More community colleges offering 4-year degrees

Want a four-year degree but can't move to the nearest college town or afford the cost of tuition?

That problem is quickly disappearing as Florida's once-lowly junior colleges transform into "state colleges."

Of the 28 community colleges across Florida, 14 offer full, four-year diplomas, and at least three others are seeking the state's approval to start. Several have shed the "community" in their names.

Manatee Community College is now the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota. It offers only one bachelor's program, in nursing, but has proposed adding five more, including degrees in early childhood education and health care administration.

St. Petersburg College, formerly St. Petersburg Junior College, offers 22 bachelor's degrees in areas ranging from orthotics and prosthetics to business administration.

The colleges offer diplomas as respectable as any from a state university, at about 60 percent of the price, college officials say.

Resisting the trend, Hillsborough Community College officials say they plan to stick exclusively with their two-year mission and leave the bachelor's degrees to the University of South Florida.

But as more colleges make the switch, university officials are getting nervous about the competition. They warn about duplication, saying it will devalue diplomas from both the colleges and the universities, all of which face increasing budget cuts.

USF Sarasota-Manatee is questioning the expansion plans of the junior college in its backyard.

The university Board of Governors chancellor, Frank Brogan, has called for more statewide coordination between his board and the Department of Education officials who approve or disapprove the college requests.

"What we're trying to do now that the horse is out of the barn is see if we can organize what we have and make better decisions going forward," he told The News Service of Florida last month, soon after he was named to the post.

But state college officials say they're trying to open their doors to more students. They worry that efforts to "organize" the growth of the new college programs could end up denying degrees to people who can't afford one of the 11 state universities, several of which have substantially increased tuition in the past two years.

"Reducing opportunities for students to receive a postsecondary education is inconsistent with the overarching position of the Council of 100,'' St. Petersburg College President Carl Kuttler wrote to the state Board of Education and the Board of Governors earlier this month.

He was referring to discussions at the Florida Council of 100, an influential group of business leaders, about a possible moratorium on college bachelor's programs.

Eight years ago, St. Petersburg College was the first community college to offer bachelor's degrees. That same year, the state Legislature approved a bill allowing any community college to offer a bachelor's degree, provided the college got the approval of the state education board.

The law required the colleges to show that their proposed four-year programs would provide graduates to fill critically needed jobs in their communities.

"Our role is limited, employment-related," said Will Holcombe, chancellor of the Florida College System, which represents the state's 28 colleges and community colleges. "This really does narrow down what our colleges should be doing."

For years, there's been a critical need for more teachers and nurses across the state, he said. The Florida Department of Education reported in 2005 that the state was 46th of the 50 states in the number of bachelor's degrees it awarded.

The demand for new teachers "was far outpacing the ability of Florida's state and private universities and colleges to keep up with the need," the report said. Also, there were so few open slots for nursing students, thousands were turned away from these programs every year, while the demand for health care workers rose.

Colleges are trying to fill the gap, Holcombe said. Sixty of the 90 degrees they offer are in health care or education.

Yet, a third of the programs are outside the critical areas. Miami-Dade College, for example, offers degrees in film production. St. Petersburg College offers bachelor's in management leadership and business administration, even though USF has a large business school.

One of the key features of colleges offering bachelor's degree programs is that universities get to weigh in on the plans of nearby colleges. USF in Tampa has acquiesced to St. Petersburg College's plans.

Not so for USF in Sarasota and Manatee, though. It protested the plans of the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota to offer a nursing program, then backed off after reviewing its proposal.

But USF is again raising questions about the college's plans to offer six more bachelor's programs -- in energy technology, health administration, public safety administration, technology management, early childhood education and exceptional student education.

USF doesn't want to stop the college, said USF Sarasota-Manatee spokeswoman Chris Manring. "But we see the potential for duplication. We're concerned about that."

The problem is, at this phase of the state approval process, the college isn't required to detail the classes it would offer in these programs, so USF can't know what kind of duplication the programs would create.

"We'd like to see more planning and more coordination between the state universities and the colleges" Manring said.

Holcombe chafes at those suggestions. The colleges are required to meet quality standards, he said. They use the same accrediting agency as the universities. They have the same program standards and admissions criteria for students seeking bachelor's degrees.

While guarding against duplication, the colleges should be allowed to respond quickly to meet local employment demands, Holcombe said.

"We have to be careful not to put barriers in the way of a quick response to employers," he said. "We do need to have a plan to work together, but I really caution against us getting too bureaucratized."

So far, only 1 percent of all the students in the state college system are working on four-year degrees.

Holcombe expects that number to grow, but never high enough to threaten the university enrollment. The universities will always be the first choice for student seeking a liberal arts education.

"We're all about jobs, employment," he said.

In the years to come, Holcombe said he'd be surprised if more than 10 percent of Florida's college students were enrolled in bachelor's degree programs.

Already, though, more than 10 percent of the students at St. Petersburg College are in a four-year program, and Kuttler, the college president, doesn't see the growth slowing down.

"I don't think it can be stopped."