Four of the state’s public two-year colleges will start offering bachelor degrees under action the state Board of Regents took Tuesday.
Darton, Atlanta Metropolitan, Georgia Highlands and Georgia Perimeter colleges will provide a limited number of four-year degrees in areas such as health care, science and technology. The institutions, which will continue to offer associate programs, will now be classified as state colleges.
Of the four, the change for Darton in Albany has resulted in the most debate. The college currently offers an associate degree in nursing and will expand to offer a bachelor degree starting in fall 2013.
The NAACP denounced the plan, questioning why Darton should offer that degree when Albany State, which is about five miles away, already provides it. Albany State is one of Georgia’s historically black colleges and universities.
"I don’t know what this board is doing or why they are doing this when we have a budget crisis," said John Clark, a spokesman for the Legal Defense Coalition for the Preservation of Public HBCUs. "We have colleges forced to cut programs. It is not sound economic policy to put another nursing program in Albany."
The University System of Georgia must absorb about $300 million in state budget cuts when the new fiscal year begins July 1. Nearly all state agencies are receiving less money because of the recession.
The regents approved the four program changes without any discussion. During an earlier academic affairs committee meeting, board members referenced the Darton program by stressing the need for more nurses.
The state will be short about 38,000 nurses by 2020 and the system must expand nursing programs to meet the demand, said regent C. Thomas Hopkins, Jr., who is a doctor.
"We have an obligation to meet the state’s needs, and with this action the board will be meeting those obligations," Chancellor Erroll Davis said.
The four college changes were driven by data, not politics or lobbying by particular groups, Davis said.
Darton’s application contained letters of support from Crisp Regional Hospital and others. The Albany group Citizens for Economic Development began advocating about a year ago for the college to offer the program.
College officials project to spend about $375,000 a year on the program when fully implemented, according to the application. Nearly all the money will come from tuition, although some start-up costs will come from a reallocation of existing money and assistance from the college's foundation, officials wrote. The college expects to graduate about 25 nursing majors a year.
The regents’ action Tuesday also means Georgia Highlands College in Rome will offer a bachelor in nursing starting in fall 2013.
Atlanta Metropolitan will start a bachelor degree in biological science this fall. The degree is already offered at Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, but Atlanta Metro officials said they would attract different students.
Georgia Perimeter this fall will offer a bachelor degree in sign language interpreting and health informatics, which partly deals with maintaining electronic health records.
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