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ODU's distance-learning site at Germanna's Locust Grove campus will close at the end of the semester, forcing students to take classes elsewhere Date published: 11/23/2007
BY KAREN BOLIPATA Starting in January, Old Dominion University's distance-learning students at Germanna Community College's Locust Grove campus will have to take classes elsewhere. The university is consolidating the classes with its site at Germanna's Fredericksburg campus, forcing 29 students at the Locust Grove site to make the trek to the city, take classes online or transfer to another school. Nancy Cooley, ODU's vice provost for distance learning, said the university is looking at efficiencies and found the students could be served in other ways. Distance learning uses televised correspondence and online components for its courses, and the program is expanding its options through video streaming on the Internet. The university is also closing its Warsaw campus site at Rappahannock Community College and its Annandale campus site at Northern Virginia Community College at the end of the semester, impacting a total of 150 students at all three sites. Gov. Tim Kaine's 5 percent budget cuts expedited the decision, Cooley said. The changes will save $182,000, or 4.3 percent, of the distance-learning program's $4.3 million annual budget. Convenience was also a factor. Distance-learning classes are designed to be easily accessible to working students and those in rural areas, according to ODU's Web site. "What we're looking at now is what students are wanting and what some of the needs of the commonwealth are," Cooley said, identifying child-care and transportation issues as two of students' concerns. "They will have more options to take courses more conveniently." adding to the drive The distance-learning program teaches a mix of Germanna students and those working toward ODU degrees. ODU staff directors began meeting individually with students early in the fall to discuss their options, Cooley said. But some students at the Locust Grove campus said the commute to the Fredericksburg site will be impractical. Most live in Culpeper, Orange and Madison counties. The Locust Grove campus is 18 miles from Germanna's Fredericksburg site. But with traffic, students say, the drive takes as long as 45 minutes. Kristen Brown, 25, a health sciences and management student, said she's already driving that long from her Madison County home to Locust Grove. It would take her an hour and a half to drive to the Fredericksburg campus, she said. ODU staff hasn't been helpful, she added.
I graduated from ODU in 2000 thanks to the Teletechnet program. I lived in N Stafford and drove to the Locust Grove campus. I made the drive because it was worth it to me. Yes the Massaponax area sucks now, but the cost of getting there is not as high as the cost of not getting the degree.
Have you ever driven the I95 North at 7 A.M. or 9 A.M.?
That will be these whiners when they get a job with the well paying Federal government. Yup, thats a 1-2, sometimes more, hour drive to get to work.
Just consider the 45 minute drive to Fredericksburg an education in commuting skills.
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