Middle Tennessee State University signed an agreement Tuesday (Oct. 22) to extend the “MTSU Promise” to Volunteer State Community College, the sixth such pathway established for students with associate degrees to move seamlessly to the four-year university.
MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee and Vol State President Jerry Faulkner signed the documents at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, where MTSU was holding a True Blue Tour event to recruit prospective students and also court high school counselors and community college staff.
MTSU is No. 1 in the state in transfer students and is the top institution using the reverse transfer process. Vol State is one of MTSU’s top transfer feeder schools.
Vol State, whose main campus is in Gallatin, Tennessee, plus three satellite campuses and an online e-Campus, is the sixth community college to join the MTSU Promise program, where the university pledges support to help students at partner schools complete their associate degree, then move forward in seeking a four-year degree.
McPhee signed an agreement earlier this year with Columbia State. He signed agreements last year with Motlow State, Cleveland State, Southwest Tennessee (Memphis) and Dyersburg State. MTSU recruiters are currently visiting colleges to recruit prospective transfer students.
“This is an opportunity to further develop and fortify our relationship with a great community college and partner,” McPhee said. “This agreement will assist Vol State students and ours, too. They can transfer and concentrate on their education by having all the hurdles out of the way.”
Faulkner said that in higher education “we currently talk a lot about pathways. But it must be more than talk. We must intentionally design and implement pathways that lead students to the achievement of their goals. This agreement with MTSU provides another, novel pathway for students to fulfil their dreams.”
“We are excited to partner with MTSU and are eagerly anticipating the possibility of helping students begin and complete this new pathway,” Faulkner added.
The agreement calls for Vol State to share with MTSU directory information of the college’s students so they are included in tailored communications of emails and hard-copy mailings that support the process of planning for the bachelor’s degree after successful completion of the associate degree.
Also, the agreement says Vol State students who agree to participate in the MTSU Promise will sign a “reverse transfer” agreement, meaning if they fail to complete their associate degrees prior to transfer, they would automatically receive their associate degree from Vol State once sufficient credits have been completed at MTSU.
Through its existing Guaranteed Transfer Scholarship Program, MTSU will provide aid for Vol State students who transfer to MTSU in the amount of $3,000 per year for two years, or a maximum of four semesters, based on achievement of a 3.0 GPA.
Students transferring to MTSU will not be eligible to apply to receive the Guaranteed Transfer Scholarship until after completing 45 credit hours at Vol State.
Deb Sells, MTSU’s vice president for student affairs and vice provost for enrollment and academic services, said the MTSU Promise is a program where Vol State and other community college students can begin to consider their bachelor’s degree as they begin their associate degree.
“They can be successful at their community college and then successfully complete their bachelor’s degree,” she said.
Sells said the application deadline for transfer students annually is Feb. 15, which means the majority of participating Vol State students will have completed 60 credits before they transfer.
MTSU will also guarantee to such students that if they complete 60 credits with a 3.0 GPA at Vol State, they will be guaranteed admission and a scholarship to attend MTSU for their last two years of study, Sells said.
For details about the MTSU/Vol State Promise, visit https://w1.mtsu.edu/university-college/outreach/dap-vol-state.php and for a comprehensive explanation of transferring to MTSU after receiving an associate degree, visit www.mtsu.edu/transfer.
Other MTSU administrators and academic staff attended the signing, which followed the True Blue Tour luncheon. Joining Faulkner for the signing from Vol State were Emily Short, vice president of Student Services; Kyle Barron, assistant vice president of Student Services; and Crickett Pimentel, assistant director of admissions and a former MTSU administrator.
Vol State’s other campuses are in Livingston, Highland Crest in Springfield and at the Cookeville Higher Education Center. To learn more, visit www.volstate.edu online.
Here is a video of the event.
