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2+2 equals 4-year degree
By Michael Godfrey
mgodfre3@mscd.edu

This spring semester Metro will offer classes at Front Range Community College through the “2+2” program, which is designed to help FRCC students complete a four-year degree through Metro at FRCC’s Westminster campus.

The program allows FRCC students to earn their associate degree in any concentration the college offers, and to then transfer to Metro without stepping foot onto the Auraria, North or South campuses and complete a degree in three select courses of study.

“The students at Front Range expressed interest through the survey in three different majors,” said Judi Bonacquisti, associate vice president of Enrollment Services at Metro. “So this spring we will offer degrees in marketing, behavioral science and elementary education to the Westminster campus.”

Beginning in January, FRCC students will be offered 10 upper-level courses from Metro’s faculty, including Native American Politics and Sports Marketing, according to Bonacquisti.

“This program is a direct result of President Jordan’s vision,” said Dave Cisneros, a counselor from the Transfer Services Office, referring to a speech Metro’s president gave in September 2005. In the speech, Jordan asked for the college to become more “metropolitan” and offer bachelor’s programs at nearby community colleges in order to make education more convenient.

“There is no reason that place-bound students who receive an associate degree at a community college campus near their home or workplace should have to commute downtown for their bachelor’s degree. We have the capability to deliver high-quality programs in partnership with the faculty of the community colleges. Such an effort has the additional benefit of helping to reduce future facilities needs at the Auraria Campus while spreading enrollments among multiple partnered campuses,” Jordan said.

Many of the students who are interested in the program work full time, and this program allows them to take classes part time at a campus convenient to them, Cisneros said.

“The goal of the program is to bring Metro to the students of Front Range, without taking away the convenience that the Westminster campus offers them,” he said.

The program will bring different Metro courses to the Westminster campus, and plans are in place to bring all the activities and services Metro students receive and use to the FRCC campus.

“One goal is to offer all of Metro’s activities and services to Front Range … including a bookstore, financial aid services and other student benefits,” Cisneros said.

“Front Range is the biggest feeder of transfer students Metro receives, and they are very excited about the possibilities this program opens up to them,” Bonacquisti said. “Now other colleges from across the state are calling us up and wanting to start the program on their campus as well.”
Plans to expand the program to the Community College of Aurora are already in place, and Metro plans to offer courses to Aurora students in fall 2007.

“We will conduct a survey with the students of CCA to find out what majors they would be interested in,” she said. “And then we will get all the pieces in place to offer the college this program by next fall.”

Bonacquesti said if the program goes well, the school would want to expand to other metropolitan areas and possibly other locations around the state.