Naropa expands online degrees, 40% of students in programs

Mar. 14—Naropa University in Boulder is adding to its bachelor's degree offerings this fall with environmental studies and interdisciplinary studies online programs.

Since the pandemic, Naropa administrators have seen an opportunity to reach more students through online programs, said Ann Marie Klotz, Naropa's vice president for development, enrollment and student success. Now, about 40% of Naropa's student body is enrolled in an online or low residency program. A low residency program is one that is largely online, but students make occasional on-campus visits

"Naropa, to me, is one of the few schools that has taken the lessons learned in the pandemic and has said how can we do our business a little bit differently?" Klotz said. "How can we take what we've learned, think about what works and pivot that to the future?"

Starting this fall, Naropa will have four bachelor's degree programs offered entirely online. Bachelor of arts degrees in psychology and art therapy already exist online, and this fall, Naropa is adding bachelor of arts degrees in environmental studies and interdisciplinary studies. The degrees aren't new to Naropa, and the university still offers them in-person.

"Boulder is not an inexpensive market, and what we were able to do is take the Naropa curriculum, the Naropa experience, and make it more available to students across the country," Klotz said.

The environmental studies program curriculum is special to Naropa, said Betsy Gonzalez Blohm, dean of Naropa College and Graduate Collective.

"I think it's a program that is so needed at this moment in time," Gonzalez Blohm said. "It's a very innovative, at the forefront of climate justice program."

The interdisciplinary degree allows students to design their own major, and works well for people who have a high number of transfer credits, Gonzalez Blohm said. Students can choose from classes including art therapy, visual art, music, religious studies, yoga, psychology, environmental studies and social justice.

"Even though there's only now four online majors, there's really a wide and growing number of really unique classes that don't exist in most universities," she said.

Those classes include herbalism, or the medicinal use of plants, psychedelic studies courses and somatic therapy, aimed at treating trauma through a mind-body connection.

A handful of master's programs are offered as low residency programs, including ecopsychology, yoga studies, master of divinity and clinical mental health counseling.

'Find that balance'

About 70% of Naropa students are in a graduate program, and about 30% are in an undergraduate program. Of the 30% of undergraduates, about 78% are transfer students. The average age of a Naropa student is 28 to 34.

"They may have tried college seven or eight years ago and going back to a state school doesn't feel like a great fit, and they know they can be in a classroom with other folks who have had similar experiences," Klotz said. "I think our reputation is that we have faculty who will meet students where they're at, (and) we welcome the life experiences they bring to the classroom."

Gonzalez Blohm said Naropa's mission and values are about disrupting the status quo, so the people who don't match well with a traditional higher education experience may be attracted to Naropa because it's not traditional.

"A lot of the one right way about this is 'what academics look like' and 'this is what intelligence looks like' doesn't really harness diverse ways of learning and knowing," Gonzalez Blohm said. "Whereas Naropa really asks students to contemplate and think critically about the way our society operates and who it benefits to have this one-size-fits-all model of education and tries to disrupt that by weaving in the arts, by weaving in meditation, weaving in movement and embodiment perspectives."

With Naropa's 50th anniversary year starting in June, Klotz said the university is looking at the first 50 years and thinking about how it can progress in the next 50 years.

"I think we're having to find that balance," Klotz said. "I think that we're never going to be an entirely online school and we're never again, probably, going to be an entirely in-person school."

Gonzalez Blohm said part of diversity and inclusion is recognizing different people need different things. She said expanding online programs is expanding access to a Naropa education.

"We think we offer something different in the marketplace than any other institution, and prior to 2020, that opportunity was only available to those folks who live in Boulder," Klotz said. "And so when I think about the future of Naropa, the future of our graduates who are healers, activists, scholars, leaders in the community having such a larger impact, I feel really good about that legacy and what's to come."