The Daily Bulletin Archive

By Tony Astran

Since its inception, the Continuing Professional Studies Office has encountered its share of new programs, partnerships, and opportunities to help others. Through it all, one mission has remained constant: providing access for part-time adult students who seek to further their education at Buffalo State.

Continuing Professional Studies’ roots can be traced back to 1983, when the Bulger Lifelong Learning Center was dedicated in response to the growing needs of nontraditional students. In the late 1990s, the name changed to the Continuing Education Office, and services shifted to Cleveland Hall 210. In 2005, the office was renamed again to the present Continuing Professional Studies, reflecting its broader constituency.

“We are the front door for adults who are considering returning to college or who are seeking professional development,” said Margaret Shaw-Burnett, associate vice president for continuing professional studies. “Adults return for various reasons, whether due to a job layoff, needing job certification requirements, changing careers, wanting a personal sense of accomplishment, or completing a degree. We provide access for them.”

Shaw-Burnett said the office studies trends and issues surrounding workforce training and recommends ways to reshape existing interdisciplinary programs on campus. It also tries to identify and recommend improvements to any policies or practices at the college that are barriers for returning adult students.

A variety of adults pass through the Continuing Professional Studies Office. Some are professionals seeking specialized certification for areas such as tax preparation, driver education, and speech-language pathology. Others are nonmatriculating students who wish to expand their knowledge or pursue individualized studies as a degree-completion option. One of the newest populations to fall under the province of the office are returning veterans; Shaw-Burnett recently oversaw the creation of the Veterans Office.

“We work with adult part-time populations and offer credit programs and noncredit opportunities,” she said. “We’ve also worked directly with companies such as National Fuel, National Grid, Kaleida Health, United Way, and a number of school districts to provide opportunities.”

The Continuing Professional Studies Office oversees Summer Session and the development of distance-learning programs. It also creates special sections of existing courses and facilitates the creation of off-campus classes to serve specific populations, and underwrites stipends for faculty to teach these courses. For example, the office is helping local Head Start teachers’ aides obtain teaching degrees, and it also created career and technical education classes off-site in Wyoming County to help adults become certified to teach in area prisons.

Shaw-Burnett said the office also provides links between professors and outside organizations. One example is the creation of the Erie Niagara Coordinating Committee, a coalition under the Erie Niagara–Area Health Education Center (EN–AHEC) to help underrepresented populations become interested and thrive in the health-care field. Shaw-Burnett led the committee and helped secure a five-year, $2.6 million grant to help EN–AHEC become a self-sustaining nonprofit organization. Continuing Professional Studies continues to work with EN–AHEC and Buffalo State professors for specific education needs, such as designing health-care awareness and forensics workshops for the community.

The office also helps faculty in other ways, such as offering an online registration system that can be used for conferences. Shaw-Burnett also helped the School of Natural and Social Sciences with the purchase of a 12-passenger van for student field trips.

Continuing Professional Studies provides continuing-education credits to participants for a fee, and also oversees tuition vouchers for CSEA employees and for Public Employees Federation (PEF) employees through the Public Service Training Program (PSPT). It is working on a number of future initiatives, including a partnership with National Grid to help laid-off workers, and a partnership with the School of Education to help teachers’ aides in the Rochester City Schools.

In serving nontraditional student populations, the Continuing Professional Studies Office strives to act as a clearinghouse. “We help students through the application process for specialized studies,” Shaw-Burnett said. “Our goal is to save them time from having to navigate through a maze of forms.”

Continuing Professional Studies administers many programs to many students but maintains an overall focus by operating under the Academic and Student Affairs Office. “Our initiatives come from the provost,” Shaw-Burnett said. “The delegated tasks are designed to provide easy access for the adult population and reflect the college’s mission.”

To contact Continuing Professional Studies, call 878-5907.