Robert Mendenhall
President
Western Governor's University

CDE: WHAT IN YOUR BACKGROUND LED YOU TO THIS JOB?

MENDENHALL: All of my background has been in technology and education. Out of college, I founded a company, called Wicat Systems Inc. that did computer-based training and education for Fortune 500 companies and K-12 schools. We later merged that company with Jostens Learning Corp. Then I ran all of IBM's K-12 education business worldwide. My background was applying technology to improve education, and the appeal of this position was being out in front in terms of the application of technology in unique ways to improve education.

CDE: WHEN DID WESTERN GOVERNOR'S UNIVERSITY LAUNCH?

MENDENHALL: It was started in 1997, and we introduced our first degrees in the summer of 1999. In terms of offering degree programs, we're just about four-years-old.

CDE: PLEASE DESCRIBE YOUR PROGRAM.

MENDENHALL: We currently offer 20 associate, bachelor's and master's degrees in three areas: business, information technology and education. What makes us unique -- other than delivering our degrees online, which lots of people do these days -- is that we're the only university in the country that delivers degrees based on competency rather than credit hours. We bring together a program council on the front end made up of industry practitioners and academicians, and they define what we would expect a graduate to know and be able to do in a particular degree. We then work with a separate assessment council to development measurements -- which are some combination of written assessments, portfolios, projects, etc. -- to measure those competencies. When students can come in and demonstrate they have the competencies, they're awarded a degree independent of how many classes they take or how much time they actually spent.

Our programs are targeted at working adults who are passed their education and would like to come back and be credentialed for that which they know. So, the average student is age 40 and 95 percent work full-time; but our students' ages range from 20 to over 60.

The biggest and fastest growing area for us is the Teacher's College at WGU, which is the only national teacher's college to train new and existing teachers in K-12 education. We offer online competency-based programs where initial teacher licensure allow existing teachers to gain a credential in math or science or gain a master's degree in education, learning technology or other areas.

CDE: HOW DO YOU OVERCOME CREDIBILITY ISSUES WHEN IT COMES TO THE PERCEPTION OF ONLINE DEGREES?

MENDENHALL: We're the only university to be credited by multiple accrediting organizations. Four regional groups and a national distance education training council accredit us. We were founded by and have the support of 19 state governors and about 25 major corporate partners who contribute financially to the university.

Independent of all of those outside measures of quality, I think we're easy to measure simply because anyone can look at the competencies that we guarantee our graduates will have, and the assessments we'll measure to guarantee these competencies. So, employers are quite interested in our graduates simply because they know exactly what they're getting. Once someone graduates from WGU, they will have the competencies they need.

I also think the program is internally valid, which is important. It carries with it its own credibility, and then of course, we have these outside endorsements.

Online education now is also pretty well accepted in most places as being equal to classroom-based education. I think it was a real issue years ago; but now we have 80 to 90 percent of all higher education institutions in the country doing online education. I think it's generally accepted that it is of equal quality.

CDE: WHAT TECHNOLOGY POLICIES ARE IMPACTING YOUR INSTITUTIONS THE MOST?

MENDENHALL: I don't see us currently impacted by policies around technology. One of the issues coming up in higher education reauthorization as Congress considers that next year is a 50-percent rule that basically discriminates against distance learning. It makes students not eligible for financial aid if the institution delivers more than half of its programs through distance learning, which would obviously cut out institutions such as WGU.

We've been a part of a demonstration program that was created in 1988 in which Congress provided waivers for that 50-percent rule for a number of distance learning institutions. We do offer federal financial aid to our students; but we believe the 50-percent rule will probably be repealed. It was created in the 1970s to curb abuses in correspondences education -- and I think people today probably feel that it is not the same issue with distance education.

It certainly is a policy that doesn't impact us currently, but could impact us if decisions aren't made in terms of treating distance education exactly as we treat campus-based education.

CDE: HAS WGU RECEIVED ANY EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY GRANTS

MENDENHALL: We received a $10 million STARS Schools Grant from the U.S. Department of Education to develop the first national online teachers college using telecommunications technology to develop teacher education programs that could be delivered via the Internet anywhere in the country. The program's target has been to develop teacher-education programs for three audiences that are underserved: professionals in schools that have some of the competencies of teachers, but they don't have the degree and need the additional education; uncertified teachers that are teaching in our schools, which in some of the urban school districts can be 30 to 40 percent of their teachers, and this would allow them to become certified while working in the schools; and second-career professionals who have bachelor's or master's degrees in a variety of fields and would like to come back into teaching, but are told they have to go do three years of undergraduate education to qualify as a teacher. This grant allows us to do competency-based measures and certify them.

Another $3.7 million grant we received is called Transition to Teaching, which allows us to use our programs in Clark County Schools, Nevada and region four in Texas, which is the greater Houston area, to facilitate paraprofessionals in those schools taking the education to become licensed teachers.

CDE: WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2004?

MENDENHALL: Our enrollment is doubling about every year. So, we anticipate continued fast enrollment growth. We've just introduced five new business degrees and eight new degrees in teacher education. In 2004, we plan to expand in areas that we are already offering degrees in business, education and information technology. We're going to expand our offerings and reach more students in those areas.

CDE: IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF YEARS, WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF PROFESSIONALLY?

MENDENHALL: I'm staying here.

CDE: WHAT WOULD PEOPLE BE SURPRISED TO KNOW ABOUT YOU?

MENDENHALL: I have seven children. I don't have time to do anything else.