Tom Taylor, Ph. D. and Dean of Wittenberg’s School of Community Education (SCE), has been succeeded by Thomas Kaplan, Ph. D. Kaplan, a seven-year employee of Wittenberg, was previously the Chair of the Business Department, and is ecstatic to be working with adult and non-traditional students as the new Dean of Community Ed.
“There’s something powerful when you bring traditional-aged students and folks with significantly more life and career experience [together],” Kaplan said. “It makes everyone considerably better.”
As Dean of the School of Business, Kaplan had assisted in creating an up-and-coming Master’s Program of Data Analytics, which is currently pending accreditation and state approval, but is said to be opening its doors to students in Aug. 2016. Kaplan considers the Analytics Master’s program to be “something very important in the future of education and the future of Wittenberg.”
The SCE, too, is starting more programs of its own. The Nursing Pathway Program, spearheaded by Beth Sorensen, Ph. D., gives students the opportunity to combine an RN through Clark State with a BSN from Wittenberg. In addition, Kaplan views the SCE as Wittenberg’s “entrepreneurship incubator,” implying that in the future, community education may be involved with testing out even more new programs for nontraditional students.
This kind of collaboration and cooperation is the modus operandi of the SCE, and the future of community education does not lie entirely on the dean’s shoulders. The entire staff works as a team to create and grow new programs as often as they can. Fittingly, the entire staff of the SCE was involved with the interviewing process for choosing the new dean of the department. Judy Nevius, program assistant and chief support staff for pre-college programs for 11 years, took a special liking to Kaplan from the moment he was interviewed.
“[Jenny Capper and I] thought he’d be a very good fit,” Nevius said.
Capper, who has been working in the department for 15 years, is also looking optimistically on the new appointment and the future of Community Ed.
“We look forward to working with Dr. Kaplan and seeing where he leads us,” Capper said.
Taylor, who has been at Wittenberg since 1988, had held the dean position at the SCE from the summer of 2012 to the summer of 2015, when his three year appointment was finished. He was thoroughly pleased to see that Kaplan, his friend and colleague, was chosen to take his place. Taylor wishes the best for his former SCE co-workers and for the new dean.
The SCE is the admissions office through which non-traditional students apply and register for classes. These students are primarily comprised of adult students (24 and older), but there also is a program for advanced high school students called College Credit Plus (CCP).
