A matter of degrees

If you have sent a son or daughter to college in the last 20 years, you know higher education and its institutions are evolving. The SUNY system of New York’s colleges is no different.

You also know that the cost of a four-year college education is a string of dominoes. As the tuition at private colleges soars, the cost of attending a four-year college in the SUNY system rises, followed by the expense of going to a two-year college. It costs a lot more in 2020 than it did in 1980 to earn a bachelor’s degree.

So it’s impressive that Columbia-Greene Community College and SUNY Delhi formed a partnership that will allow local students to navigate a more streamlined process of earning their bachelor’s degrees. The partnership marks the first time Columbia-Greene will have a university presence on campus.

Columbia-Greene has always been a local leader in introducing new up-to-the-minute courses and developing cutting-edge academic programs. Delhi is an award-winning technology college with courses ranging from health care management to the culinary arts. Columbia-Greene’s new program will start in the fall 2020 semester. Students who earn their associate degree or complete certificate programs in nursing, business, criminal justice, environmental sustainability and computer science and earn a 2.0 grade-point-average or higher, or 2.8 for nursing students, will be accepted directly into the corresponding bachelor’s programs at SUNY Delhi.

We think it’s the right decision to expose Columbia-Greene students to bachelor’s degree programs without leaving the campus. The avenues this program opens are, in the word of one top college official, a “game-changer.” This stands as one of the most progressive features among many to come to the college in recent years. We have a challenge to educate our young people and this program meets it in every possible way.