Higher Ed Update: Iona College To Team With ESPN

It’s been a buzzy few weeks for Westchester’s higher-learning institutions, as four local schools announced exciting new programs. Here, a quick roundup of the new offerings:

Debt-Free Scholarship Program At Mercy College

A lucky group of scholarship winners will get to attend Mercy College completely debt-free, thanks to a major donation from the Robert and Kate Niehaus Foundation to launch the Mercy Scholars Program. The fund, officials announced last week, will “help close the financial gap for high achieving students with strong financial need.” Along with the Robert and Kate Niehaus Foundation, Mercy College Board Member Jim McCormick and his wife Marsha McCormick, as well as additional board members and Mercy College faculty and staff, have contributed. The Mercy Scholars Program is part of Mercy College’s long-term plan to help more students graduate college in four years and enter the workforce without debt. The financial gap at Mercy College for students eligible for a full federal Pell Grant and the maximum New York State Tuition Assistance Program (NYS TAP) is roughly $3,500 per year. The Mercy Scholars Program would cover this gap fully. The Program is set to fund a minimum of 30 Mercy students this year for four years, and additional cohorts in coming years.

Manhattanville Program APPEALs to Adult Learners

To address changes in education that have many people completing college later in life, The Manhattanville School of Business last week launched its APPEAL programs: undergraduate accelerated degree programs specifically designed for adult learners 21 years of age and older.  APPEAL will enable Manhattanville’s adult students to complete their degrees on a schedule convenient to those working full time and in an accelerated timeframe. Classes are held on evenings and weekends, taught in accelerated seven-week formats, and offered six times per year, allowing adult students the flexibility to start or take off classes as their schedule allows. 

 “There was a high demand for business programs geared toward adult degree completers, and The Manhattanville School of Business was ideally positioned to meet these students’ career-focused education needs,” says Dr. Anthony Davidson, dean of The Manhattanville School of Business. APPEAL degree programs are available for new students, transfer students, those with an associate degree or transitioning from the military.  In addition to five bachelor degree options, they offer seven dual (bachelor’s/master’s) degrees, aimed at saving students both time and money.

Fordham Westchester Launches Doctor of Ed Program

The Graduate School of Education will be launching a Doctor of Education (EdD) program in the fall of 2016 at Fordham Westchester. The 45-credit program offers a career path so that graduates will be prepared for leadership positions in K-12 settings. (An EdD is often required for assistant superintendent and superintendent positions in K-12.) The program is based on the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) model, which creates scholar-practitioners through blending theory and practice to solve contemporary problems in K-12 schools. Fordham’s program will emphasize collaborative learning and leadership development and is designed with applied research and dissertation development as key components of each course. As part of the dissertation program, small groups of students will be matched with high-level, local school administrators for three years. During that time, students work with this administrator on real-time issues facing the district. Each students’ dissertation will be based on a different aspect of this issue.

Iona Partners With ESPN to Broadcast Athletic Events

Iona College has announced a partnership with ESPN to produce and broadcast its athletics events live on the ESPN3 and WatchESPN platform. Iona will begin producing its men’s and women’s basketball games in February and women’s lacrosse contests in the spring. It plans to expand to additional sports next fall.

Iona is assembling a portable production and editing studio to support a multi-camera telecast in high definition with state-of-the art equipment from Ross Video, NewTek, Hitachi, Clear-Com among other leading broadcast vendors. The events will be available in more than 100 million homes throughout the United States through the WatchESPN platform. The broadcasts, which will feature ESPN-branded graphics and full-replay capability, will be hosted by a combination of professionals and College students. Under the direction of Iona College Athletic Communications staff, Iona students will be a key part of the 10-to-15-person crew needed to produce the events. In addition to live coverage, Iona College students will be responsible for pregame, halftime, and postgame content production including feature pieces, commercials, highlight packages and interviews. The project will be an expansion of the live coverage of Gael sporting events already provided on the online platform, Iona Insider, which is currently in its seventh year of providing Iona athletics webcasts.