CCSN, state college sign partnership agreement

Friday, March 4, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

Transferring from the Community College of Southern Nevada to Nevada State College in Henderson will be a whole lot easier next fall under a new partnership the schools' presidents signed this week.

Starting fall 2005, students desiring to earn a bachelor's degree at Nevada State but who want to take advantage of some of the community college's courses will be able to enroll in both institutions at the same time, CCSN President Richard Carpenter said.

Students will be able to take classes at either institution depending on their schedule, Carpenter said, without any worries that the courses won't transfer or count toward graduation.

And by formally recognizing that they are duly enrolled, many of the students already attending both schools will be able to apply for much-needed financial aid, Carpenter said. Previously, these students appeared to be only attending school part-time, making them ineligible.

"Both of us are new presidents and we want to provide the maximum education opportunity for people in the valley," Carpenter said.

"... This is an acceptance and acknowledgement on our part that the two institutions could thrive better as partners than as competitors."

Carpenter and Nevada State President Fred Maryanski are scheduled to formally announce the partnership this afternoon, but they released a copy of their signed agreement Thursday night. Maryanski declined to comment until today's announcement.

Assistant Chancellor Dr. Trudy Larson praised the agreement Thursday, calling it "very, very cool."

"I think it will be a great benefit for all the students," Larson said, noting that the partnership formalizes and extends efforts already in place.

In addition to the dual enrollment, the partnership will also develop "2 plus 2" articulation programs for every degree Nevada State offers, detailing for students exactly what courses students need to take at CCSN to be able to successfully transfer to the state college. Similar agreements are already in place, but not for every program.

The colleges will also develop financial aid consortium and specialized student services to help students that attend both institutions, Carpenter said.

Finally, the agreement calls on the colleges to better coordinate their instructional efforts to minimize duplication and share planning efforts to better coordinate and manage their growth.

In the past, Nevada State and CCSN have offered the same course on the same campus at the same time, which Carpenter said "defies logic." The partnership would eliminate that from happening, help coordinate offerings so students have more times to choose from, and distinguish courses that might be better offered at just one of the institutions, he said.

The presidents will each appoint a partnership liason at their college to work with the other on a day-to-day basis, the presidents will meet monthly and together they will file a regular report to the chancellor on the effort's progress, according to the agreement.

"I wrote that to hold our feet to the fire," Carpenter said. The partnership came out of concerns both presidents had and its helps both institutions meet system goals, but it was not mandated by system officials, he said.

Several lawmakers, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, in particular, have criticized the state college and even UNLV for duplicating general education courses that could be offered cheaper at the community college level.

Resident undergraduates pay $49 a credit at the community college, $74 at the state college and $91 at UNLV.

Giunchigliani has also criticized the system for making it too hard for students to transfer between institutions. She has legislation under consideration this session to mandate that the universities accept toward graduation all credits transferred from fellow University and Community College System of Nevada institutions.

"It's a step in the right direction," Giunchigliani said of the new partnership. In the past, she said, the institutions treated students as "cash cows" as officials argued over who got to teach what classes.

System officials have been working on easing the transfer requirements from its community colleges to its four-year institutions for the past several years, including setting up a consistent course numbering system, Larson said.

By making sure that the numbering and the content for a course was the same at any institution that offered it, the system made it easier for the college's to set up more articulation agreements.

"The goal was to make it seamless, that you can go from any of the community college to any of the four institutions seamlessly," Larson said.