Building Bridges From The Community College To A University Program A Model For A Collabrative Approach

Salt Lake Community College’s Engineering Department and the fouryear institutions of higher education in the state of Utah are involved in a unique educational partnership. Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) students transfer to the University of Utah (U of U), Utah State University, Weber State University and Brigham Young University – all of which provide ABET accredited engineering and/or engineering technology programs. SLCC’s Engineering Department offers associate degrees in Chemical, Civil, Computer-Engineering, Electrical, Manufacturing, Materials Science, Metallurgical, and Mechanical Engineering. The majority of the SLCC transfer students move from SLCC to the U of U, College of Engineering. The U of U, College of Engineering includes seven departments (Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and School of Computing) and three programs (Computing Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Nuclear Engineering), over 2,200 undergraduate students and over 700 graduate students. The College accounts for approximately10% of the student population at the U of U. SLCC, one of the largest metropolitan community colleges in the country, serves over 60,000 credit and non-credit students. The College’s Engineering Department prepares over 300 students for transfer to the U of U. During the last twenty years the two Institutions have developed a well-articulated program allowing engineering students from SLCC’s various engineering programs to seamlessly transfer into the U of U’s engineering departments. In addition, this articulation allows U of U’s students to take advantage of summer and evening offerings at SLCC. The relationship between the two Colleges has been successful because of strong faculty ties, aggressive institutional support, and mutual respect. Approximately 40% of the first time students at the U of U, College of Engineering, are transfer students, with the majority of those coming from SLCC. This presentation will examine: the unique challenges of preparing community college students for seamless transitions into the U of U and for academic success P ge 974.1 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education in the engineering programs at the U of U; the role of the Community College and the role of the University in facilitating the transition from the two year environment to a research University; the collaborative efforts of the faculty and staff for the formulation of a successful 2+2 articulated program; and the different environmental factors which exist at the two institutions and how they affect students. This process could be used as a model for national and international 2+2 engineering programs. Successes and challenges are evaluated, and future areas of collaboration are described.