The first generation of distance education professionals, largely ignored even on their own campuses, created and sustained correspondence study--an innovative and controversial teaching format that provided an alternate and more democratic form of access to higher education than had previously existed. They most often did this in the service of…

Throughout the 1980s and early '90s, school leaders in Waterloo faced a gloomy horizon. Economic hardships, including declines in property values and rising unemployment, resulted in decreasing school enrollment and limited financial resources. By 1995, the district had accumulated several million dollars of debt. From 1995 to 2005, the student…