An Engineering Program Between Mines and CCCS?

The Colorado Community College System has released news of a partnership they have created with the Colorado School of Mines for an Associate in Engineering Sciences. For educators in Colorado that deal with Engineering there has been a longtime issue in creating an associate level degree that could then be a stepping stone for students into a 4-year program. 

Part of the problem is just an academic one. For people who do not know engineering, there are different types of engineering such as mechanical or electric. There are generic classes that each discipline can use, like physics or calculus. Once they get actual engineering courses these courses become very specific to the type of engineering. This has been an issue to create a generic enough engineering degree to be able to transfer from the community colleges to the 4-year schools. This has been on CDHE’s plate for awhile and the Degree with Designation (DwD) has been an on-going fight. When I say fight I mean fight. 

I have gone to the Faculty 2 Faculty conferences in Colorado where they try to bring different reps from all the different colleges together to address the DwDs. I have attended panels for many different subjects from both the sciences and liberal arts. The most entertaining and sad have been the engineering meetings where arguments have turned into shouting matches. Each school thinks that their way is the best way to do things and everyone’s egos are out in full view. For the most part the community colleges just want something in place to help the students while the 4-year schools just like to argue with each other.  Plus, they like to yell that each other is out of compliance when they hear something they do not like coming from another school. The most resistance comes from CU and Mines. Yes Mines, the same ones that are now saying that they are part of this agreement.

When this was first passed to me, my response to that person is I will believe it when I see it. Mines is notorious for doing their own thing in the state and driving other schools batty. Not to mention the horror stories that their students have told workers at other schools. So now that this has happened I really don’t know what to think or believe it will go through. I think that Mines will find a way to turn it into a nightmare for CCCS. I’ll be keeping my eye on this….

You can read CCCS’s news release at: https://www.cccs.edu/cccs-news/colorado-school-of-mines-colorado-community-college-system-collaborate-on-new-engineering-degree/

 

 

BTW:

DwDs are transfer degrees that are supposed to help students shave off time and money from when they go for their Bachelor degree. You can see what these degrees are at: https://cdhe.colorado.gov/transfer-degrees . If you go down to the engineering section you will see how different schools will have different programs and then if you look at the sheets for each school you can see that they then also break it down into the different types of engineering. Not messy at all for students and their parents to understand (yes you can add has much sarcasm as you would like to that statement and you would still be short from what I would put at it).