Dickinson College is developing several educational programs that will increase the revenue of the college and also expand the reaches of the college itself.

Dickinson will offer summer school, graduate courses at the Army War College and possibly programs for high school students and online courses, according to Neil Weissman, provost and dean of the college, and one of the people in charge of these new initiatives. 

Dickinson has offered a summer school program before, and it’s now being revived. “The intention [of the summer school program] is to offer courses that are in high demand in order to help meet student interests,” Weissman said. “A call has gone out to the faculty for those who might want to offer courses in summer school.”

The summer school courses will be announced at the beginning of the spring semester. Weissman said the dates of summer school are May 28 to July 1.

Weissman said the main reason for revival of the program is because it will “offer more options to students and

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 because we anticipate it will generate additional revenue for the college.”

Graduate courses at the Army War College will start in the spring and will include residential offerings for students. “The audience will chiefly be current students at the Army War College,” Weissman said. “We anticipate offering courses both online and in the near future to a large audience.”

The program will focus on “human security and humanitarian response,” said Weissman, which is “a response to a need for expertise in this area in the wider world and a logical extension of Dickinson’s educational mission.” Weissman said this program will also generate revenue for the college.

Although plans are still in the works, Dickinson is considering summer programming for high school students.

Weissman said potential programs can be proposed by any member of the Dickinson community. “The proposal to revive the summer school came initially from a working group on college finances,” he said. He also said that the possibility for graduate programs for Dickinson comes from “President Ensign’s vision for exploration and [she] was also encouraged by the War College.”

Both the summer school and graduate initiatives were recommended by the Academic Program and Standards Committee. The graduate offerings were approved as of November’s faculty meeting. However, the summer school did not require a faculty vote, said Weissman, because “we have approved it in the past and are reviving it.”

Weissman said he believes there are many good reasons apart from finance to launch these initiatives. “The ability to contribute to our financial resources is a significant plus,” he said.