The South Plains College Board of Regents held their monthly meeting Thursday on the Levelland campus with the group being updated about transfer relations with other institutions.
Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Ryan Gibbs spoke to the board about the college’s established transfer institutions.
Currently, SPC has six preferred transfer partners which are universities that the college has articulation agreements with for four year plans that are laid out specifically for SPC students.
The college is in the process of signing an agreement with Sam Houston State University which was sought after due to their criminal justice program. With the signing of the agreement, SPC students can continue their education in an efficient manner at Sam Houston State if they are pursuing that field.
“That is something new on the horizon and something that we are really proud of,” said Dr. Gibbs. “Some of the other institutions include Wayland Baptist, we have 27 specific transfer agreements with them. Lubbock Christian, we have 32 transfer agreements with them, West Texas A&M, we have 44 transfer agreements with them and then one that might surprise you is Eastern New Mexico University.”
SPC currently has 26 specific transfer agreements where students can attend Eastern New Mexico for in-state tuition cost from South Plains. Dr. Gibbs added that the college does see some students we do have students who transfer from time to time.
Texas Tech University is the largest transfer partner and has been for many years, according to Dr. Gibbs. There are 65 transfer agreements with Texas Tech. That number has stayed relatively flat over the last several years.
“We were below 60 agreements for many years, but as we have rekindled our relationship with Texas Tech in terms of the Texan to Red Raider Agreement the number has gone up,” explained Dr. Gibbs. “Right now, we are in the process of redoing our Texan to Red Raider Agreement, but we are mostly in the process of strengthening it.”
With strengthening the agreement between the institutions, one method that will be implemented is “transfer guides” that will allow SPC students to fill out and show transfer advisors to stay on an efficient course pathway.The transfer guide will have the courses that are listed for SPC students to take in the lower division which would be freshman and sophomore courses.
Dr. Gibbs explained that the good news is that Texas Tech is not going to be surprised when SPC students show up and hand the advisors the filled out guide. He also added that the transfer guides are also considered official publications for Texas Tech.
If a transfer advisor or department advisor is not familiar with the student and suggests various courses, the student with the transfer guide can show that advisor what courses they need and what they want to take.
“We do not want students taking extra courses,” said Dr. Gibbs. “We do not want them taking courses here that they don’t need.”
It was highlighted that changing majors does not help the process as there are only a hand full of classes that are required for all majors. Dr. Gibbs did also mention that the average student changes their major five times.
“Changing majors will cause you to have courses that you do not need which is one of the reasons we work really hard to get students to identify quickly and to stick with their decision,” explained Dr. Gibbs. “Let’s get that figured out so you take the right courses. Only about four to six courses go across all bachelors in the state of Texas.”
Dr. Gibbs said it’s very important that students identify early, they get a road map and they stick to that road map so that they do not lose money by taking classes that they don’t need.
“I want to give a lot of credit to Dean Alan Worley and to Lisa Sharp who has been our pathways coordinator for a few years now,” said Dr. Gibbs. “Also our faculty are directly working with the faculty at these institutions to make sure we’re teaching the right classes, our students are taking the right classes and that the curriculum aligns.”
Dr. Gibbs highlighted SPC’s Lauren Gregory as an example as she has worked closely with Texas Tech and the Rawls College to make sure that the courses SPC is teaching are preparing the students for when they get to Texas Tech or wherever they may go.
“We are very pleased and very proud of how our students do when they transfer,” said Dr. Gibbs. “Our students do as well or better than native students when they go on to bigger institutions. We know that for sure because we have data that shows us that. We plan on continuing that and this is a major step in doing that.”
Moving forward in his update, Dr. Gibbs explained that the college is working on a “Co-Enrollment Model” where a student can be enrolled in two higher education incitations at the same time and it not be a secret. He explained that students do this from time to time, but SPC is not aware of specific students because the student does not need permission to do so.
It was detailed that the Co-Enrollment Model is on paper and on purpose with the goal to get SPC students enrolled in courses that they do not offer or if the course is very unique or specific to a particular program.
An example provided to the board was a Texas Tech student has to take an engineering ethics course. If student has the desire to graduate with an engineering degree, they must have taken the ethics course. For SPC, it is not required, therefore it is not taught.
The course is considered a freshman level course at Texas Tech and a transfer student with 60-plus hours accumulated already will be missing that course. However, the purpose of the proposed model would potentially allow a SPC student to dual enroll at Texas Tech with their permission and take that course without being a full-time student.
“We are working towards that end, but we are not ready to announce that that is happening yet,” added Dr. Gibbs. “Our faculty and Dean Worley are working with Texas Tech to identify these unique courses in these programs to give our students the opportunity to roll early at Texas Tech.”
An additional positive from the model that Dr. Gibbs pointed out was it gives the student an opportunity to take these courses and get a really good understanding of what they’re getting themselves into when they transfer.
Regent Joe Tubb showed his appreciation to Dr. Gibbs and the SPC faculty for working on the agreement as he acknowledged that building this type of relationship takes a lot of effort.
“When you are working with different colleges, the history of some of these schools changing what they will accept has sometimes changed with the weather changes,” said Tubb. “I have seen it too many times, but the work put into this is great.”