BOARD RECOMMENDS PH.D. PROGRAM IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEADERSHIP
Old Dominion University's Board of Visitors voted June 14 to approve the adoption of a doctor of philosophy degree in community college leadership for the Darden College of Education.
The board's resolution will be forwarded to the State Council of Higher Education. Pending approval by SCHEV, the new degree program could be implemented as early as January 2003. The doctoral program initially was endorsed on May 1 by the Faculty Senate.
The proposal for a Ph.D. in community college leadership is in response to the need to address the demand for well-trained administrators and to respond to the significant number of community college administrators who are projected to retire , according to the board's rationale statement.
According to William H. Graves, Old Dominion's dean of education, "There is little doubt that there is a population specifically wanting this type of specialized Ph.D."
The degree program would focus on five main areas:
- Recruiting and educating the future leadership of Virginia's community colleges;
- Addressing unique leadership development and other needs of the community colleges;
- Employing and evaluating the efficacy of distance education technologies (e.g., TELETECHNET) in the delivery of a doctoral degree program;
- Guiding collaborative research and demonstration initiatives with community colleges that link graduate education initiatives to economic development and access to postsecondary education for citizens of the commonwealth; and
- Providing for the continual development of community college leaders.
TELETECHNET, Old Dominion's distance learning system, is capable of delivering the proposed program to each of Virginia's 23 community colleges.