A new program scheduled to begin in the fall semester and offered through CSUN and the Roland Tseng College of Extended Learning, will allow students who transfer, to attend their CSUN classes and attain their CSUN degrees while on campus at GCC.
“We’re trying to make it easier, especially for working adults, but really anybody, to complete their degrees… closer to home,” said Kristin Bruno, Glendale College’s dean of instructional services.
The first set of courses offered in this program will allow students to achieve a bachelor’s in business administration, with an emphasis in management. However, “in the spring [of 2006] we’re going to have a master’s of public administration [program] starting,” said Bruno.
If the programs are successful a more diverse number of degree offerings including baccalaureates in liberal studies and sociology will become available. “A student could conceivably come to GCC, get their associate degree, stay right here and get their bachelor’s degree, and even get their master’s,” Bruno said.
The program will utilize a cohort format of instruction, meaning that between 20 and 40 students will start the program together and continue to take classes in a predetermined curriculum as a single group from start to finish. “The focus is on student success,” said Simin Bahmanyar, program development director for the Roland Tseng College of Extended Learning. “The cohort model often increases retention rates and speeds time to successful degree completion.”
The cost of tuition and fees, after transfer, for a single student who completes the new program at GCC, is estimated at $24,288. This cost is divided between seven, nine-unit semesters, which run every fall spring and summer semester from fall 2005 to fall 2007. The average cost of tuition and fees, per semester in the program will be $3,469. The cost of tuition and fees for undergraduate students attending classes on campus at CSUN this semester was $1,389, as listed at http://www-admn.csun.edu. At this price, the cost for a student after transferring to the CSUN campus and completing their bachelor’s in a curriculum similar to that of the program at GCC would be $9,723.
Students who want to participate in the cohort must still complete their lower division general education coursework and apply to CSU as transfer students, but must also apply to the CSUN bachelor of science in business administration with an emphasis in management program.
Similar degree-completion programs offered by CSUN and other universities, at College of the Canyons (COC) in Santa Clarita, have had a great deal of success. ‘The Bottom Line,’ a periodical published by the Santa Clarita Community College District’s public information office, said in its fall/winter 2004 issue that “plans are under way to build a permanent University Center on the campus” to house classes for those programs at COC.
One of the differences between the program scheduled at GCC and similar courses of instruction at other colleges, is that Glendale College will not be charging rent for classrooms used, and instead will charge only the student services fee. “We are basically treating the students as though they are regular GCC students,” said Bruno.
Because the initial program will consist of only about 30 students using one classroom, Nidal Kobaissi, president of the Glendale College chapter of the California School Employees Association (CSEA) said there would probably be little impact on school employees such as maintenance workers, custodians, and the GCC campus police. However, Kobaissi said if the program expanded it might create a problem with parking.
Aside from benefiting students by providing manageable degree programs close to home, Bruno said the program might also benefit GCC in general. “We hope to attract more students at the lower division level because they see they can… stay here and continue on [with their education].”