On July 28, 89 faculty, staff and administrators from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Southeast Community College convened to dream boldly and collaborate meaningfully to create a shared path to support transfer students.
The “Co-Creating the SCC-UNL Transfer Future” event began with remarks by Paul Illich, president of SCC, and Mark Button, interim executive vice chancellor at UNL, on how the two institutions share missions of access and opportunity and academic programs that support Nebraska’s workforce and communities.
In a letter sent to attendees prior to the event, Illich and Button described how over the past decade, SCC has expanded its capacity to produce a skilled workforce through new and renovated facilities, additional academic programs, conversion to a semester calendar system, improved student advising and enhanced student development opportunities. During this same time, UNL has increased student retention and degree completion through strategic and intentional campus-wide coordination, including implementing new technologies, prioritizing academic advising and degree planning, and launching the Academic Navigator Team.
“UNL and SCC are now positioned to elevate their collaborative partnership to create seamless pathways for students” they wrote. “We believe this is the ideal time for SCC and UNL to leverage their unique and vital missions, values, programs and strategic process to create seamless transfer opportunities for students and communities.”
The event, held at SCC, featured a gallery walk of posters sharing institutional data related to transfer programs and student success; small group discussions on bold ideas; vignettes representing barriers transfer students frequently face; and strategic planning on academic advising, transfer pathways, dual credit, support resources, technology, infrastructure, communications and enrollment. Participants also explored SCC’s classroom and learning spaces in guided tours. The day concluded with a call to action for attendees to identify steps they plan to take in the next 60 days to strengthen UNL and SCC partnerships to improve transfer outcomes. A follow-up event will be forthcoming at UNL to deepen the work through action planning and continued momentum toward shared transfer goals.
The SCC event was organized by Shawna Herwick, SCC’s administrative director for accreditation, institutional assessment and planning; Amy Goodburn, UNL’s senior associate vice chancellor and dean of undergraduate education; and Patricia Sollars, UNL’s director of undergraduate programs.
