Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune
By REEVE HAMILTON
Published: November 29, 2012
Robert Titus likes to make jokes. Discussing his recently earned bachelor’s degree in marketing management, the 80-year-old said, “I wanted to get it while I was young, so I can start off on a good career.”
But Mr. Titus has no illusions about getting hired, and he is just fine with that. After more than a decade of retirement, he is happier than ever.So why pursue the degree?
“I promised my mother many, many years ago that I would get my degree,” said Mr. Titus, a former salesman who lives in Houston. “To me, it was a major, big, big, huge accomplishment.”
By a wide margin, Mr. Titus was the oldest member of the inaugural graduating class from W.G.U. Texas, a nonprofit online university created in 2011 with an executive order by Gov. Rick Perry.
More than 440 students have graduated from W.G.U. Texas. The average age in that group is 39, and the average time to earn a degree was about three and a half years.
Like many of the initial graduates, Mr. Titus was already a student at the 15-year-old Western Governors University, of which W.G.U. Texas is a state-centric offshoot. Known for allowing students to advance based on mastery of a concept rather than time spent in a course, the university has been praised as a flexible option for working adults. Mr. Titus first enrolled in 2006.
While most students are looking to get ahead, Chancellor Mark Milliron of W.G.U. Texas said Mr. Titus’s motivation was in keeping with the school’s mission. “Sometimes you just want to prove to yourself that you can do it,” Mr. Milliron said. “That’s right on target for who we are.”
The institution where Mr. Titus completed his educational journey could not be more different from the one he started in: a one-room schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania,
“I was never a real guru on the computer,” said Mr. Titus, who types with one finger. “I’m still not.”
But he had been unsuccessful during numerous attempts at a more traditional college route.
His first effort, immediately out of high school, was cut short when he enlisted in the United States Navy and served in the Korean War. Upon his return, he began a long career in sales, mostly for a rubber company. He would periodically enroll at a nearby college but never managed to stay on track.
“My biggest concern was paying the bills,” he said.
After retiring, he gave college another shot, but he had no desire to commute to a physical campus.
After researching online universities, he enrolled at what became W.G.U. Texas, largely, he said, because it seemed the most affordable.
The only downside of a virtual program, he said, is that you do not meet many people. But he enjoyed completing course work at his own pace and cherished his weekly calls with Janelle Custard, of Arlington, his school-assigned mentor.
“Sometimes I have a tendency to drag,” he admitted. “She would give me the old kick in the rib cage.”
Though he was unable to attend the W.G.U. Texas commencement ceremony in Austin this month, Mr. Titus proudly displays his diploma above his fireplace. Asked what it meant to him, Mr. Titus pumped his fists in the air three times, each time shouting, “Yeah!”
“That’s what it means,” he said. “And like I said, I promised Mama I would get it someday.”
rhamilton@texastribune.org