Students who want to come to Goshen College but can't due to the cost will hopefully have another option this fall.
Ivy Tech Community College and Goshen College are working on initiating a degree partnership. The collaboration will make classes from Ivy Tech and Goshen College transfer seamlessly, giving the students cheaper options for their education.
The idea is to have students enroll for the program as a first-year. The students must meet the enrollment requirements of Ivy Tech, a state-wide college, and Goshen College. Only students that would normally be accepted to Goshen would be accepted in the program.
Rebecca Hernandez, director of the Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning, has been participating in connecting with Ivy Tech. "A big challenge for first-generation [college students], and many other students, is financial," said Hernandez. "This will provide students with an opportunity to come get the fantastic education at Goshen College."
According to the financial aid home pages of the colleges, this year's tuition for Goshen College was $25,700 compared to Ivy Tech's tuition of $3,355.
Right now, the colleges are working on making the partnership option available for students looking into business, education, communication, theater, art and social work majors. The latest step in the process has been to bring professors from Goshen to meet their department counterpart and work out the details of each college's classes and requirements.
Unlike the consortium of colleges which includes Ivy Tech, this program would make the transition between Goshen and Ivy Tech easier. Although students would be enrolling for a four-year degree, they could earn credits from either college to get their degree without bothering with the hassle of getting the permissions and paperwork of the consortium.
Since students would enroll in the program specifically, they would be enrolled in both Goshen and Ivy Tech systems. There would likely be close collaboration between the schools to ensure that students receive advising to help them navigate between both schools.
This is not the first time that four-year colleges have collaborated with local two-year community colleges. Hernandez mentions the collaboration between Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College as an example of a good partnership.
Anita Stalter, the academic dean, says that Goshen College is committed to making this program work out.
"The main reason Goshen College is interested in this project is to give more options to students to come to Goshen," said Stalter.
