Partnered with the state, Rowan re-enrolls “stopped out” students for degree completion

Rowan University this year has adopted as part of its mission a goal of reenrolling as many students as it can and has set in place a range of support systems for returning students, from advising and career counseling to financial assistance.

As part of that effort, Rowan for the second year has partnered New Jersey’s Office of the Secretary of Higher Education and the private firm ReUp Education to identify students who “stopped out” before graduating.

The effort to find and reenroll students is centered on helping them return to graduate for a variety of reasons, from personal satisfaction and career advancement to upward mobility, a heightened sense of accomplishment, and identity.

The University, under President Ali Houshmand, has adopted a four-pillared mission focused on providing the highest quality education; affordability; improving access; and boosting the region’s economy.

Rory McElwee, vice president for Student Affairs and dean of Rowan’s University College, said the state’s Some College, No Degree (SCND) program to encourage students to return fits well with Rowan’s mission.

“The main thing is, we want to improve access,” McElwee said. “When there is something that interrupts students finishing their degree, we feel there’s an opportunity to do everything we can to help them fulfill their goal.”

State officials estimate that more than 750,000 New Jerseyans have earned some college credit but no degree, and it seeks to change that.

“We have hundreds of students who’ve come back after an interruption, from one semester to decades,” McElwee said.

To support both new and returning students, Rowan last year launched University College to centralize services for all students and to provide easy access to a range of offices and departments like Academic Advising, Career & Professional Development, and Military Services.

All-American completes degree

Camden educator Julian Pratt, who earned All-American track honors for Rowan in 2021, is exactly the type of student the SCND program was created for. Pratt started at Rowan in 2016 and left in 2022, about one semester’s credits shy of graduating, after his daughter was born.

“I thought going to school while trying to raise my child would have been an obstacle,” he said. “And then there was covid, which set me back too.”

Originally an education major, he reenrolled last spring and graduated in May with a Bachelor of General Studies. He now works for the Camden School District as office manager of enrollment and communication at Camden Prep Copewood and coaches track.

Pratt, the first in his family to graduate college, said completing his bachelor’s degree not only enabled him to become an educator but encouraged him to further continue his education.

Talking about his experience recently amid the excitement of an afternoon track practice, Pratt said, “I wanted to prove to myself I can do it and be the first in my family to graduate college. Now I have this great career going on and I’m thinking about a master’s degree.”

Second career

Included among Rowan’s ranks of returning students is Crystal Toomer, who started college in the early 1990s but stopped out to marry, raise four children, and later help her husband launch and run a successful business.

Now an assistant to the Office of Educator Preparation in the College of Education, Toomer took her first class in decades last year.

Working toward a Bachelor of Arts in Leadership & Social Innovation, she said the various support systems for returning students at Rowan made the transition back nearly seamless.

“I want to finish what I started,” she said. “In between starting my degree and now, I raised a whole family. Now it’s my turn.”