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Work Environment
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Oakton offers the majority of programs and services at one of our two comprehensive campuses. The Des Plaines campus is located on 170 acres of land between the Des Plaines River and a county forest preserve on the far western edge of the district. The Skokie, or Ray Hartstein Campus, named in honor of the College’s founding Board chairman, is on 21 acres near downtown Skokie, in the eastern part of the district.
Each of the two comprehensive campuses has a unique identity. The Des Plaines campus sits in the middle of a forest preserve, surrounded by natural beauty. The Skokie campus is on a main thoroughfare surrounded by condominiums, single family homes, and small businesses; it has a new 59,000-square-foot addition. While the two campuses share strengths and challenges, each also has faced unique issues in recent years. Des Plaines, often considered the “main” campus, houses most College employees, and 75 percent of students in credit programs attend classes there. Employees at the Skokie campus feel a sense of community and mutual support that many believe grow out of its smaller size and occasional sense of being in the shadow of Des Plaines. The Skokie campus, particularly with the new addition, has the most capacity for enrollment growth; building enrollments and determining the appropriate and optimal use of this campus are challenges facing Oakton that we discuss later in the self study.
While an identifying concept for Oakton over the years was “one college, two campuses,” recent developments require us to think in terms of “one college, four campuses.” One of these additional “campuses” is electronic, the distance learning and asynchronous courses now offered online. The College’s other new campus is represented by the Continuing Education, Training and Workforce Development programs delivered through two primary units, the Alliance for Lifelong Learning and the Business Institute. Oakton, historically an Illinois leader in adult and continuing education, has a noncredit program that serves at least 36,000 people annually, 26,000 in noncredit courses and workshops and at least 10,000 more in community service offerings. Through a unique partnership with all but one of the local high school districts and other community groups, the Alliance currently offers courses at more than 200 locations, our fourth campus “in your neighborhood.”
Programs and Services. Dedication to quality and innovation characterizes the entire scope of Oakton’s credit course offerings and programs. The College’s 21 baccalaureate departments offer associate degrees in liberal arts (A.A.), science (A.S.), engineering (A.S.E.), art or music (A.F.A.), and education (A.A.T.). In addition, more than 100 certificates are available through 36 career programs. Oakton participates in the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI), an agreement among Illinois public and private colleges and universities to identify freshman and sophomore level courses in a number of majors and honor a general education core curriculum. To facilitate ease of transfer for interested students, Oakton has negotiated articulation, 2+2, and dual admission agreements with 23 four-year institutions.
Employees. Oakton’s many programs and services are developed and maintained by a
dedicated and increasingly diverse workforce comprised of 493 full-time employees, including
31 administrators, 154 full-time faculty, 310 staff and classified staff, and other personnel. The College also employs more than 550 part-time faculty teaching credit courses and 123 part-time staff. The Alliance employs several hundred additional part-time instructors. After ongoing efforts to increase the diversity of our employees, the College’s workforce, not including Alliance instructors, is now 7 percent African American, 5 percent Hispanic, 8 percent Asian, and 80 percent white. Gender equity has long been a hallmark of Oakton’s workforce, and currently 63 percent of all employees and 56 percent of administrators and managers are women.
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