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Porter’s Predictions Which ones became a reality?
ways to retain students, such as career coaches, Finding-your- perfect-major fairs, offering low tuition rates and the recent open- ing of the University Advising and Career Development Center in McKenny Hall.
Keeping It Basic Porter also envisioned a “School of Basic Studies and Continuing Education” with approximately 6,000 freshmen and sophomores. While there is no school for basic studies, Eastern requires each student to take a set of general education classes for any program of study. EMU also offers a degree in liberal arts. As for his second aspiration, most of EMU’s colleges have their own continuing educa- tion programs.
In his 10-year tenure as Eastern’s President, from 1979 to 1989, John W. Porter gained a reputation for boundless energy, deep thinking and what would now be called “fu- turing.” For example, he prepared a memo to the Board of Regents in 1982 that outlined his vision for Eastern in eight points, in which he anticipated a university climate characterized by economic con- straint, declining enrollment, and a heavy reliance on computers.
Some of his ideas were prophetic; others, not so much. Applying traditional expectations to an emerging and game-changing
technology caused him to miss the fact that computer access would be individuated rather than centralized, but that was true of most of the would-be seers of the time. What stands out is his under- standing that leading a university demands attention to the future as much as the present and the past.
Here’s a look at how his points panned out.
Electronic Access Porter anticipated a computer- ized system for admissions, finan- cial aid, records and registration, and course placement. Today,
emich.edu handles most of them. In addition, each depart- ment is computerized and most of the school’s and students’ documents have electronic cop- ies. Students have instant access to all of the above information at any given time, as well as being able to see dates, grades, sched- ules, test scores and more.
Enroll and Retain Student retention is often an issue at many schools. Porter wanted to see a unique and effective student retention pro- gram for EMU. The University is always developing innovative
Expansion Plan Porter said EMU had a poten- tial to host 17,500 students, 75 percent of which were full-time. Well, we’ve got some good news for him. As of the 2010-2011 aca- demic year, Eastern had 23,000 students. Of the 18,000 under- graduates, 72 percent were full- time and many are international students.
Information Age It seems our former president was excited about the impend- ing explosion in technology. He proposed a required computer science course to stand alongside English composition and public speaking. Though this vision hasn’t been realized, it could happen in the future. Will iPads replace chalkboards one day?
6 Eastern | WINTER 2012
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