California school to offer IU degree

When T.K. Walters walks across the stage and accepts his IU diploma, he will fulfill a lifelong promise to his mother that he would someday receive his bachelor's degree. What his mother might not have expected, however, is that her son would never have to set foot on the campus from which he would graduate. \nWalters is the first student to sign up for a new program between IU and Santa Barbara City College, a community college in California. The program allows students to take 90 credit hours at Santa Barbara and finish their degree through online and correspondence coursework via IU's online distance studies program. Students don't even need to set foot in the Midwest to earn their IU diplomas, though all are welcome to come to Bloomington for graduation ceremonies to personally accept them.\nThe program caters to nontraditional students like Walters, said Pablo Buckelew, the dean of the Educational Programs Support Office at Santa Barbara City College. Most of the people interested in the program are working adults who cannot afford to go to a four-year university full time. \n"There are people who thought they'd never be able to get a bachelor's degree because there is no opportunity to do so in Santa Barbara," Buckelew said. "For them, this is life-changing." \nFor students like Walters, the program is ideal, Buckelew said.\nThough Walters attended California State Northridge until his senior year in 1974 -- when a job opportunity arose -- he decided to put his education on hold. Marriage and children quickly followed, and it was not until his children grew up that he was able to begin taking classes again.\n"I always intended to go back and finish eventually," Walters said. "But by the time my children had grown up enough that I had time, my major -- commercial recreation -- no longer existed and I had to essentially start over."\nA long-time football coach at Santa Barbara City College, Walters had been taking classes there sporadically for the past 11 years. Recently, Walters considered taking time off from coaching to attend University of California Santa Barbara but found there were not many night classes offered. When a colleague told him about the possibility of earning an IU degree, he knew it would be perfect. \nHowever, not everyone agrees that the program is in the best interests of IU. Mary Forsell, who grew up in Indiana and attended Indiana State University, said the program lessens the value of an IU degree.\n"The program sounds unbelievably fantastic for people at (Santa Barbara) City College, but what are IU students getting out of it?" Forsell said. "It makes it look like a cheap diploma."\nA Santa Barbara resident for almost 30 years, Forsell questions whether the local community college is of the same caliber as IU. \n"I just do not see how three years (at Santa Barbara City College) plus a year of online courses could possibly be comparable to a full four years at IU," Forsell said. \nBut the program is not an easy way to earn a degree, cautioned Lisa Denlinger, the director of marketing and communications in the University-wide School of Continuing Studies. In some ways it can be more difficult because distance education students take the same classes as their traditional undergraduate counterparts, but must be self-motivated and self-disciplined about getting the work done, she said. \nThough Santa Barbara City College has not yet started advertising the program, response generated just by word-of-mouth has been incredible, Buckelew said. He expects between 100 and 200 people to apply for the fall 2006 semester. \nCurrently, there are six other community colleges in California that will partner with IU to allow students to earn their degrees, Denlinger said. Ultimately, Denlinger expects there to be about 40 California schools in the program, citing the strength of the state's community college network as a reason. \nIU is also planning to offer the program to schools in other states, with eight Illinois schools signed on for the program. It will not be offered in Indiana, however, because students here can earn their degrees on campus, Denlinger said.\n"I can't emphasize enough that this is a win-win-win situation," Denlinger said. "Out-of-state students are able to earn their bachelor's degrees, and more students take IU courses and earn IU degrees." \nAll California community colleges offer open admissions to anyone who either has a high school diploma or is over the age of 18, Buckelew said. To apply to the IU distance studies program, students must have earned their associate's degrees and have a minimum 2.0 grade point \naverage. Students involved in the distance education program receive the same diploma as students who study on campus, Denlinger said. Students can earn a Bachelor of General Studies, with an emphasis in either arts and humanities, mathematical and natural sciences or social and behavioral sciences.\nWalters will start taking a few IU courses online this summer and with any luck expects to graduate by spring of 2008, if not sooner, he said. \n"It will be a joyous moment, fulfilling a commitment I made to my mother, even though she isn't around any more," Walters said. "When you are young, you take for granted that earning your degree is just something that you'll do. To be achieving it now, it is momentous"