NEW YORK–
Representatives of 17 institutions in the City University of New York (CUNY) system attended an Adult Learner Summit to discuss how to effectively address issues faced by adult learners.
Across the 25 institutions of CUNY, many students have jobs, family responsibilities and financial constraints. Some students take semesters off in order to deal with pressing issues in their lives, and some don’t return.
Since 2015, CUNY has accelerated efforts to engage New York City’s adult learner population and placed special focus on “stopouts,” people who’ve dropped out before completing their degrees. Strategies are being developed to make CUNY institutions adult-friendly and also facilitate re-engagement of stopouts so they can achieve degree completion.
“In 2016 into 2017, we worked with CAEL (Council for Adult and Experiential Learning),” said Angie Datta Kamath, CUNY University Dean for Continuing Education and Workforce Development. “We had nine of our colleges agree to do a very deep 360 assessment on this notion of ‘adult friendliness.’ They talked to students, alumni, administrators, faculty and leadership to ask, ‘What did you experience and where do you think the college is in terms of accessibility, scheduling, financial support, career support and a number of other parameters?’”
In mid-2017, CUNY was awarded the designation of “talent hub” by the Lumina Foundation. The university committed to proactively enrolling students who have some college, but no degree, to complete a credential or degree.
“From an equity perspective, these are the folks who very much want to come back to be able to advance their economic mobility and situation, but also have some real challenges to overcome from a time management perspective,” said Kamath. “We care about this population. It’s part of our mission.”
