GILROY
– A partnership between Gavilan College and San Jose State
University that brings upper-division college courses to Gilroy
could eventually allow South Valley residents to complete a
bachelor’s degree and teaching credential without ever leaving
town.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – A partnership between Gavilan College and San Jose State University that brings upper-division college courses to Gilroy could eventually allow South Valley residents to complete a bachelor’s degree and teaching credential without ever leaving town.
The program, called University Center, is starting small this fall with Concepts of Childhood, an upper-level general education course in child development. Three courses will be offered in the spring, all upper-level general education courses.
“What we’re really looking for is to develop opportunities for students at Gavilan to complete course work toward the baccalaureate degree with San Jose State course work at Gavilan College,” said Susan Myers, dean of SJSU’s college of education.
Myers has been involved in discussions to bring SJSU courses to Gavilan for nearly two years and was instrumental in launching the program through the college of education. Offering some upper division courses at Gavilan would motivate more students to earn their bachelor’s degree and enter into the teaching profession, Myers said.
“We don’t have as many students who are continuing their education after completing a program at Gavilan as we’d like to see,” Myers said, citing transportation and time commitment as two major reasons why students who complete a program at Gavilan do not pursue a bachelor’s degree.
While dual admission to both Gavilan and SJSU might be offered in the future, students must currently be enrolled in SJSU to take the University Center courses. Students will not have to pay state university fees while attending SJSU classes at Gavilan; a three unit course costing only $10.
Huge need for higher education
SJSU Provost Marshall Goodman said the university is launching satellite classes at Gavilan because south Santa Clara County residents have the most need for local higher education classes.
“We see a huge need,” Goodman said. “It’s off the charts, the demand and the interest far surpasses anything that we even imagined.”
SJSU conducted a formal survey of 131,000 residents of Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Hollister and Watsonville in June and contacted community leaders to determine the need for a University Center in Gilroy. According to the survey, conducted by SJSU Survey and Policy Research Institute, more than half of South Valley residents are interested in some type of higher education, Goodman said. Many of those residents find it difficult to attend classes in San Jose because many go to school part time, have families, or work full time, he said.
The University Center will benefit students seeking higher education classes without disrupting Gavilan’s classes or costing the school money. Gavilan operates at capacity during its peak hours between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., while SJSU is looking to hold classes between 4:30 and 7 p.m.
“In that time frame that (SJSU is) looking for classroom space, we do have space available,” Kinsella said “We won’t have additional cost.”
SJSU will have to pay its professors to teach at Gavilan, but would have paid them to teach in San Jose anyway, Kinsella said. Myers and several of her colleagues are in the process of seeking grants to promote the partnership between SJSU, Gavilan College and Gilroy Unified School District.
There are about 20 students enrolled in Concepts of Childhood, which is taught by Marlene Bumgarner, is a full-time faculty member at Gavilan who also teaches through SJSU.
While Gavilan’s evening classes rarely fill up, SJSU officials said more of the university’s students would benefit from evening classes in Gilroy because they could attend after work without having to commute.
If Gavilan expands capacity using a $138 million bond that its board of trustees will consider in November, the University Center would benefit, as well. About $32.5 million is tentatively earmarked for expanding the Gilroy campus, which would include University Center classrooms.
Those rooms would still be primarily for Gavilan’s use, Kinsella said.
“We need the facilities for our own use, it’s just that those facilities would meet their needs at that time,” Kinsella said.
A University Center is anticipated at the Hollister site as well, with $22.5 million earmarked for a permanent and expanded facility there. California State University-Monterey Bay is considering launching the program in Hollister, Kinsella said.
The University Center concept is modeled after a partnership between La Cañada Community College in San Mateo and San Francisco State University.
“I thought about the rationale for that program, and the rationale was that there were not enough students that were transferring,” Myers said.
Easing the transition
The program will help Gavilan students make the transition to the four-year university.
“We want to make the process as seamless as possible,” Goodman said. “It makes it more difficult when the universities and community colleges are on different systems, so we’re trying to overcome some of the bureaucratic nature of the California system.”
To ease the transition from the community college to the university level, SJSU will bring counseling services to Gavilan, Myers said, so students will know exactly which courses to take on their way to earning a bachelor’s degree.
The university’s writing skills test, which students must pass before taking upper-division classes, will also be offered at Gavilan, along with preparation courses for the test.
The University Center is starting with general education courses to serve students regardless of their area of study. With space and resources permitting, SJSU will eventually offer a blended child development degree and elementary education credential program. Launching the program through SJSU’s college of education will create a partnership between the university, Gavilan, Gilroy Unified School District and the entire community, Goodman said.
“One of the best ways of having teachers get into certain communities is teaching them where you want them to have employment,” he said.
GUSD Superintendent Edwin Diaz agreed, saying that potential teachers would have some experience in the district while completing their education.
“Being able to have our teachers be a part of the training of potential teachers could be a benefit,” he said. “The other equally important benefit would be for us to have some experience with potential teachers and do some informal assessment and determine if those are the people we would like to have in our district as teachers.”
