Charles Desrochers / The Recorder
The Connecticut State University System announced on April 22 that it would put forth plans to ease the transition into higher education.
The plan, according to the Hartford Courant, will focus on students who wish to transfer from community colleges and vocational schools by allowing them to be registered at their respective school and any of the four state university simultaneously.
“There has never been a difficulty to transfer from vocational schools or community colleges,” said Dr. Cathryn Addy, President of Tunxis Community College.
The agreement looks like it has the best of intentions but according to Dr. Addy, a seamless transition to the state universities has always been a main concern.
“The plan shows a lack of information on what’s being done here,” said Dr. Addy. “I’m not in favor of the alignment.”
According to Dr. Addy the plans intends to put the community colleges and the vocational schools under the same umbrella in reference to the state universities. She finds this concept to be disrespectful to the community colleges since it does not put them in the level of higher learning that they think they deserve.
Set aside the fact that transferring from vocational and community colleges is an easier process than transferring from anywhere else, Dr. Addy’s complaint brings up a good question.
This puts forth the question about where community colleges belong in standing. Should they be lumped in with the vocational schools or are they to be treated more like a university?
Most students from Manchester Community College and Tunxis Community College transfer to any of the four state schools. The credits are the same and in some cases the professors are the same.
General education courses at Tunxis in the summer are significantly more affordable than at CCSU. If a student could always take these courses while attending CCSU, then what would have stopped them from doing so prior to the plans announcement?
The more Dr. Addy spoke of it, the less it seemed like this plan was needed. When asked why she thought the plan was proposed she responded by saying there were individual and political reasons, but would not elaborate further.
This plan may mean that outside sources will be affecting how these schools are run. They’re trying to fix an unbroken system.
