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Associate degree in 18 months? Petro pushes plan
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"IT WORKS FOR WORKING STUDENTS. THEY COULD GO TO SCHOOL, FROM 8 A.M. TO NOON, FIVE DAYS A WEEK, AND THEN THEY’RE FREE TO GO TO WORK.” -- Jim Petro, Ohio chancellor
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Ohio Chancellor Jim Petro is proposing block scheduling that would allow community college students to earn an associate degree in 18 months.
Petro said the concept isn’t new. Tennessee offers the option and has seen success with it.
“It works for working students,” Petro said. “They could go to school, from 8 a.m. to noon, five days a week, and then they’re free to go to work.”
That would allow them to earn an associate degree in 18 months. Those students then may be more likely to transfer those credits to a four-year college or university and pursue a bachelor’s degree, he said.
It’s part of the chancellor’s plans to bolster the number of students earning degrees.
Petro reasons that students sometimes drop out of college because of scheduling difficulties.
“Once everything is structured in, there are no surprises,” the chancellor said.
Laura Meeks, president of Eastern Gateway Community College, which offers classes in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties in addition to its main campus in Steubenville, said she agrees with Petro’s goal of increasing the number of Ohioans earning associate and bachelor’s degrees.
She believes block scheduling would work best for students entering college right out of high school or for unemployed students. It may be more difficult for a working student to ensure his or her work and school schedules don’t conflict, Meeks said.
The EGCC president said the school would aim to offer the block scheduling next spring. That will involve posting schedules in advance so that students can plot out the classes they need to secure their degrees in 18 months.
“At a community college, the average student takes three years to earn an associate’s degree,” Meek said. “It’s supposed to take two years.”
The average EGCC student is 28 and working, so they fit in classes as they can around their work schedules, she said.
EGCC already does a good job, Meeks said, of informing students of the classes required to take for a particular field and in what order.
The college would have to do that for the 18 months for the block scheduling, she said.
“That’s an achievable goal for us,” Meeks said.