Universities woo community college students

DURHAM -- In its quest to improve lagging graduation rates, N.C. Central University is looking for more students like Diane Darlington.

The 38-year-old mother of two transferred to NCCU after registering a 4.0 grade point average in two years at nearby Durham Technical Community College. She had planned to enroll at UNC-Chapel Hill's pharmacy school until a personal letter from NCCU caught her eye. Two campus recruiters at career day sealed the deal.

She's now in NCCU's well-regarded BRITE biotechnology program and is one recent example of a new push by the university to bolster its graduation rates through the aggressive recruitment of community college transfers.

Across the state, universities are enrolling more community college graduates toting two-year degrees. In this pool of prospects, campus officials see eager, mature and motivated students who may be a better bet to reach the academic finish line than an 18-year-old freshman who has never set foot on a college campus or lived away from home.

"They have gone through two years, and they have gone through the transition to college," said Bernice Johnson, NCCU's assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs. "We find they tend to be a lot more mature and a lot more serious about learning."

NCCU has 8,300 students now, but enrollment is expected to swell to about 13,000 over the next decade. Simply admitting more freshmen, many of whom aren't yet prepared for the day-to-day rigor of college life, would put even more strain on an undergraduate curriculum that this year provides 41 sections of freshman English and 20 sections of freshman math, Johnson said.

Community college transfers have already cleared those initial hurdles. NCCU enrolled about 300 such transfers this year. In five years, officials hope that the number grows to 1,000, Johnson said.

"It makes good sense for the universities to focus more on the junior and senior year, and the community colleges can offset the cost of the freshman and sophomore years," said Stephen Scott, president of Wake Technical Community College, where 600 to 700 students take their two-year degrees each year and transfer to four-year institutions.

Wake Tech has also received greater attention from local university recruiters in recent years. The school has forged relationships with several public universities -- including East Carolina, N.C. State and UNC-Charlotte -- that make the transfer process nearly seamless.

In many cases, community colleges with technical institutes are catching the eye of four-year institutions with similar programs. Wake Tech and East Carolina, for example, inked a deal last year allowing Wake students with a two-year Associate in Applied Science degree to move into a bachelor's degree program in industrial technology on the Greenville campus. Around North Carolina, students whose two-year degrees in technical fields once led directly to the work force are now being recruited by universities whose own programs build on community college curriculums.

NCCU, meanwhile, is recruiting aggressively not just at Durham Tech but also at eight other community colleges in the region, looking in particular for students in nursing and criminal justice, two of NCCU's specialty areas. Each year, Durham Tech sends at least 50 to 70 students with associate's degrees to NCCU, said Maria Fraser-Molina, Durham Tech's assistant vice president for arts, sciences and university transfer.

NCCU's interest in community college students goes beyond words. Chancellor Charlie Nelms has put aside $200,000 for scholarships specifically intended to help lure community college students, and a faculty committee is working to make the transition easy so students won't get stuck with credits that aren't honored.

For Darlington, NCCU's personal touch made the difference.

"There were two recruiters there, and I had them calling me," Darlington said. "It makes you feel like you're something more than just a number. It made me feel like an actual human being who they wanted in their program."