Lindenwood University, founded in 1827, is the second-oldest institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi River—but new president Michael D. Shonrock said he won’t let the school’s long history keep it from adapting to the future of higher education.
“I tend to be a futurist,” Shonrock said. “I’m also an undying optimist.”
Lindenwood university has changed dramatically in order to accommodate the many challenges colleges and universities face in an era of higher costs, online classes, and increasing enrollment.
For one thing, it’s grown. Lindenwood has two main campuses hosting about 16,000 students—one in St. Charles and another in Belleville—and ten other sites of learning. The campuses are set to expand with a new library and resources center, and renovations to Lindenwood’s existing nursing center and school of business are in progress. Student enrollment and degree programs have grown over the past two decades. And with a new leader at the helm, Lindenwood will soon have a new master plan for the next two.
“We are really, I think, pushing the envelope,” Shonrock said.
Shonrock comes to Lindenwood from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, where he oversaw the largest fundraising campaign in the university’s history and managed a master plan for the university’s coming years. Shonrock says he’ll bring the same data-driven organizational approach to the St. Louis region in the form of a master campus plan, enrollment planning, and changes to branding and marketing.
“As we’re getting ready to celebrate 200 years as a university in 2027, I challenge our faculty, I challenge all of us,” he said. “What are we doing today to meet the needs of our students? Especially the technology needs of our students in 2027, freshmen who are kindergarteners today.”
Technology is the bottom line, Shonrock emphasized. Online education is turning out to be vastly practical for many students working towards a degree. Hybrid programs of part-time, weekend, or online courses might be the way Lindenwood gets ahead of the curve with new generations of students, for whom education may become a point-and-click exercise.
Shonrock acknowledged this change as a question of delivery—how education is distributed, rather than how it is taught. For students, “It’s a drop-down menu; they want to drop down and look at the choices and get there as quickly as they can.” For faculty, meanwhile, the teaching experience does not change much from the chalkboard to the Internet forum.
“The time and energy it takes a faculty member to actually develop and support an online program is as, if not more, time-consuming sometimes than the … more traditional models that people recognize,” Shonrock said.
Online courses may alleviate a particularly pressing problem for institutions of higher education: rising costs. Students are hit with ever-higher tuition and leave school with ever-higher debt. And while Lindenwood’s tuition is about $22,000 a year—relatively cheap, especially for a private university—Shonrock said that providing efficient and practical courses to support students’ eventual careers is key.
“I think we need to give options for students,” Shonrock said, noting that “not everyone may go the traditional model” of four years to a bachelor’s degree.
“We need to be sensitive to the fact that everyone learns differently.” That sensitivity means providing internships and practicum courses, retaining faculty who are experts in their fields and skillsets, and helping students make choices early in their undergraduate years that help streamline their path to a career.
Shonrock sees it as a question of supply and demand—and demands have changed as students attend college as a prerequisite for a career rather than a period of academic exploration.
“I really believe we prepare students to be good leaders, and prepare them to have the confidence and present themselves well, and to go in and show the value they can bring to a company,” Shonrock said. “Education or otherwise, that’s our job: to prepare them to be very successful.”
St. Louis on the Air discusses issues and concerns facing the St. Louis area. The show is produced by Mary Edwards and Alex Heuer and hosted by veteran journalist Don Marsh. Follow us on Twitter: @STLonAir.
