Managing Editor
Florida State College at Jacksonville plans to start three more bachelor’s degree programs next year in addition to the seven already in place, extending the reach of the 45-year-old institution into the community.
FSCJ President Steve Wallace said that when approved, the college would offer bachelor’s degrees in business administration, behavioral sciences and converged communications, starting in the fall of 2011.
Converged communications would teach communications in the new media digital age, Wallace said. Convergence refers to the merger of the expanding avenues of news delivery, including print, broadcast, Internet and other methods.
Wallace spoke to the Southside Business Men’s Club Wednesday.
“We offer seven bachelor’s degrees, with three more going into approval, and we plan to develop three more each year,” he said. Wallace said degrees beyond the next three haven’t been determined.
The seven bachelor’s degrees offered are computer systems networking and telecommunications; fire science management; information technology management; public safety management; supervision and management; early childhood education; and nursing.
Wallace told the club that the college began as Florida Junior College in the mid-1960s to offer the first two years of a baccalaureate degree. It changed in 1986 to Florida Community College at Jacksonville to expand into a broader mission to serve technical and community courses.
Wallace joined in 1987 and said that in the past 13 years, the college has evolved from FCCJ “into something completely unrecognizable.”
“Four years ago, we decided to take the ultimate step and offer baccalaureate degrees,” he said, a move approved by the state.
Gov. Charlie Crist signed the Florida College System bill into law last June, allowing FCCJ to become Florida State College at Jacksonville.
“It has been the most complex endeavor of my college career,” he said, “and the most fun.”
Wallace said the college had decided to “completely restructure the entire institution” and took a year and a half to do so.
At midnight July 31, Florida Community College came to an end. “We closed and the next moment we opened as the entirely new Florida State College at Jacksonville,” he said.
The college has 85,000 students, he said. He told the club that it operates as three institutions.
The state college is a traditional four-year college with open access at the freshman level, but after that, “you have to perform.”
The college also operates a technical college to offer programs to train students for high-wage, high-demand professions that might require industry certification and licensing.
The college also offers community education programs, including a charter high school for high-school dropouts, GED classes for adults, English as a Second Language classes, courses for companies and employers and continuing education.
Wallace said the charter high-school for dropouts serves 260 students a year out of thousands who drop out. “These are smart young people who have made a really dumb decision,” he said of the dropouts.
Without a high-school degree, “you are marginalized. You become a danger to yourself.”
In answering questions from club members, Wallace said the college employs 2,800 people, including 400 full-time teachers and 1,200 adjuncts, who need a master’s degree in the discipline they instruct.
He said the college’s total budget is $280 million and its core operating budget is about $200 million.
Asked for the three requirements for students to be prepared to enter the college, he said high-school graduates need the ability to read and comprehend; to write effectively; and to do math.
Florida State College at Jacksonville history
Source: Florida State College at Jacksonville
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