The Salt Lake Community College University Center helps students get their four year degree.
Seven universities and colleges are part of the University Center’s network. Through this arrangement, students can earn select bachelors degrees from these four-year institutions by taking classes at SLCC campuses or online.
“What we do in a nutshell is offer specific degrees at the bachelor’s level,” says Kathy Hurd, director of the University Center.
Five of the partnered schools – Westminster College, The University of Utah, Weber State University, Utah Valley University and Utah State University – are located in Utah.
The other two are out of state. Bismarck State College (BSC) is located in North Dakota, and Franklin University is located in Columbus, Ohio.
Each one of the colleges and universities offer different programs to best serve SLCC students. BSC, for example, offers energy management.
“Because I became an adjunct professor here, I had time to see things develop, and now I’m with the energy management program,” said Keith Heltman.
Students can take advantage of the University Center’s advisors as soon as they enroll at SLCC, making the experience a lot more relaxed because they’ll know what classes to take as opposed to being in the dark about transferring and the transfer process.
“The critical function we provide is making sure our students complete the right lower division courses early to transfer to a program,” says Hurd. “Our goal is to inform students as soon as possible that we exist and to come in and get advising so they take the courses they need to meet requirements early; instead of finding out when they’re ready to graduate that there’s stuff to do.”
“The main benefit of the University Center is that most of the programs we work with have flexibility. They’re geared more toward the nontraditional student, so a lot of our classes are offered in the evening or online,” says Andrea Scott, academic advisor at the University Center.
