Armed with 26 years of private university administration experience, Dr. Ted Fredrickson, 56, is ready to meet the challenges he faces as the new president of Capital University.
“Capital is a very good university that has experienced some rough changes in leadership over the last four or five years,” says Fredrickson. “I hope to stay and provide some stability and leadership.”
Fredrickson says that while the physical facilities are good, the 4,000-student university is in need of new buildings and some refurbishing. This means fund-raising, which is high on the list of the new president’s priorities.
“We have a fairly low endowment fund for a school our size,” Fredrickson says.
He plans to increase the school’s visibility in the business community and re-establish ties with the leaders in Columbus and other communities.
“We have excellent board members from the business community but we need more presence in the community,” he says.
Fredrickson says technology definitely has a role in academics.
“The Internet and distance learning are a great way to reach niche markets we may not have been able to tap into otherwise, but it will never eliminate the need for the traditional educational setting,” he says.
Fredrickson hopes to expand the use of the Internet and distance learning for the university’s graduate programs.
“We have an MBA program in medical management that is 90 percent distance learning,” he says. “These students are busy physicians that are assuming administrative positions. We see them logging on at 2 a.m. Sunday morning.”
And while that works fine for graduate programs, Fredrickson says undergraduates need more than pure content.
“The traditional undergraduate student is still developing socially and spiritually and can’t get what he or she needs in those areas over the Internet,” he says. How to reach: Capital University, (614) 236-6011 or www.capital.edu
