Sinclair Community College could be one of the community colleges in Ohio allowed to offer bachelor’s degrees.
This news came on Friday, Jan. 30 when Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents John Carey spoke at the 8th Annual Sinclair Strategic Outlook Symposium, which was held in Building 12.
Twenty other states already offer four-year degrees at community colleges, including California and neighboring Indiana. The proposal is all a part of Gov. Kasich’s new budget proposal and higher education initiative.
“One of the most important [issues] for Ohioans is helping them get a job,”Taylor said.
If state lawmakers approve this proposal, it would allow community colleges to offer degrees that would help fill local technical jobs. Community colleges would be required to work with four-year universities within a 30-mile radius to develop programs to be offered as four-year degrees.
“If we want to be successful with higher education in Ohio, we really need to work together,” Carey said.
“If a university in the area is unable to offer the degree, Ohio’s community colleges should and will be able to step up and fill that workplace need for local employers,” Taylor said.
The Inter-University Council and the president and CEO of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, Jack Hershey, is on board with the proposal.
“The provisions that would allow community colleges to, in limited circumstances, step in and award bachelor’s degrees in applied fields would fulfill workforce needs identified by local employers in cases where public universities do not have the resources or ability to do so,” said Hershey.
Clark State University President Jo Alice Blondin said in a Springfield News-Sun report that health care management, cybersecurity, applied engineering, applied agriculture and manufacturing were among the programs that may become four-year degree programs at Clark State.
The types of programs that could be offered at Sinclair are yet to be determined.
“This is a collaborative process between community colleges and four-year universities,” said Murka. “It is much too early to be announcing what degree programs will be offered as no one has had an opportunity to fully engage in those conversations since last Friday’s announcement.
“By July of this year, we will have completed our due diligence and will have more to say on the matter.”
Sinclair conducted a survey of 700 students where 73 percent thought that this proposal was a great idea.
“It is possible that more surveying and studying would be done as we move forward,” said Murka.
Sinclair President Steve Johnson told the Dayton Business Journal that the university is researching the possibilities of the new program.
“Sinclair is already moving to explore the feasibility of offering bachelor’s degrees and will study this issue very carefully and prudently,” said Johnson.
“We have spoken to senior leaders with our university partners and will be looking to find solutions that make sense and expand opportunities for students and the great institutions of higher education in our community.”