ETSU’s campus in Sevierville allows students to operate in a smaller learning environment while still taking the classes they need to graduate. Their cohort program allows students to learn with others that have the same goals and educational background as they do.
According to the ETSU Academic Affair’s website, “Cohort Programs reach out to the community to serve those students who live outside of Johnson City and have family and career responsibilities that make attending classes on campus impossible.”
Jennifer Butler, Sevierville campus coordinator, explains that their cohort program offers both online and on campus classes. It allows students to start and finish their degrees with a group of people that are all on the same level.
“A cohort is a group of students that starts at the same time,” Butler said. “Everybody has the same plan and starting point, and they graduate together.”
Many students come to this campus from surrounding community colleges in hopes to complete their college degree. She estimates that about 180 students are currently attending classes on campus.
“We’ve had a presence in Sevierville for a while, but we moved into this facility in 2016,” Butler said. “We offer several different programs at this facility. We work with Walters State Community College, so a lot of our students transfer from other institutions.”
Because many students feed from the local community colleges and have already completed their general education requirements there, the classes available to students on this campus are only upper level courses. This is part of what allows all students to start at the same level.
“On our campus, we only have classes on the junior and senior level,” Butler said.
She explained that the cohort offers a wide variety of classes and programs. They have also just recently introduced the possibility to attain both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in certain programs.
“We have business majors, marketing and management, and several education programs,” Butler said. “We also offer an undergraduate degree in social work. Starting last fall, we now offer a master’s in social work at this campus.”
Although they are a smaller campus, Butler says the students and staff do remain connected with what is happening on campus in Johnson City. However, the logistics of the operations at the Sevierville campus are slightly different due to the smaller space.
“We try to stay connected to things going on at the main campus,” she said. “We are a unique situation in that we have departments from all different colleges. We have to share space a lot more, so it just works differently.”
Butler explained that the process to enroll in classes at the Sevierville campus and the cohort programs are the same as how to enroll in the classes at Johnson City’s main campus.
“We are part of ETSU, so it is the same application,” Butler said. “The only difference is that we don’t require our students to attend the on-ground orientation in Johnson City.”
“We have had some students come from main campus, especially students who are from this area,” Butler said. “It might be more cost-effective for them to move back home, or they want to be closer to their family.”
Butler says that for students who are drawn to a more intimate learning environment, cohort programs at the Sevierville campus might be the direction to take.
“If they are more interested in smaller setting, this might be a good option for them,” she said.
