate packages in nursing, allied well being and athletic coaching probably as early as subsequent fall. The coalition can be designing a grasp’s diploma program in vitamin and dietetics along with making a joint grasp’s in enterprise administration program.

Otterbein and Antioch have already collaborated to deliver a Scientific Psychological Well being Counseling graduate program to central Ohio, in an effort to scale back the area’s scarcity in psychological well being counselors. Central Ohio at the moment has greater than 1,700 annual job openings for psychological well being counselors in keeping with Lightcast, a market analytics firm, and that quantity is predicted to rise to 2,200 by 2031.

However Groves emphasised that the entire packages that will come out of the coalition will function curriculums centered on social justice, with the view that greater schooling’s function is about “extra than simply educating for careers,” however somewhat “an essential side in sustaining a democracy.”

Future Companions

That’s one attribute the coalition might be in search of in potential companion establishments. Each Groves and Comerford stated they intend to deliver extra establishments into the coalition, although which of them and when aren’t but clear.

“We had a dozen or so faculties attain out with some curiosity, however we’ve largely put these conversations on the backburner as a result of it’s difficult sufficient to get this carried out with two events,” Comerford stated. “We couldn’t add a 3rd or fourth get together—the regulatory atmosphere doesn’t encourage that.”

Now that the coalition has launched, it’s resuming these conversations.

“We don’t have a components for it nevertheless it actually entails issues like location. Are they in a spot the place there’s an grownup studying market to be accessed?,” Comerford stated. Different issues embody the present graduate and grownup education schemes a possible companion already has, and if these are one thing “we don’t at the moment have” and “may leverage nationally.”

Monetary stability is one other essential issue, because it was when Otterbein and Antioch first determined to collaborate. “This isn’t a approach to save a faculty on the sting of closing its doorways,” Comerford stated. “You could have to have the ability to make investments to make it occur.” However crucial factor, stated Comerford, who characterised status as “a rot” in greater schooling, is discovering establishments that even have equity- and access-focused missions.

“This isn’t about rankings and status. This isn’t about closing the door on extra deserving college students,” he stated. “There’s lots of faculties on the market that share that alignment with us, however not each faculty will.”