A Four-Year Solution: Time-Starved Students at Two-Year Schools Jump at the Chance to Stay Put While Earning University Degrees.

By Paul Tosto, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Sep. 15–Jaime Lind dreaded leaving Anoka-Ramsey Community College. But if she wanted her bachelor’s degree, it seemed she’d have to go.

Living in Princeton with a 2-year-old son, juggling work and life, her options didn’t look great. Anoka-Ramsey doesn’t offer four-year diplomas. A grinding commute to St. Cloud State University — about 60 miles round trip — loomed in her future.

Lind told advisers she planned to transfer after finishing her associate degree. Then they told her she didn’t have to leave.

“They said you could finish it here,” Lind said of her bachelor’s. “I was like, ‘No way.’ “

Lind discovered a small but growing opportunity in Minnesota’s state college system: regional universities delivering four-year degrees on two-year campuses. System leaders say such course offerings statewide have jumped from one in 2001 to 106 this year.

For nontraditional students like Lind, the benefits are obvious. She’ll finish her associate degree this term 15 minutes from home on the school’s Cambridge campus, where she also works. She’ll stay on campus this spring, taking classes through Minnesota State University (Moorhead). In two years, she’ll earn a bachelor’s degree from Moorhead in special education without ever driving north.

Next fall she’ll be able to take classes on nights and Saturdays, some online, some taught face-to-face by a university professor. “You have flexibility,” said Lind, a single mom and first-generation college student. “Life is more manageable.”

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system officials say they don’t know how many students are taking advantage of these kinds of arrangements, but there’s little doubt demand is rising. Most two-year campuses now offer at least one four-year option.

Moorhead and North Hennepin Community College recently signed a deal that will let students earn a bachelor’s in biology from Moorhead while taking classes at North Hennepin in Brooklyn Park. Century College, like Anoka-Ramsey, offers a special education option from Moorhead. Anoka-Ramsey also has ties to St. Cloud State’s teacher training programs.

The chance to get a four-year degree on a two-year campus is vital in the regions Anoka-Ramsey serves, school President Patrick Johns said.

“There are less people with bachelor degrees who live in these areas than in other areas of the state,” he said. “There is very limited access to bachelor degree programs nearby. … It’s hard for people with jobs and families to drive to St. Cloud, Minneapolis or St. Paul to attend college.”

The arrangements help the two-year schools, giving students more reasons to come. The universities can tap a ready pool of students who already have met general studies requirements. The programs are often targeted to a need — special education teachers, for instance. And the students don’t have to move.

“There’s a real appeal to students, knowing they can start a program and complete a baccalaureate,” said Linda Baer, vice chancellor for MnSCU, which oversees the state’s 25 two-year colleges and seven state universities.

Some of the students pursuing the special education credential already have advanced degrees but are taking the classes to get their licenses, says Britt Ferguson, a professor at Moorhead who is helping set up the special education coursework at Anoka-Ramsey and Century.

Lind hopes eventually to work with emotionally and behaviorally troubled students. She entered Anoka-Ramsey thinking of a nursing career but realized, she said, “I really didn’t love blood and needles. … I wanted to work with kids.”

Getting a four-year degree at a two-year college has potential drawbacks.

Working out financial aid details, for instance, can be more complicated. Lind believed that if she took a full load of Anoka-Ramsey classes, plus additional Moorhead classes in the same term, financial aid wouldn’t cover the Moorhead classes. (Anoka-Ramsey says it’s possible to have financial aid cover two schools in the same term.)

Lind also is not sure how it will affect her job. She works on Anoka-Ramsey’s Cambridge campus as part of a federally funded work-study program that requires her to be enrolled on campus. In the spring, she’ll still be enrolled on campus but as a Moorhead student.

Still, she said, the benefits outweigh possible obstacles. Finishing her four-year degree on the two-year campus “accommodates families and people who would normally put education off,” she added.

Johns says Anoka-Ramsey plans to bring more options to students at two-year schools. It has proposed building a “convergence center” on its Coon Rapids campus to meld its nursing, science, technology, engineering and math courses with more upper-division, four-year programs.

The ultimate measure of success in these arrangements, says Ferguson, “is that we have graduates that go out into the community and fill the needs of the community.”

Paul Tosto covers higher education and can be reached at ptosto@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2119.

Learn More

For a list of two-year/four-year arrangements, go to www.mnscu.edu/students/admissions.html and click on “Bachelor’s and master’s programs on the 2-year college campuses.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

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