The University of Nebraska at Omaha and Metropolitan Community College announced a new initiative aiming to ease the burden for students to transfer between the two institutions.
Those involved in the initiative, called Momentum, will look at ways to streamline processes for students who transfer between the two institutions. Garrett Gassman, the newly named executive director of MCC and UNO Transfer Excellence, said he’s looking forward to the opportunities for the two campuses to collaborate, including with academic pathways, financial aid and even something as simple as student IDs for sporting events.
“I really want students to take that to heart, that whatever their goal is, I think there’s great opportunities at MCC and UNO, and how can we leverage our partnership to make sure that they accomplish them,” Gassman said.
UNO Chancellor Joanne Li said the university’s partnership with MCC has continued to grow over the years. Last year, the number of students increased from 939 to 1,063 working with both MCC and UNO.
“I do believe, like UNO, to provide affordable and accessible high education is exceptionally important to train a professional workforce for the state of Nebraska,” Li said. “If we do it right, we actually will be able to tap into a portion of the population that otherwise would not be able to finish a professional journey with us.”
Li said the partnership with MCC will help the two institutions focus on the student experience, especially when so many students already enroll in classes on both campuses. MCC President Randy Schmailzl emphasized that need for collaboration in his remarks, saying that it’s tougher now for students to get a degree.
“When you look at all the issues and hurdles that our students have to go through, it does take momentum and two partners like UNO and Metro to get us here,” Schmailzl said. “It can’t be Metro working by itself, and it can’t be UNO working by themselves.”
Representatives at the two colleges previously worked together to implement a reverse transfer credit program. Sammi Kaiser, UNO’s assistant vice chancellor for student success, said students who may have started at Metro and transferred to UNO before receiving an associate’s degree could use UNO credits to still obtain that associate’s degree.
“Early on that [program] and some other initiatives we were a part of, and then it kind of molded to ‘We can do bigger,’” Kaiser said. “That’s where we got the attention of some private funding in the community and some other support in our institutions to make this a priority.”
Chris Swanson, MCC’s associate vice president of pathway support systems, worked with Kaiser on several initiatives to make the student experience between the two institutions easier. He said collaborating with UNO has a positive impact across both of their campuses.
“Our mission at MCC is to serve all students and to help students succeed in their goals,” Swanson said. “We have just found that collaborating with UNO is a lot easier than competing with UNO. We found a lot more success for our students and for ourselves. We are finding ways to work together and take care of each other’s missions and keep those at the center of our work.”