" A "college" degree that guarantees no tests and offers credit for "life experience"? A "college" program that offers one degree, in "organizational leadership"? This proposal is bad, bad, bad. It verges on the sort of mail-order degree that people routinely purchase to upgrade their salaries, and it cheapens the value of an honestly earned Lake Land degree. But whatever brings in the money, eh? And what, by the way, is a public institution doing offering classes in a "Christian environment"? "

" What's this, a "Christian" environment? If that's what Greenville College, as a private school, wishes, that's fine, but why bring that philosophy to a public institution? I think somebody blew it on this one, and this will cause them more problems than they bargained for. I can just see the bills coming in from their attorneys after some group like the ACLU gets wind of this. I have to wonder if anyone even had the foresight to run this by the legal folks. And please, Mr Vanetta, this is not a knock on organised religion. "

" Early Bird - these guys aren't idiots. I'm sure someone has thought through the implications. I doubt very much any public dollars will go in funding this opportunity. ---- Read all over - Greenville is an actual accredited college, not a diploma mill. Why don't you guys applaud LLC for providing additional opportunities and services to the community instead of looking at things throught the worst possible light? I think this may be a great opportunity for people. "

" All Lake Land will be doing is provding a host classroom site for the program one night a week, just like any other night class. Greenville will be using their own admission processes, their own teachers, their own material, and their own philosophy. They never try to change the way the host site runs. The "christian environment" these programs use is no different than any class these public schools already have that have to do with the Bible or religion, and most of these public colleges do already offer those type of courses. The students in these classes choose to be there knowing what they are getting. The "environment" is only there for those that want it, and not pushed on anyone else. And as for this program, it has been around for a few years at other locations throughout central and southern Illinois. It is a ctually a very successful program that has students on a waiting list to get in, which is why they are trying to get more host sites like Mattoon and another one at Bloomington. Many sites, such as Godfrey, Fairfield, Centralia, and Champaign, are already located in public schools. If anything this program can help boost enrollment in the regular public classes held in the evenings at these schools by requiring a certain number of credits from lower level courses to be taken.....And as for the no test policy, it is a concept that works for this type of adult program. There are many other programs throughout the state that use it. These programs are based for those that want to move up the career ladder, or just simply gain more knowledge and skills to be used in their jobs. It is not so much detail based, but process and idea based so why would there be tests. There is nothing to test over. It is all how you as a working adult can apply the knowledge and skills. It's a great concept if you ask me. "

" If Greenville runs the Mattoon location like other locations, they are simply "renting" space to host their classes. More $$$ in the Lake Land coffers. My kids have been "no test" classes throughout their college careers. They actually prefer "test" classes. The no test classes typically have numerous papers and most are of the 10+ page variety. And no they didn't attend Greenville so other schools are actually using the concept even for some traditional students. "