IU, Ivy Tech to sign agreement on transfer programs

Outgoing IU President Adam Herbert and outgoing Ivy Tech Community College President Gerald Lamkin will sign a Memorandum of Understanding on Thursday at Ivy Tech in Bloomington, supporting a variety of credit transferability agreements made between various Ivy Tech and IU campuses around the state. \nThe signing will mark the symbolic culmination of all the agreements, with only minor details left to tie up, said J.T. Forbes, IU assistant vice president and director for state relations.\n“The announcement ... speaks to probably the better part of two years’ worth of work,” Forbes said. He said students now “have a clear path” from Ivy Tech to IU. \nForbes added that, with all the necessary paperwork completed, the next major undertaking will be to create a Web site that can educate faculty and prospective students and their parents on each transferability program available. \nThe agreements, which include more than 100 approved courses and programs for more than 12 majors, make it easier for Ivy Tech students to earn IU degrees, according to the memorandum the two presidents will sign. IU Director of Media Relations Larry MacIntyre said the agreement, which he described as a “long process,” is nearing completion. \nThe entire undertaking is part of a state government mandate to create transferability programs between two- and four-year colleges in the state of Indiana. Forbes said IU and Ivy Tech were the first \npartners in the state to meet the required level of courses and majors offered. \nMacIntyre said both Herbert and Lamkin were committed to advancing these projects as far as they could before they left office. \n“This is basically ... a continuation and an expansion of work that’s been underway for quite awhile, but we’re finally getting very close to our goal,” MacIntyre said. “I think with both the Ivy Tech president and the IU president about to leave, they wanted to get as much of it done as possible before they left office, so we’re closing in on our goal.”\nMacIntyre said IU faculty “closely examined” Ivy Tech courses to see if the University found them acceptable for transfer. He said the courses were examined in terms of what they taught in comparison to what would be taught at comparable courses at IU. If the goals of each course matched well, they were approved. \nForbes credited “a lot of hard work” to faculty members who reviewed the courses as a driving force behind meeting state requirements. He also credited John Whikehart, chancellor of the Ivy Tech campus in Bloomington, for his work in completing these initiatives. \n“Ivy Tech and IU have worked diligently to do this,” Forbes said.\nMacIntyre said the many agreements represent IU’s commitment to providing inexpensive education in the state of Indiana. He said they will make it easier for students, especially in-state students, to complete four-year degrees. \n“One of our goals is to keep higher education affordable and accessible to Hoosier students,” MacIntyre said. “Clearly, this is a big step in that direction, because it now provides us a lot of new, inexpensive alternatives for completing what amounts to your first two years of your college education.”\nMacIntyre refuted the notion that these agreements in any way cheapen a degree obtained from IU, stressing that every transferable course was heavily evaluated before gaining approval.\n“We carefully reviewed every course that we have agreed will be transferable,” MacIntyre said. “We have looked closely at every single course that we will accept from Ivy Tech, and we are confident that what will be taught in those courses (compares).”\nMacIntyre said the University is proud of the agreements, and both outgoing presidents wanted to announce their success.\n“We’re now at a point where quite a bit of this work has been done, and the two presidents who are going out want to announce it and let the public know,” he said.