About 25 students are participating in a pilot program this academic year that the UI is conducting in conjunction with Parkland College to help transfer students make the transition from community college to the university.
The students are participating in the Parkland Pathways to Illinois program, a dual-enrollment, dual-admission program being developed by the UI and Parkland that the UI plans to adapt and offer at partnering community colleges throughout Illinois within the next two years. Through Pathways, qualified students take one class per semester on the UI campus as non-degree students while earning their associate’s degrees as full-time students at Parkland. During their final semester at Parkland, students apply for admission to the UI as transfer students. If they’ve maintained a competitive grade-point average for their intended major at Illinois, they are guaranteed admission to Illinois in that program.
While earning their associate’s degrees, students are required to maintain full-time status of at least 12 credit hours, including their course at the UI, each semester. They also must meet once a semester with academic counselors from Parkland and the UI.
For the courses that the students take at Illinois, “we tried to stipulate courses that aren’t available at Parkland to add value to their educational experience,” said Keith Marshall, associate provost for enrollment management at Illinois. “Students also have the opportunity to live in the UI’s residence halls, and have access to student resources such as libraries and computer labs. They can pay to use its recreational facilities and McKinley Health Center, and ride fan buses to sporting events. Our goals are to create a seamless and successful transition to the UI, to help them get comfortable at the Urbana campus and build strong connections with them.”
Another unique aspect of the Parkland Pathways to Illinois program is that while students are earning their associate’s degrees the tuition rate for their courses at the UI is comparable to the per-credit tuition rate they pay at Parkland.
“We’ve presented Parkland Pathways at two conferences – the annual conference of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers Transfer Institute – and that got the biggest gasp from the audience,” Marshall said. “They’re surprised that we’re able to do that because it’s a significant commitment of resources on our part.”
This academic year, the Pathways program is being offered to qualified students interested in transferring into the College of Engineering and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Beginning with the fall semester, the list of available majors will expand to include selected majors in the College of Applied Health Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the College of Media.
In the fall, Pathways enrollment will be expanded to about 100 students for Academic Year 2009-2010, and it may be expanded to a total of 200 students in the future. During AY10-11, the UI plans to adapt Pathways so it can be offered to other community colleges in the state, perhaps offering the UI courses online or at Chicago to students at partnering community colleges that aren’t in close proximity to Urbana and for whom on-campus courses aren’t an option. As enrollment in Pathways grows, UI officials hope to broaden the racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity among its students.
“I think it’s really important that the Pathways program sends a message to area high schools that we value the education that students will receive if they choose to go to Parkland,” said Dan Cullen, visiting assistant director of undergraduate admissions in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Illinois. “We believe in Parkland and Parkland believes in us. We work well together as partners. I think it’s a win for Parkland, for Illinois and for the students.”
The first cohort of students did “fairly well during the fall semester 2008, their first semester in the program,” Marshall said, but they expressed concern about having a resource person from the UI available at Parkland to answer their questions. The university plans to have a staff member from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions available at Parkland a few hours a week to assist them.
The program is a component of the Transfer Experience and Advising Mentors initiative on which Ruth Watkins, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is the principal investigator. Pathways and TEAM are being funded in part by a three-year, $899,000 grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education, a private foundation based in Indianapolis that strives to expand access to and success in postsecondary education, particularly for people from underrepresented groups.
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