81st Annual Conference & Meeting

Continuing education units come in many shapes and sizes, and the operational model is often built and rebuilt over time. The terms “centralized vs. de-centralized units” has also been a topic of conversation within continuing education for decades. On many campuses, this reality has ebbed and flowed along the spectrum and has shifted based on budget, market conditions, mission-driven directives, leadership preferences, and other data or (in some cases) non-data-driven decisions. If this is our past, what is our future? This session will share a brief case study of a small continuing education unit that cycled its operations between extremes over a twelve-year period. The session will then encourage dialogue on the advantages and disadvantages of various types of structures and where we collectively see the future of continuing higher education.