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www.ccweek.com March 22, 2010 15
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Despite Tenn. Law, Transferring
College Credits Remains Difficult
CH ATTANOOGA,
Tenn. (AP) — A higher
education overhaul
that passed overwhelmingly
last month promised to make it
easier for students to transfer
from two-year colleges to
four-year universities. But
educators are finding that it’s
difficult to move students from
one school to the other without
losing some credits, according
to the Chattanooga Times Free
Press.
Educators are now in the
process of finding a way to
comply with a new law that
allows students with two-year
associate degrees to transfer to
universities as junior. They’re
focused on hammering out a
core set of pre-major requirements
that can transfer easily.
But many tenured professors
at universities still have
the final say about whether a
credit from a community college
will be accepted into the
new school.
One of those professors is
Matt Greenwell, head of the art
department at University of
Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Greenwell says that in the
past he’s resisted pressure to
admit community college students
into UTC’s art program
unless they retake some classes,
and that won’t change
despite the new law.
“Our concern is not about
quality. It’s about the nature of
the content and how it feeds
into our level of coursework,”
Greenwell told the Chattanooga
paper.
The professor insisted that
he was in no way being elitist
toward community college students.
Community college leaders
say Greenwell’s position is
fairly common among university
professors, who still get to
decide what counts as credit
and what doesn’t — despite
years-old transfer agreements
signed between two-year and
four-year colleges.
The practice, some say,
comes at a price.
“This has cost the taxpayers
of the state of Tennessee an
enormous amount of money,”
said Chattanooga State Community
College President Jim
Catanzaro. “It has delayed and
impeded graduation, and it
doesn’t make sense.”
The Tennessee Higher Education
Commission found that
transfer students must take an
additional 20 hours of credit
work to graduate from almost
all universities.
State lawmakers, in a special
session last month, tried to
treat the problem by setting a
statewide 41-hour general education
core of pre-major
requirements.
Educators, in an effort to
comply with the new law, have
come to a consensus on a block
of general education courses
that will easily transfer.
But they’re still trying to
find agreement on what courses
should be required for individual
areas of study.
Comments: editor@ccweek.com
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