Wright State University has signed its fifth partnership agreement with Southern State Community College (SSCC), located in Hillsboro.
Both President Hopkins and President Boys of SSCC met on Monday, May 2 along with the provosts of both institutions, executive director of the Transfer Student Resource Center Charles Long and Dr. Carl Brun, Assistant Vice President for University Curricular Programs.
According to Brun, WSU has similar partnership agreements with Clark State, Edison, Cincinnati State and Sinclair.
Partnership agreements are programs that make the transition from community college to four-year universities easier. Students enrolled to these programs at their selected community college and declare an intention to attend WSU once they have finished their prerequisite classes for their major.
“When students enroll in these programs, they are saying that they are going to go from that college to WSU, and the program says that WSU will accept them once they come,” Brun said. “The student still has to meet the admission requirements, but we will waive the application fee. Once you have entered into this program you will receive advising from that community college and WSU. This way they’re getting advising to help them take the right classes.”
Also, students that have performed poorly at WSU early in their education and are put on academic probation can enroll in one of the community colleges with partnership programs. Once they have shown improvement over time and reach a minimum GPA of 2.25, they can return to WSU.
These programs are similar to articulation agreements, which simply state that certain courses in the curriculum of a given college are equivalent to courses at WSU, but do not offer academic advising from WSU.
In addition, these partnership agreements allow enrolled students to take advantage of what both institutions have to offer.
“These students can use resources at both universities,” Brun said. “SSCC students can come here and have access to our disability services, counselling services, our Career Center, non-ticketed athletic and cultural events, they can be part of student life organizations here. Basically, they are a Southern State and WSU student at the same time.”
There is also a $1,000 scholarship called the Next Step Scholarship available to students with a 3.0 GPA who are transferring out of a partnership program.
More information on these programs can be found online at http://www.wright.edu/transfer/community-college-partnerships.
