Work Colleges Might Work To Reduce Costs
By Dr. Marciene Mattleman
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Because maintaining colleges with all their services is so expensive, work colleges as a model are getting more attention.
Paul Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College in Dallas, recently announced that the school will become the first urban work college and the first historically black college to do so. Seven federally recognized work colleges are in rural areas.
Paul Quinn College will be like Drexel, a co-op. Students will have a liberal arts foundation, learn to think critically with an increasing focus on employability after college, with practical skills and job training. And Sorrell believes that with students working on campus, tuition will drop from $23,850 to $14,275.
Businesses will get students' labor for a sum that will go toward their tuition and on campus students will keep facilities looking and operating well with their newly acquired carpentry, plumbing, forestry and landscape skills.
An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that traditional colleges treat students like clients or guests, in work colleges they're partners.