Engaged learning program put on hiatus

By Grace Bertrand

Rider’s eight-year-old Engaged Learning Program has been placed on hiatus for the 2025-26 academic year, Kelly Bidle, provost and vice president of academic affairs, announced in a universitywide email on Sept. 2. 

The program, launched in 2018 by former Rider President Gregory Dell’Omo, was intended to push students to become more involved through different hands-on opportunities. 

With the initiative, students were required to combine academics, career goals and extracurricular activities in order to graduate, enhancing their college experience. 

In the email, Bidle writes “This month, I am bringing a proposal to the University Academic Policy Committee (UAPC) to request that Engaged Learning be placed on hiatus to revamp the program. Importantly, this will mean the mandatory graduation requirement for students to obtain six points across two or more categories will be lifted. The evolution of Engaged Learning at Rider will be less about record keeping and more about truly engaging in experiential learning.” 

In response to the email, Bidle said “Evolution is important. You can’t just let a program run. You have to periodically check in, evaluate and assess what’s working and what’s not. Otherwise how do you grow?” 

Prior to the changes, the program consisted of five categories where students were allotted points in: Arts, Media & Creativity; Civic and Community Engagement; Guided Research & Scholarship; Internships, Co-ops & Fieldwork; Leadership & Mentoring; and Study Abroad & Cultural Exploration. 

Students were obligated to obtain six points in at least two categories. 

“Outside of making sure students graduate with what they need, the whole driving force was getting away from the points and the record keeping,” Bidle said. “It was an extreme burden on staff to deal with a lot of that and I think it caused a lot of stress in students.” 

The removal of the point system has generated feelings of relief among students who have been keeping track of their points needed to graduate. One student, Athaiah Wallace, a junior graphic design major, said “For me it’s a positive thing. I have a lot going on personal life-wise … so engaged learning was also something else added to the list that I had to think about and always keep in the back of my mind.” 

On the other hand, for students like Boston Huhman, a sophomore healthcare management major, the removal of the point system could be seen as frustrating. He said, “Especially with majors that don’t get credits through classes, to get all of your six [engaged learning] points by your senior year, to just scrap it is not nice for the seniors.”

He explained, however, that he did not feel the hiatus made his involvement on campus pointless, saying “If they don’t bring it back, the points that I did were from classes and extracurriculars I would have already done, so it wasn’t for nothing.”

Bidle shared a similar sentiment: “It’s absolutely not a waste. Just because there’s not going to be those points at the end or a checkbox, which is really how I see it, you’re not losing any of those experiences.” 

Moving forward, the program will become more focused on capstone projects and other “experiential learning opportunities,” Bidle wrote in the email, that are geared towards students’ specific majors. Currently, over 65% of Rider’s majors already have embedded capstone projects, according to the email, and Bidle’s hope is for that percentage to become complete by the next academic year. 

“For those 35% of programs that we need to get up to speed, it’s a collaborative effort to figure out what those experiences are,” Bidle said. “This is where working with the faculty is going to be critical. This is not my decision to make.” 

In his last interview with The Rider News, ahead of his retirement, Dell’Omo named the program as one of his proudest achievements during his term. He said, “When you’re losing the campus experience, you’re kind of losing a piece of the Rider puzzle.” 

Upon her appointment as provost in the spring semester, Bidle brought up the idea of revamping the program to Dell’Omo and was met with support, she said. 

To incoming students, Bidle strongly advised to still get involved at Rider as much as possible, even without the required point system to keep them in check: “What I would say to [incoming students] is you should absolutely take advantage of every single opportunity that comes your way. Regardless of whether it’s tied to a program or points, [involvement] is half of what college is all about.”