In the atrium at Columbus State Community College's Delaware campus, Ohio Wesleyan University's President Matt vandenBerg recalled a meeting he had early on in his tenure with Columbus State President David Harrison.
The OWU president was blunt with his ask: "How do we become your most powerful liberal arts partner?"
Harrison said that he and vandenBerg had a "shared vision of what was possible," and their announcement Thursday morning was the fruit of that labor.
Columbus State and Ohio Wesleyan announced three new partnerships — including a first-of-its-kind partnership — which vandenBerg and Harrison say is one of the nation's most expansive collaborations between a national liberal arts university and a community college.
"To do something like this between two different higher education institutions is big," Harrison said.
The partnerships are designed to expand access to bachelor's programs, reduce costs for students and address workforce issues. They include:
- A tuition match program will allow up to 25 qualified Columbus State graduates to enroll at Ohio Wesleyan annually to complete their bachelor’s degree while paying the Ohio in-state or international student tuition rate they paid during their final semester at Columbus State.
- An expansion ofColumbus State's Preferred Pathwayprogram, which will allow more qualified associate's degree graduates to enroll at Ohio Wesleyan and earn their four-year bachelor’s degrees without credit-transfer concerns.
- TheTeach Nowprogram, OWU’s accelerated teacher licensure pathway, will offer high school students who have earned an associate of arts or associate of science degree at Columbus State with a new pathway to becoming a licensed K-12teacher.
All three programs will begin this fall.
What will these partnerships include?
The Tuition Match program is the first of its kind available to Columbus Stategraduates and will begin enrolling students this fall. It is open to any Columbus State student who has earned an associate degree, earned a grade point average of at least 3.5 and is in good academic standing with no disciplinary violations.
Currently, an Ohio resident attending Columbus State will pay $5,338 a year to attend. That same student would pay $53,264 to attend Ohio Wesleyan next school year.
Students who are accepted to the Tuition Match program will pay one-tenth of the cost to attend OWU for four semesters, vandenBerg said, with the option to apply for a fifth year if needed.
Ohio Wesleyan is one of nine regional universities that have a Preferred Pathway program with Columbus State. OWU will now have 20majors that are part of the Columbus State pathway through this expansion.
Those programs include: accounting, biology, business administration management, business administration marketing, communication, data analytics, economics, elementary education, English creative writing, English literature, finance, health and human kinetics–nutrition, inclusive elementary education, integrated science for teachers, management economics, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, special education and zoology.
The Teach Now program is part of an effort to address teacher shortages in the Greater Columbus area.
Qualified high school students will be able to combine College Credit Plus/Dual Enrollment classes completed at Columbus State with Teach Now enrollment in OWU’s accredited education program. The program will make it possible for them to graduate from Ohio Wesleyan with their bachelor’s degrees andOhio teaching licenses within two years.
The Teach Now program will focus on elementary school and special education teachers to start with a plan to expand soon.
Harrison said the new collaborations with Ohio Wesleyan will create more opportunities for the college’s graduates — at a lower cost.
"Our goal at Columbus State is to try to eliminate uncertainty," he said. "Debt is a choice... but if students know their possibilities, it gives them a choice. And this is a really good choice."
It's a proposition that has 21-year-old David Geier interested.
Geier, a Columbus State student studying computer science, said he planned to enroll at Ohio State after he graduates with his associate's degree this fall. Now, he might consider Ohio Wesleyan.
"It sounds like a really good deal," he said. "I wouldn't have considered OWU otherwise because of the price tag."
Geier said he knows the Tuition Match program will be competitive given the number of spots available, but he said he's happy to know it's there.
"It definitely gives us another option," he said. "It doesn't always feel like there's a lot of options for us."
These partnerships are a "win-win-win," vandenBerg said — a win for students, the region and higher education.
Sheridan Hendrix is a higher education reporter for The Columbus Dispatch. Sign up for Extra Credit, her education newsletter,here.
shendrix@dispatch.com
@sheridan120
