academics
Articulation Agreement with Georgia Military College to bring more students to SPSU, smooth the transition SPSU President Lisa A. Rossbacher and Major Gen. Peter Boylan, president of Georgia Military College (GMC) in Milledgeville, signed an articulation agreement in April at SPSU. It will allow GMC students to apply their associate degree credits toward SPSU baccalaureate degrees without losing credit hours in the transfer.
designed to improve the educational pipeline from high school through college graduation, particularly in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields that are our bread and butter,” Dr. Szafran noted. Jeremy Vogt, a student in SPSU’s undergraduate program in information technology, was one of four GMC graduates enrolled at SPSU this spring — prior to the articulation agreement signing.
“This articulation will provide academic access
“I heard about SPSU’s great hands-on learning style
for GMC students,” said SPSU’s vice president for
and was instantly attracted,” he said. “I also read in
Academic Affairs, Dr. Zvi Szafran. “Now GMC students
brochures about the small class sizes and liked that.”
will be able to, transfer to SPSU with relative ease.” “GMC is a liberal arts–based, two-year college.
Vogt said his experience in making the transition to SPSU wasn’t difficult. “I just had to make sure my
Many of our students go on to pursue baccalaureate
transcripts were sent over and my classes would
degrees at four-year colleges and universities, and
transfer. Most of mine did, but GMC requires a different
our cadet program is a feeder program to both West
programming language than SPSU, so the classes that
Point and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. GMC has nine
had to do with that transferred in but are not needed
campuses throughout the state and close to 8,000
here. I’m sure the agreement would have helped me by
students,” Major Gen. Boylan noted. “SPSU offers
making sure all my classes transferred over.”
significant opportunities for our students to further their education.” As for how SPSU stands to benefit from the
Another GMC graduate, Steven Franzkowiak, “was attracted to SPSU’s Electrical Engineering Technology program and its hands-on approach to engineering”
agreement, “GMC is a different type of institution than
and found that the tuition and living in Marietta fit his
SPSU with a student body that is more than 50 percent
budget.
female and a mature online presence that will help to
The GMC partnership is one of the latest in a series
bring more students to SPSU from beyond Georgia,” said
of transfer articulation agreements formed with a
Dr. Sam Conn, vice president for Information Technology
variety of educational institutions and systems and
and chief information officer at SPSU and the former
is the wave of the future for SPSU as more and more
director of online learning at GMC.
students seek an affordable, hands-on education in
“This articulation is consistent with Gov. Nathan Deal’s Complete College Georgia initiative, which is
engineering, engineering technology, architecture and computer science.
SPSU President Lisa A. Rossbacher and GMC President Gen. Peter Boylan signed an agreement that allows GMC students to apply their associate degree credits toward SPSU baccalaureate degrees without losing credit hours in the transfer.
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SPSU Magazine Summer 2013