Rensselaer Magazine: Education for Working Professionals

Education for Working Professionals

We will... provide ongoing education to enable professionals in technology-based careers to maintain their leadership positions and forge lifelong relationhips with our alumni.

The academic world is engaged in a “learning revolution” characterized by the explosion of new knowledge and technological advancement as well as shifts to an information-based global economy. Consequently, top-tier universities are expanding their scope to include working professionals, and forging creative partnerships with business, government, and other academic institutions.

Navigating Rensselaer: Forging Lifelong Connections
The first objective of the revamped orientation program introduced by the Office of the First-Year Experience is for new students to begin their Rensselaer careers with a good sense of where they belong in the community — on campus and in the surrounding area. Then, the office builds on those first connections to create experiences that will produce graduates who want to stay connected to Rensselaer for life.

“Navigating Rensselaer” consists of a two-day on-campus orientation session for both students and families in July, online access to information and campus-based assistance throughout the summer, and a five-day program just before the start of classes called “Navigating Rensselaer and Beyond” (NRB).

All freshmen participate in at least one of dozens of NRB activities, including two-night adventure-based wilderness experiences, Rensselaer Union club-sponsored activities, community service opportunities in the City of Troy, visits to urban and arts organizations in the region, working with Habitat for Humanity or the Junior Museum, and outdoor adventures ranging from hiking to mountain biking to white-water rafting.

Building on a foundation of accomplishment in distance education and programs for working professionals, Rensselaer is putting the results of its research directly into the world as it addresses the lifelong learning needs of the workforce.

A Distributed Rensselaer
The Rensselaer Plan calls for a distributed Rensselaer that operates from campuses in Troy and Hartford, Conn., while also reaching a much broader audience of working professionals through regional sites, distance education, and international partnerships. New leadership, new and revamped programs and initiatives, increased emphasis on faculty research, and streamlined processes all promise increased vigor in the days ahead.

Rensselaer at Hartford now enrolls close to 2,000 students representing more than 100 corporations on its campuses in Hartford and Groton, Conn. Distance education programs reach more than 1,000 students worldwide — most of them executives and technical leaders with corporate and government partners. Another 14,000 working professionals are served by the Rensselaer Learning Institute of Rensselaer at Hartford.

In response to The Rensselaer Plan’s commitment to increase the involvement of research-active faculty in the design and delivery of programs, Hartford has begun the transition from a clinical faculty to a tenured/tenure-track faculty. The goal is to raise the profile and renown of the faculty through applied research in conjunction with corporate partners, particularly those in aerospace, pharmaceuticals, and finance. A plan to guide this transition has been developed; implementation is ongoing.

Other accomplishments include consolidation of all Rensselaer distance education functions under Hartford leadership; department reorganization at Hartford, merging computer science and engineering programs into a new Department of Engineering and Science; creating new collaborative relationships between Troy and Hartford to provide more efficient operations; creation of new cohort programs; and the successful conclusion of the search for new leadership of Hartford.

In August, Alan Eckbreth ’76 was named vice president and dean of Rensselaer at Hartford. Eckbreth holds a master’s degree and a doctorate in aerospace and mechanical sciences from Princeton University. In 1976 he earned a master’s degree in administrative sciences from Rensselaer at Hartford. He most recently directed the UTC Fuel Cells Program at United Technologies Research Center in East Hartford, where he had served as a research engineer and manager for many years. He holds six patents and has published extensively.

People, Programs, Platforms

Rensselaer Magazine: December 2002
President's View	Your Mail	From the Archives	Hawk Talk	Class Notes Features

Front Page	At Rensselaer	Milestones
In Memoriam	Making a Difference	Staying Connected

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Rensselaer (ISSN 0898-1442) is published in March, June, September, and December by the Office of Marketing and Media Relations.	Opinions expressed in these pages do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors or the policies of the Institute.
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