Word: co-ops
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Soil on Hands. Northeastern was among the pioneers of the co-op plan back in 1909, but in the next three decades only 25 other schools followed its lead. Since 1962, however, colleges like Wilberforce University in Ohio, Beloit College in Wisconsin and Pasadena City College in California have flocked to the plan, both for its inherent educational advantages and for its solutions to problems of space and cost. Today, more than 300 institutions have begun cooperative education. An estimated 300 more are considering the step-spurred on by a White House recommendation that $10.8 million in startup grants...
...Co-op education is not equally suited to everyone. Some of Northeastern's 2,240 liberal arts students have a hard time finding jobs that relate directly to studies in philosophy or literature. Gary Esposito, a political science major, spent his most recent co-op term as a bank clerk ("It was that or nothing," he says). Some professors complain that their students place too much emphasis on vocational training. As one critic put it, "the sociology majors all want to become social workers...
...Co-op's supporters see no harm in being practical, however. Asa S. Knowles, Northeastern's president, calls co-op a "distinctly American philosophy of higher education," and he adds: "We attract the student who is career-oriented and hungry for practical education...
Other Northeasterners also stress the practical advantages of co-op education. Says Calvin True, 25, a law student who spent last term as a probate clerk: "Coop gives you practical experience in a field in which you desire to practice, and you know what you want to do when you graduate." Alan Kandel, a management major who worked as an accountant, agrees. "I have friends in other schools who take summer jobs, and I know I'm way ahead of them...
...greatest practical advantages of coop, however, accrue to the colleges that adopt it. Northeastern officials estimate that co-op education enables them to maintain a campus only two-thirds the size that would otherwise be necessary for a student body as big as theirs. And their co-op students earn some $25 million a year; if that sum were needed for scholarships, it would require an endowment of several hundred millions. With such benefits available, financially pressed educators can hardly help regarding the co-op movement with increasing favor...