edited by GEOFFREY DAVIES ALAN
L. MCCLELLAND
Northeastern's Cooperative Education Research Center Twenty-Five Years of Service Joseph E. Barbeau Cooperative Education Research Center, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 021 15 For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, the Russian launch of Sputnik in 1957 rauned an upheaval and a re-examination of the American educational system. Higher education, as one part of that system, was chcded for aliowing America's supremacy in science and technology to he challenged by the U.S.S.R. Consequently, many initiatives and studies were undertaken t o assess and address specific concerns. One educational methodology that attracted the attention of the Ford Foundation in the late 1950s was cooperative education. Available only a t a few colleges in only a few disciplines, particularly engineering, cooperative education seemed to offer some hope for a greater "marriage" between academia and the scientific/business community. In the waning years of that decade, the Ford Foundation cosponsored a national study to determine the scope and viability of cooperative education. The results of this study, conducted by James W. Wilson of the Rochester Institute of Technology and Edward H. Lyons of the University of Detroit, were disseminated widely in their hook entitled Work-Study College Programs ( I ) . The benefits of coo~erativeeducation for emolovers, students, and educational institutions were cleariy desciibed. Likewise, the data revealed that this particular methodolow was not widely used. There were some 60 colleges, both twoand four-year, that utilized the "co-op" concept and the curricula involved were almost exclusively engineering. Compare this to "co-op" in over 1,000 colleges in 1989, and its availability in virtually every discipline (2). As a result of this study, the National Commission for Cooperative Education was formed in 1963 and the Ford Foundation funded programs and initiatives, not only with the Commission, but with several colleges and community colleges throughout the United States. Among these were two specific programs proposed by then President Asa S. Knowles of Northeastern University. In 1965, the Center for Cooperative Education was funded a t Northeastern to provide training and consultation services designed to assist colleges interested in beginning or expanding cooperative education programs. Several emerging "co-op" programs were also funded by the Ford Foundation through its Fund for the Advancement of Education (3). Under the direction of then Dean of Cooperative Education, Roy L. Woolridge, 11institutions received assistance during the first two years of operation. The function of the center was to "supplement work being carried out by the National Commission for Cooperative Education and to stimulate and conduct research on the expansion, development, and implementation of cooperative education (4). President Knowles and, now, Vice-president Woolridge determined that the general lack of understanding about cooperative education was attributable in part "to the dearth of any really substantive scholarly material on the method. T o correct this situation, Northeastern approached 944
Journal of Chemical Education
the Ford Foundation in 1967 with a proposal for an endowed Chair in "Cooperative Education Research" (5). Subsequently, the Ford Foundation awarded the University a grant of $375,000 t o be matched by an equal amount from Northeastern to establish such a research chair. In 1968 James Wilson, the director of the national study, was enticed to leave Rochester and accept the position a t Northeastern. According to Knowles, his commitment to the Ford Foundation was to establish this endowed chair as "a tenure position held on a long-term basis" (6). In his memo to the faculty dated June 14, 1968, Knowles described the duties of the Research Professor as follows (7): 1. Direct research both on campus and elsewhere in the field of cooperative education, preparing the results for publication
and dissemination among interested institutions throughout the country. 2. Contact noted scholars who are concerned with the problems of current educational methods to encourage their investigation of cooperativeeducation.. . . 3. Assist faculty in the preparation of programs for the development of coordinators of cooperative education. 4. Serve as a consultant to educational institutions in developing new cooperative programs or in strengthening or improving existing programs. In recent years these same duties have been reaffirmed and are described as the mission of the Research Center in the University's planning document. The Cooperative Education Research Center serves the broader "co-op" community in four distinct ways. First, the Center provides data services on the demographic nature of cooperative education and its operatinp characteristics throueh its Annual Census of ~ndeigraduaieCooperative ~ d u c a i i o nPrograms in the United States and Canada. Usine this database, rooperative educators, employers, journal writers, and editors can obtain information simply by calling or writing the Center. Second, the Research Center operates a Cooperative Education Information Clearinghouse. Since 1968 the Center has served as a repository for books, reports, dissertations, and journal articles written about cooperative education. This second database allows the Center to provide information services with search capability using a system of "key codes". Interested parties can obtain bibliographic information on a plethora bf topics relating to cooperate education. A few examples include such items as academic credit for "co-op", its benefits to students; studies of employer benefits, and articles on international "co-op". If the materials are not copyrighted or if the Center has eopyright permission, photocopies of such materials can he provided a t minimal cost. A third part of the mission is to direct research in cooperative education both on and off campus. Over the past 25 years, some 40 research studies were undertaken by the
Center, resulting in 50 research reports, monographs, or iournal articles. This information was, and still is, disseminated throughout the "co-op" community. In recent years the Research Center has orovided some minimal grant suvport for co-op practitioners, researchers, or faculty members to conduct research relating to the outcomes of cooperative education. These funds, awsrded for proposals selected from those submitted from researchers throughout the United States and several foreign countries, proGide research support exclusive of the project director's salary (8). Lastly, the Director of the Cooperative Education Research Center disseminates "co-op" data, information, and research through publications and through presentations at workshops and conferences. Some of this data and information is used in the ~ublicationsof other aeencies such a s Coopprotiue ~ d u c o l ; o nL'ndergroduarr frogram U!rectory published by the National Commission.
If you feel that the Research Center can he helpful to you in any way, or if you need data or information about cooperative education, please write to: The Cooperative Education Research Center, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, or call 617-437-3780. Literature - Cited -
~
~
~
~
~
1. Wilson, J. W.; Lyons. E. H. Work-Study ColkgePrprgram~:Harper: New York,1981.
2. NatianelCommisionforCwoerstiveEdueation.Cooo~mliurEdueofionUndersraduotePD ; c t o i y , 3rd ed. The Commission: Boston, 1989. 3. Barheau, J. E. Second to None: Seuanlv-Fiue Years of Leadershir, in the Coo~amliue Boston, 1985; 6 43. Eduroaon Mouemenl;~ortheanto~u~iversitv: 4. Frederick. A. Northemtarn Uniuer8ity. An Emerging Giant: 195P1975: Northeantern University: Boston. 1982; p 234. 5. Frederick. A. Norrheaatern Uniuersify, An Emerging Giant: 195+197% Northeantern University: Bastan. 1982: p 310. 6. Know1es.A. S. AnnualReport olrhePle8ident. 1968:Nonhe~sfemUniuernity:Boston; P 3. 7. Knowles, A. S. Northeartern University, '"Memo toFaeulty", June 14,1968. 8. Cool~zsfiueEducafionRerearchCenter,NorthessfernUniveraity."GuidelinesforPropads", 1989.
Volume 87
Number 11 November 1990
945
