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A program that allows Onondaga Community College students to easily transfer to SUNY-ESF has been in development for over a year, but officials said it’s hard to gauge the program’s success because of the pandemic.

With the program, students are eligible to transfer from OCC to ESF if they are studying science or mathematics and earn an associate degree with a GPA that is 2.8 or higher.

Once students transfer to ESF, they are considered juniors and can work toward any of the 18 bachelor’s degree programs in the departments of chemistry, environmental and forest biology, environmental health, environmental science, environmental studies, sustainable resources management and sustainability management.

Katherina Searing, ESF’s assistant dean, said that the program’s flexibility makes it unique.

“This program was designed to be flexible and to serve students who have completed lower division coursework in a variety of disciplines,” Searing said.

The program allows students to choose six upper division courses as electives so they can tailor their degree to their own interests, Searing said.

The small classes also encourage student and faculty interaction, Searing said.

It takes two years for a student to go through the whole program at OCC. Since the program is only about a year old, the impact of the program on both OCC and ESF is hard to measure, said OCC President Casey Crabill.

Crabill said the pandemic has made it hard to tell if the program’s enrollment is growing. But Searing said she believes enrollment will increase soon.

“We do expect every virtual seat will fill with part and full-time student enrollment in the very near future,” Searing said.

The colleges will work together to make sure students’ financial aid gets handled appropriately, Crabill said.

ESF also stations a transfer adviser on the OCC campus every week, which allows students to ask questions and get the information they need to make the transfer, Crabill said.

One of the main benefits of the program is cost, Crabill said.

“At OCC you can get your freshman and sophomore year for really inexpensive,” Crabill said. “If you do that for two years and then go to ESF, another public institution, for two years, it can be really cost effective.”

Published on April 13, 2021 at 11:18 pm