Are we shutting her out? Dual degree and transfer agreements between state four-year and community colleges were once an open door to universal access. Now, for many, those doors may be closing

University Business, May, 2004 by Rebecca Sausner

Yet, Patrick Murphy, associate professor and director of the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco, points out that while dual admission programs may help relieve capacity at baccalaureate colleges, "Guess what? It all rolls down hill." In other words, as in the case of those Rutgers hopefuls, the community colleges that would supply the first two years of the college education may be underfunded or over capacity, throwing a glitch into the best of intentions.

Still, Murphy says, dual admission programs are without a doubt "quite a bargain" for parents--and states, too. "It's wise to start thinking along these lines much more strategically." The trick lies in keeping the programs intact.

Four Years or Bust

Another approach to the domino effect of capacity problems is to help students to complete their undergraduate degrees in four years, rather than take up seats for extra semesters white they finish requirements. One way to do this is to simply improve the transfer process between the community colleges and senior institutions--a feat that can often be accomplished electronically. Leading the way is a Web site created by the New Jersey Statewide Transfer Initiative (www.njtransfer.org) that allows students to match up their community college, desired major, and the four-year university they intend to transfer to. The Web site indicates which courses should be taken at the community college and lists transfer contacts at the senior school. More than 25 baccalaureate corteges are part of the system, as are all of the state's community colleges.

Baccalaureate institutions in Washington and California are also tackling this issue. The Cal State University system recently ruled that students be required to complete at least 60 credits at the community college level before transferring with a declared major. The University of Washington's proposal would all but require a student to apply to a particular department rather than transfer to a school.

Community College Baccalaureates

On the periphery of the transfer-agreement tumult is the growing community college baccalaureate (CCB) movement. In the 2000 Carnegie Foundation classification (www.carnegiefoundation.org/classification), 57 institutions were categorized as baccalaureate/associate degree colleges primarily awarding associate degrees and certificates, but conferring at least 10 percent baccalaureate degrees. Some 14 among these were public institutions such as four two-year public-university branch campuses of Ohio State University. In many cases, these schools are offering workforce-related bachelor degrees in technical areas that traditional and research universities are not willing or able to penetrate. In some cases, the senior institutions have opposed the community corteges' petitions to confer baccalaureate degrees.

"Fear and territorialism are two of the reasons why these programs are opposed," says Deborah L. Floyd, professor of Higher Education at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Typically, the opposition is behind the scenes, but it became public in Florida, for instance, when first St. Petersburg Junior College and then others sought to grant baccalaureate degrees. In the St. Petersburg case, the University of South Florida first opposed the junior college's plan to offer a BS degree in nursing, and four-year degrees in information technology and teaching. Eventually the two institutions reached a compromise in which both would receive state funding to grow.