STC, Texas Tech center sign academic partnerships agreement
McALLEN — South Texas College students now have a reason to paint the town red.
Leaders from the college and Texas Tech University Health Science Center in Lubbock signed an agreement Thursday to provide seamless transfers for some students.
The students can be STC Valley Scholars, who are students in the honors program with at least a 3.25 grade point average, come from the college’s nursing and allied health division and biology program or the Dual Enrollment Medical Science Academy.
The partnership is the first in the Rio Grande Valley for the Lubbock campus, which is separate from Texas Tech University but is bound by a single board of regents.
Wanda Spratt, the college’s dean of the nursing and allied health division, said center leaders were particularly interested in the associate’s degree program in radiologic technology. Spratt said students coming out of the program could easily adapt to the center’s bachelor’s program in radiation physics.
STC President Shirley A. Reed asked the two-member center delegation that spent the day at the college to help ensure Valley students get access to financial incentives and receive the attention they deserve.
The two campuses get at least 2,000 transfer students yearly, said William M. Marcy, the Texas Tech University’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.
Marcy touted some of the university’s other qualities, like its successful Red Raider football and basketball teams and how all freshman live on the combined Lubbock campus.
The TTU system has campuses in Abilene, Amarillo, El Paso, Lubbock, Junction, Marble Falls and Angelo State University in San Angelo.The center has articulation agreements with 45 two-year state institutions, but STC is one of four with which it has more formal partnerships.
The others are Alamo Community College and Northeast Lakeview College, both in San Antonio, and Collin County Community College in Plano. Marcy said these colleges stand out because of their rigorous academic requirements.
“Many community colleges don’t have that great of success with students going to four-year institutions,” he said.
STC leaders signed an academic collaboration agreement earlier this year with the Puerto Vallarta campus of Universidad de Guadalajara.
The college also has transfer partnerships with Texas A&M University’s campuses in College Station and Galveston, along with the University of Texas-Pan American and the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.
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Daniel Perry covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4454. For this and other stories, visit www.themonitor.com.
