In addition to offering their institutional knowledge, the community colleges will provide a transfer pipeline to CSU, and perhaps even dual admission. Cincinnati and Ohio State are expected to give guaranteed admissions to their graduate programs to high-achieving CSU graduates, Walters says.
“All of them are interested in kind of a continuing relationship where they continue to work with Central State until it gets to scale,” he adds.
The task force will present the final draft of “Speed to Scale” to the board on January 17 for approval. The details of the plan, in terms of physical infrastructure, personnel and faculty, have yet to be fully worked out.
One of the state’s goals is to increase the proportion of people in the state with baccalaureate training, says Dr. Gary Schumacher, a retired Ohio University professor who is heading up the task force. Thus, the state is seeking to provide more access to college for low-income high school students, a population CSU has historically served.
The expansion of CSU will also give Black high school students another higher education option.
“Most kids have a lot of options, and we think young African-Americans need to have a range of options too,” Walters says.
Through this plan, components of which were inspired by a similar North Carolina plan, CSU should receive some enrollment stability and growth.
“The ultimate goal is to get Central State to a size where it can operate with the usually efficiency of a public university and be able to effectively serve a wide-range constituency,” Walters says. “We think, based on what we’ve observed in North Carolina with their focused growth program, that this is a realistic, achievable objective.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
