Portland State connects to community colleges

By Corin Salnave

The Portland Area Higher Education Consortium
Portland State University, along with Mt. Hood, Portland, Clackamas and Chemeketa community colleges, are working together to implement the Portland Area Higher Education Consortium for fall 2007.

The program will integrate students’ admissions, enrollments, academic planning and support services between the five schools with no disruption to students who want to be a part of the consortium and then transfer to a four-year university.

The presidents of the five schools signed an agreement in March regarding the start of the project.

There is already dual enrollment between students who want to attend MHCC while being enrolled at Portland State University.

Because of the consortium, a student can acquire a four-year degree by attending only community college if they choose. Students can attend classes online and/or at the school(s) of their choice.

Guy Sievert, whose office is located at PSU, filled the new position of coordinator of the Portland Area Higher Education Consortium. According to him, one of the main objectives of the consortium is to offer programs at a different location rather than dropping them completely because of poor enrollment. “We don’t need two half programs,” Sievert said. And the five schools will not be competing with each other.
The consortium plans to implement two-year degrees into the program, therefore eliminating the necessity of requiring residency at a school to graduate from it.
“We want to facilitate for both [two and four-year students],” Sievert said. The hope it that at some point, students who plan on graduating with a two-year degree or certificate will also be able to take advantage of the consortium.

Beth Pitonzo, executive dean of instruction at MHCC, said, “Students are already taking classes at the different schools. The consortium is meant to make that process easier.”
Students who meet both PSU and community college requirements will have access to all five institutions in the consortium.

Students who cannot meet PSU acceptance requirements will have full access to the four community colleges with the ability to eventually gain access to all five schools once they can meet the full requirements. Additionally, students in the consortium will be given an ID card that will be recognized at each of the schools.

The Portland Area Higher Education Consortium will use a website called Course Applicability System (CAS), meant to help students put together a school schedule that best meets their needs.

Similar to the Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) available on MHCC’s online services, CAS will enable students to find out where courses will be available and at what times they are being held. Courses can also be searched by location or time and it will allow students to locate offerings of all five schools at one place on the web.

Costs
Students in the consortiu, will see a few changes in the cost of tuition, both in savings and expenses.

Beth Pitonzo, executive dean of instruction at MHCC, said the cost per credit hour should not change at MHCC. Likewise, the cost of credits at the other five schools will most likely not change, but that has not been determined.

Guy Sievert, coordinator of the Portland Area Higher Education Consortium, said, “Savings come from the fact that the student will need fewer courses to complete a degree. Fewer courses mean fewer texts; it may mean fewer trips to campus, fewer course fees, depending on the courses needed.”

“Moving to four credits costs students less money.” Sievert said. Taking three four-credit classes instead of four three-credit hours will save money on textbooks as well because fewer will be needed for any given quarter.

MHCC is moving toward implementing a change to four-credit classes as well, but according to Pitonzo, the change has been “few and far between.” The change in credits must be made to align classes with what the universities offer, primarily with humanities and social science courses. Pitonzo said the change “will happen” but discussions should run into the next year.

According to Sievert, the amount of course credits required for an associate’s degree in general education has decreased. For some others, the number of credits may increase slightly. “It may not be that everything is in place [for fall 2007]” said Patricia Martin, associate vice president of student development and services at MHCC.

The cost per credit hour is something that is yet to be determined. Martin said, “That’s an issue that has to be discussed. [The consortium] might be done in stages.”
“It may not be that is in place [in 2007] but everyone will be able to apply [to the consortium],” Martin said. She said the issues with the consortium being implemented mostly involve “computer issues.”

Students will have access to each school’s gym, library and everything else the five schools have to offer, and that will most likely require a small fee for students. Other costs related to the program will include the cost for someone to run the website.

Sievert also said the schools are looking at expanding student housing, possibly allowing consortium students the option of living on-campus at PSU.

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