Published: August 19, 2008 07:20 am      

New campus offers opportunity for students

Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s Woodward campus offers students a new and different opportunity for higher education, according to NWOSU President Dr. Janet Cunningham.

“There’s a lot of difference between this campus and our Enid campus . . . this campus is more similar to the Alva campus,” in that the Enid campus offers only upper-level coursework, whereas the Alva and Woodward campuses offer the general education courses required for all college students, Cunningham said.

Classes began at the recently opened Woodward campus Monday morning.

Cunningham said the university’s enrollment numbers have already risen as a result of opening a new facility.

“We have seen an increase with the new campus,” Cunningham said. “I’m sure we’re probably up over 200 at this point.”

Nearly 50 of those students, about a quarter of the current total enrollment increase, are incoming freshmen, according to NWOSU-Woodward Dean Dr. Deena Fisher.

Many area high school students are also taking advantage of the opportunity to earn college credit near home before graduating high school.

“We actually have a fairly big concurrent program . . . at the Alva and Woodward campuses,” Cunningham said. “That’s a great possibility.”

Cunningham said NWOSU will assist high school students seeking to earn college credit before graduation.

“We offer waivers for tuition for juniors and seniors” in high school, Cunningham said.

Cunningham said the new campus will offer more students an opportunity to receive a college education.

“In Northwest Oklahoma, there are not any community colleges that are close . . . so we really are sensitive to the access factor,” Cunningham said. “I think students should have the opportunity to see what they can do in higher education.”

The new campus, while it lacks some of the traditional trappings of an institution of higher learning, offers many students exactly what they need, Cunningham said.

“We don’t have here the athletic teams and the dormitories,” Cunningham said, but, “for students in this area, we feel like Northwestern has whatever a student needs,” Cunningham said.

“We’re a small institution--a small, quality institution . . . but we’re also able to provide some individual attention that you might not get at a comprehensive institution,” Cunningham said. “Whatever the student is looking for, we can provide it.”

And NWOSU can provide it at a much more affordable price, she said.

“We’re probably about half the cost . . . as you would find at Oklahoma State or OU,” Cunningham said.

In addition to benefits to area students, which include class offerings with a full degree plan’s worth of coursework in several fields, Cunningham said the new facility will be an asset to the community as well.

“We’re excited about the campus . .. and we think it’ll be a community facility as well,” Cunningham said. “We’ll probably have civic groups that will meet here . . . it’s a state facility and the citizens of Oklahoma should know that it’s theirs.”