SPC, TTU make university transition more  tangible

by Sarah Vaughn, staff writer

 

Most students who attend South Plains College plan to transfer to a four-year university. The administration, faculty and staff are committed to making that transition as smooth as possible. 

“From our registration of students, probably 70 to 80 percent of our students that plan to transfer to a four-year college, plan to go to Texas Tech,” said Dr. Kelvin Sharp, president of South Plains College. “It’s important for us then, to have the articulation agreements with Texas Tech to make that an easier transition for our students.”

                                                                             Sharp explained that an articulation

                                                                             agreement is drawn up to recognize

                                                                             the coursework that a student takes

                                                                             at a community college such as

                                                                             SPC, and what that  coursework is

equivalent to at a particular four-year college. In addition to TTU, SPC has articulation agreements with almost all of the regional four-year universities, including West Texas A&M, Lubbock Christian University, and Wayland Baptist University.

A recent meeting between SPC and TTU has helped create a more fluid process for students who wish to concurrently enroll at both institutions. Some students at SPC only have one or two courses left to get an Associate’s Degree, and until now they were unable to take courses at TTU at the same time to speed up their progress toward a four-year degree.

“This agreement will help those students who have a need to take a little bit in both places,” said Darrell Grimes, vice president for academic affairs. “I don’t know that this particular agreement will attract more students. I think it will make it easier for existing students.”

Grimes explained that students who need to concurrently enroll should start first by applying for admission. Once accepted into TTU, students only need to acquire permission to from the TTU Dean of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Jorge Iber, to concurrently enroll.

Another initiative between SPC and TTU is the Gateway program. It began eight years ago, and works with students who have applied for admission at TTU and were denied.

“Once a student is denied admission, Tech then sends a letter saying you’ve been denied admission, but here are some other options for you,” said Lee Cox, associate dean of student services at the Reese Center campus, who oversees the program. “One of those options is the Gateway Program. In that letter, it tells you that then you need to contact South Plains College.”

Cox said that 104 students are enrolled in the Gateway Program this semester.

“We get students from all over,” Cox said. “I think, in this group, we only have four who are from out of state. But we’ve had them come from as far as New York and Alaska. Their ties are usually their mom or dad or brother; somebody was a Red Raider.”

Allison Perrin, a counselor at SPC’s Reese Center campus, coordinates the Gateway Program.

“I think it’s important to South Plains College, because it keeps us in a good working relationship with Texas Tech admissions,” said Perrin. “I work with the admissions office, housing, campus life, and we have a really good rapport.”

Perrin said that Gateway provides a good base for students.

“We tell the students it’s a win-win situation,” said Perrin. “They’re going to get great academics at SPC in a smaller environment that a lot of students do better in. And if they do well here, which we’re going to give them a good foundation, they’re going to do well at Tech.”

A program similar to Gateway began this fall. The Tech Transfer Acceleration Program (TTAP), allows students who are not admitted to TTU to live in TTU dorms and take SPC’s classes on the TTU campus.

“They’re provisional students,” said Dr. Sharp “They do not meet the admission standard at Texas Tech, but Texas Tech feels like with one semester of transition, then those students would be prepared to become full-time Tech students.”

TTU staff are working with TTAP students to teach them good academic habits.

“They don’t let you screw up,” said Blake Steinford, a student in the program. “I don’t know what it’s like at Tech, but if you don’t come to class, they will call you.”

This semester, students in TTAP are receiving instruction from three SPC professors and one adjunct instructor.

“The instructors are really good at what they do,” said Jason Weber, another student in TTAP. “Not many kids get a chance to do something like this. Just being able to live at Tech without taking classes all the way in Levelland.”

Yancy Nunez, dean of arts and sciences at SPC, has spearheaded TTAP.

“The main difference in TTAP and the Gateway Program is that the courses are being taught on the Texas Tech campus,” said Nunez. “The students are having their academic support [provided] by Texas Tech.”

Nunez explained that the program has a set schedule of four programs. This semester, TTAP students are enrolled in speech, psychology, English, and math courses.

“If they complete those four courses with a GPA of 2.5, they’re admitted into Tech as an undecided major,” said Nunez. “If they make 2.75, they’re admitted into any college at Tech.”

A course offering for the spring semester is already in the works.

“Since the students that Texas Tech wants to get in this program probably are going to be second-semester freshmen, we’re going to offer four courses that a second-semester freshmen might take,” said Nunez. “Probably the second half of English, math, sociology, and then also a history course.”

The enrollment goal for the fall semester was 50, but only 41 students made it into the program.

“Our goal is to get 50 again this spring semester,” said Nunez. “This was the first offering of this program. Hopefully, we’ve learned some things from our first offering, what to implement and what to do and not to do. Since enrollment across the state is smaller in the spring versus the fall, it’s conceivable that it may not be as big of a class this spring as next fall.”

Nunez also admitted that the program is not perfect, “It’s a new program, it definitely has some bugs in it that we are working out.”

Natalie Bryant, assistant professor of speech at SPC, teaches the program’s speech class in Holden Hall on the TTU campus.

“I think that the program was thrown together too quickly,” said Bryant. “I don’t think they really took enough time to think through everything, and so, because of that, the students weren’t even contacted until, some of them, a week to two weeks before school started. We were into the third week of school before the rolls were actually fixed. Logistically, it was a nightmare.”

Bryant said that a big obstacle for the instructors is the quality of classrooms that TTU provided for the program.

“I feel like I am walking into the dark ages when I walk into the room,” said Bryant. “The only thing you’ve got available to you is the projector in the ceiling, which you can link into with your laptop. You don’t have a white board, you have a chalkboard. You can’t control the temperature, the classroom desks are right on top of each other, so the kids talk to each other, and so they’re off-task.”

But it’s not all bad. Bryant said that there were obviously good things about the program.

“Because these are students that really wanted to go to Tech and apparently were very close to meeting their requirements,” said Bryan. “And so that’s why they are so happy. They are actually getting to go to Texas Tech socially. They’re on their campus, they let them pledge in sororities and fraternities, they live in the dorms, they go to the games. From a social standpoint, they’re Texas Tech students.”