Soldier takes advantage of Post Education

Army Spc. Miguel Ellis and his wife, Keisha, pictured here with their daughter, Breonna, 2, take online courses at Post University for a special program offered to military service members and family.

BY MICHAEL PUFFER

REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WATERBURY — Army Spc. Miguel Ellis, 30, is stationed in Iraq on a base near the Iranian border.

His wife, Keisha Ellis, 23, stays at their home in Fort Benning, Ga., with their 2­year-old daughter. There are nervous stretches of days when she doesn't get a telephone call, but she finds comfort when the two meet in class.

Keisha and Miguel take online courses through Post University, which offers deep tuition discounts for members of the military and their families.

The 119-year-old university serves about 1,000 students at its main Waterbury campus and satellite locations in Danbury, Meriden and Norwalk. Online courses are becoming an increasingly important part of the small university, accounting for about another 3,000 students.

Students in the online courses watch recorded lectures and correspond with classmates online. They receive assignments and tutoring help via e-mail or online discussion with professors.

Keisha and Miguel are working toward criminal justice degrees. University staff thoughtfully arranged for the couple to take the same sections of "juvenile justice" and "statistics."

When Keisha doesn't hear from her husband, she'll often see that he's logged into one of their mutual classes.

"That lets me know he's OK," Keisha Ellis said. "He doesn't have to call or write me every day."

For the past few days, the Ellises have had a running argument on the online discussion board, concerning the question of whether inappropriate juvenile behavior is learned or an expression of one's biological tendencies. Keisha believes it's learned. Miguel disagrees.

Keisha Ellis hadn't liked online courses offered by another college. At Post, advisers have clearly mapped courses she will need to graduate next August. Her instructors have proved eager and helpful.

"It's very easy to understand the professors," Keisha Ellis said. "They work with you if you don't understand something."

Post offered its first online business course in 1997. In the next nine years, online enrollments hovered under 200 students, but took off in 2006, said Francis Mulgrew, president of the Post University's online section.

Mulgrew credits the increase to a few factors, including recent aggressive promotion of the courses and even a down economy that has sent adults back to school for retraining. The university converted a floor of classrooms above its fitness center into a 72-person office serving its online section.

That conversion cost about $350,000 last winter. Mulgrew expects to add staff to the online program shortly, expanding into offices in a nearby commercial plaza. That expansion should cost about another $350,000 Mulgrew estimates.

"We just ran out of space on campus," Mulgrew said.

About 400 military service members, veterans and their families take online courses through Post. They have their own support staff and receive discounted tuition, which allows costs to be covered by the G.I. Bill or other veteran benefits. Military members and their families pay $750 per online course; everybody else pays $1,275 to $1,575.

Active duty military members are also afforded special consideration by professors, including less rigid deadlines.

Post staff also translate military training into college credit. Military surveying might stand in for a geography course. Helicopter repair stands in for a general elective. Officer training might be counted as a management course.

"We've really taken our internal business practices and turned them on their head for our service members," said retired Army Lt. Col. Edmund Lizotte, now Post's Military Programs Director.

For more information on Post University's "Accelerated Degree Program for Active Duty Military," call Edmund Lizotte at 203.596.4604.

This story was written by Michael Puffer. The text as it appears here was published in the Waterbury Republican-American on Nov 12, 2009.

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Post University competes in the NCAA Division II

"The online program gives me the ability to continue my education whether I am deployed or back home, and that is important to me as a soldier.   The Online program at Post is awesome. I've had nothing but good experiences. My adviser is fantastic, and the faculty is very responsive and supportive.   I know getting a college degree will help me get ahead.  This way, I don't have to wait until I leave the service to get a college education."
- Sgt. Sherwyn Gibbs