Goal Of SCSU & SCTCC Summit Is To Improve Partnership

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- St. Cloud State University (SCSU) and St. Cloud Technical and Community College (SCTCC) are looking for ways to expand their partnership to benefit area students.

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The two schools recently held a joint summit to get faculty, staff, and administrators in better contact with each other and lay the groundwork for new ideas and programs. St. Cloud State's Director of Partnerships and Collaboration, Mike Coonen says it's all about making things easier for students:

"Really part of this conversation though is helping people identify where some of those areas of opportunity are, say we're having a lot of students coming to St. Cloud State from nursing at SCTCC do we have something lined up and the structure established so they can transfer smoothly into St. Cloud State."

He says the goal is to make things simpler for students to transfer and in order to do that the two schools need to know each other better:

"The summit was a great opportunity for us to get together, get to know our counterparts from across town, and really the goal was to leave feeling comfortable having those follow-up conversations so we knew the face that we would be calling. We were leaving with cell phone numbers, we were leaving with the intent to have follow up conversations."

Coonen says it is important for the two schools to level up and provide opportunities for students and the summit is just the first step to developing a shared vision, common goals, and aligning institutional strategies. Currently, 25% of St. Cloud State's new-entering undergraduate students transfer in from SCTCC.

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