Students customize degrees with help of Metro program

By Aurora Trischka
The Metropolitan

Sky Walker wants a degree in storytelling.

Phil Cozzetti graduates this month with a degree in religious studies.

John Bellamy earned a degree in film studies last summer.

Metro doesnât have specific programs in these subject areas, but an individualized degree program let all these Metro students design their own degrees.

Adult Learning Services works with the students to develop plans for their majors. Like any degree, students must complete core courses required of every major, but they can pick classes for their majors from any and every department at Metro.

Once the plan is completed, students earn what are called individualized degrees with an emphasis in their area of study.

Cozzetti, who hears students complain about required courses for traditional majors, liked making his own choices, even when he didnât like a class.

ãIn my major, itâs because I put it there,ä he said.

Maureen Lancaster, interim director of Adult Learning Services, said the program has been so successful that its students graduate in record numbers. She said 130 students have specialized majors and 38 have specialized minors.

Lancaster said from 1990 to 1993, 63 percent of the students in the program had graduated. In comparison, only 24 percent of a sample of Metro freshman tracked from 1986 to 1995 graduated.

ãWe have already graduated 70 to 75 students with (individualized degrees),ä said Jim Cronoble, chairman of the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences department. ãWeâve been very successful, and we have a lot of students out there in environmental sciences with the IDP degree.ä

Lancaster said a high graduation rate is inherent for students following a customized program.

ãWhen students are committed to designing a major or minor through the IDP, they develop a significant commitment to completing their education,ä she said. ãThey develop a significant relationship with faculty.ä

IDP students tend to be self-starters, said Frederick Doepke, chairman of Metroâs Philosophy department.
But some students abuse the process, drift through school, then throw programs together at the last minute so they can graduate, he said.

Doepke helped Cozzetti pick courses for his degree in Foundations of Religious Studies. Cozzettiâs studies included a cross-section of English, anthropology, sociology and psychology courses that explore religion.

Cozzetti also consulted faculty at Iliff School of Theology at the University of Denver, where he has been accepted into graduate school.

Cozzetti said ãIliff was thrilled with thisä because, according to Iliff faculty, many students enter with no academic background in religion.