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Student-First Approach Leads to RecordBreaking Enrollment UNITY COLLEGE IS NOW SEEING EXPONENTIAL GROWTH – THANKS TO AN AUDIENCECENTERED APPROACH, WHICH PUTS OUR STUDENTS AND THEIR NEEDS F I R S T.
residential model. This approach would not allow the College to serve multiple and differentiated audiences, such as place-bound adults. Additionally, telling faculty that they were going to need to change their pedagogy and technology wasn’t fair,” said Unity College President Dr. Melik Khoury.
So, how did Unity College ascend from an institution that has never had more than 800 students in its 50-year history, to a college with nearly 2,500 unduplicated students?
The enterprise model allows for the creation of distinct units within the overall college, and is similar to a matrix organization. The advantages allow the College to be more responsive to the rapidly changing needs of students and society.
Unity College now prioritizes service to audience over all else. The creation of the Unity College Enterprise and separate Sustainable Educational Business Units (SEBUs) allows the institution to serve a more diversified student base. In fact, the school’s self-identified multicultural student population is now 20%. That’s up from a 50-year average of 8%. In order to achieve this, the College changed its entire decisionmaking paradigm. “We went through a multi-year process to understand our mission and curriculum and realized our mission as America’s Environmental College is very relevant, but that access to the curriculum was restricted to traditional students looking for a 6
UNITY MAGAZINE 2021
Unity College is no longer the small, four-year residential college it once was. However, the school has also not lost sight of its roots – and still welcomes Hybrid Learning students for in-person learning at our field station located at 90 Quaker Hill in Unity. In the future, Unity College Hybrid Learning
Unity College’s New Unity College student Megan joins us from SEBUs are Pennsylvania. She is earning her Bachelor’s Degree in independent Wildlife Conservation and Management. and charged with developing programs, services, and/or students will be working out of products that are tailored to multiple locations across Maine. audience-specific needs. This structure encourages SEBUs “We are going to use the State to focus on building programs of Maine as our classroom. that appeal to a specific kind Eventually, we hope our of student, with programs and students will be able to learn products designed to meet aquaculture hands-on along needed outcomes including the coast or study sustainable degrees or certificates. farming in Aroostook County.