Officials say a new agreement between two colleges in Oneonta will allow more nursing students and address a regional shortage.
The presidents of public university SUNY Oneonta and private liberal arts institution Hartwick College sat down at a table inside a nursing simulation lab to sign the new One Hart agreement.
The partnership will allow SUNY Oneonta pre-nursing students to transfer “seamlessly” into Hartwick’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
It’s the latest in a new era of cooperation between the two schools – literally across the street from each other.
Alberto Cardelle is President of SUNY Oneonta.
“That it is critical for the viability of the community, for the viability of the state, for us to be able to work together more collaboratively,” said Cardelle.
Dr. Cardelle was inaugurated as Oneonta’s ninth president last year – just days before Dr. Darren Reisberg was inaugurated as Hartwick’s 11th president.
Reisberg says cooperation even in small areas has proved beneficial – such as finding ways the heads of student life on each campus could collaborate, or how the college’s CFO’s could work together.
“It's forged partnerships between our student government associations and our Greek Life organization. And, also we talked about how we might be able to do work together on a programmatic level. And that was what led to ultimately the One Hart program,” said Reisberg.
The new partnership for prospective nurses is part of an ongoing effort to get more students to graduate and remain in upstate New York. Reisberg highlighted Hartwick’s Hartland Promise program, which provides reduced tuition for qualifying students from the surrounding eight-county region.
“So we're taking in more students from the area who we anticipate will likely want to stay in the area and if we have this coordinated process of working with employers along with SUNY Oneonta, I think that we can make our region that much stronger,” said Reisberg.
Oneonta President Cardelle said the region, like many areas of the country, is experiencing a shortage of nurses. He says the Mohawk Valley in recent years has seen a 4 percent reduction of nursing graduates.
“So our opportunity to provide more students who wanted to graduate from nursing, and then with partnerships with our local health system, which is Bassett Health System and who allow our students to interview right off after graduation and take positions at Bassett, will definitely improve work towards improving our regional shortage,” said Cardelle.
Oneonta Mayor Mark Drnek is excited to see the new partnership between two institutions that historically, he says, have not collaborated so closely.
“I am over the moon with this,” said Drnek.
In March, SUNY Oneonta announced the launch of the new Regional Innovation Council. The economic development initiative involves local leaders from the business sector, healthcare, human services, non-profits, local government, and education – which also includes Hartwick.
“The collaboration was unheard of and it's now the norm and we're reaping dividends from this already,” said Drnek.
The One Hart nursing agreement goes into effect Sept. 1.
