University President B. Joseph White said that students have “nothing to fear from Global Campus when it comes to the value of your degree.” However, members of Illinois Student Senate had many fears to express at a town meeting at the Illini Union Tuesday night.

Chet Gardner, special assistant to the president, presented information in support of the Global Campus Initiative, a plan to expand the online sector of the University to offer degree, certificate and outreach programs primarily, but not solely, via the Internet.

Gardner said the Global Campus would provide an opportunity for nontraditional learners to receive a degree from an accredited institution.

Audience members expressed concerns about the possibility of such a program lessening the value of the degree they receive as a residential student of the University. Gardner assured students that a distinction would be made between online degrees and traditional degrees. He also said that he believes the job market is smart enough to know the difference.

Gardner explained the initial plan for admission standards for online learners, which would be set by a special committee of University tenure-system faculty. The difference in standards will focus on the capacity of the Internet to accept more students than a physical campus can allow.

“Global Campus will have admission standards and will accept all students who meet those standards,” Gardner said.

Admission standards for the University are currently set to limit the pool of applicants to a manageable number. Acceptance is also structured to ensure that the University does not become overcrowded.

“I would prefer that the admission requirements for Global Campus would be set to ensure success in the program, rather than artificial limits,” Gardner said.

The program aims to provide courses in 31 degree or certificate programs by 2011, with 6,850 students participating.

One audience member expressed her fear about the interface that will be used to facilitate the Global Campus. She said she believed that problems with Illinois Compass should be fixed before the University undertakes a larger online endeavor. Gardner said he believes this may be one of the times when the University must accept a higher contract bid in order to ensure reliability for users.

White, who appeared at the meeting via previously recorded video, said that the Global Campus must be a “rich mix of online and face-to-face” learning.

Burks Oakley, associate vice president for academic affairs, explained how such a mixture in forms of learning can be feasible.

“It’s all about access and giving people options,” Oakley said.

For strictly online students, ones who live out of state or out of the country, coming to campus may not be an option, Oakley said. But for students at the University of Illinois at Chicago who commute to the city from the suburbs, taking some classes online would save them time and energy, he said.

Oakley also said that expanding into an online campus will have benefits to society as a whole. Oakley said that people with a college degree are not just better off financially, but they are also more likely to have better health care, be better parents, take care of themselves better and vote.

The start-up costs for the project are estimated at about $20 million over the first five years. They would be provided primarily by a line of credit which the University will pay back over a 15-year period. Gardner said University officials hope the program will provide additional revenue for the University’s general fund.

Some current University faculty are adamantly opposed to the initiative, and others are very excited.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to have a consensus on this initiative,” Gardner said. “With 7,000-some faculty on the three campuses, it’s not really realistic for everyone to agree, but what we can’t have is groups of faculty actively out there trying to oppose and thwart the initiative.”

However, Gardner said the University will consider faculty and student concerns while developing the system before its planned launch in 2007.