SFCC’s president and faculty are exploring the possibility of adding several career technical four-year degrees to the college’s curriculum.
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) has been advocating for baccalaureate degrees to be offered at community and technical colleges including SFCC since 2010 as a part of the System Design Plan legislation.
“We want to offer students an opportunity to get a career technical degree here so instead of students transferring and losing credits they can stay here to get their four-year degree,” said Janet Gullickson, President of SFCC.
Applied baccalaureate programs come from the 2005 Legislature passing E2SHB, which gives the State Board the power to develop pilot programs in Washington community and technical colleges. Currently, eight community colleges and technical schools in the state of Washington offer thirteen different applied bachelor degrees.
“We have the teachers who are capable of teaching these courses and it would be good to utilize those sources,” said Gullickson.
Gullickson has asked for faculty to pitch possible baccalaureate degree proposals which requires three different characteristics in order for it to be considered.
“Students need to show an interest in the program, it can’t be a degree that will be duplicated in the area from other colleges, and there has to be a show of demand in the field of work,” said Gullickson.
The program hopes to build new four-year degrees that are not seen in the area.
“At this point it looks like Information Technology, Library Tech, and possibly Graphic Design are the programs under consideration,” said Glen Cosby the Dean of Humanities at SFCC.
Teachers in these departments have been looking into the program and are contacting workers in their field to see if this would be a helpful program to the community.
“The possibility of offering applied baccalaureate degrees at SFCC is exciting and could open up new options for students,” said Greg Stiles a Graphic Design teacher at SFCC. “Right now we are in the research part of the process. Teachers are reaching out to businesses in their field of work and are trying to find out if this is something that is needed in the workforce.”
According to the SBCTC website, not only will students be able to graduate with a 4-year degree from a community college but the program would also be around the same tuition of about $1,300 per quarter if you are a Washington resident.
“These four year programs might not specifically be for me but I do think it will benefit a lot of people,” said SFCC student Tayler Baker. “It brings more variety to the table which is good because not all students are the same.”
The program isn’t expected to come to SFCC for a few years but is something the administration is considering.
“If we have the funds, and teachers and students are interested then I could probably see this happening in the fall of 2014,” said Gullickson. “Although this program is very likely to come to SFCC, I don’t want to take away from programs we already have, we are a community college first.”