Southeast, NY community college reach agreement on collaborative partnership

Sometimes innovation isn’t about the newest technology.

Sometimes its about who you can connect with and relationships you can establish.

Southeast Missouri State University has taken an innovative approach by reaching an agreement with Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City, allowing the transfer of BMCC associate of science in theater graduates into its Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre. Students transferring to Southeast under its musical theater option will have “a pathway to success, enhancing their transition to Southeast early on to complete their degree.”

Students at BMCC would require an additional 66 credit hours at Southeast to complete their Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre, music theater option, Tamela Randolph, interim provost at Southeast, said in a news release.

BMCC students who participate will be assigned a mentor throughout that time, the university said, offering them individual support as first-semester community college students at Southeast.

BMCC’s student body represents 155 countries. The hope is this program will create a pipeline of students from New York to come to Cape Girardeau to study fine arts. Southeast’s theater and dance programs are gaining momentum. BMCC’s diverse student body can help Southeast grow in many different ways.

Southeast president Carlos Vargas-Aburto and BMCC president Antonio Perez made the action official Thursday. This is the second agreement the two presidents have signed. The first agreement to join Southeast’s Transfer Mentor Program was signed in February at the Hispanic Educational Technology Services Conference.

The university faces many challenges in today’s economic, bureaucratic and political landscape. It’s agreements and partnerships like these, as well as other creative solutions, that will help the university fight the tide.