The University at Albany and Fulton-Montgomery Community College are launching a dual enrollment agreement.
The partnership between the two institutions enables students at the SUNY campus in Johnstown to transition to UAlbany after they complete two years of school.
Enrollees will enter UAlbany as juniors and be able to make use of the larger campus’s services as well. FMCC President Dr. Greg Truckenmiller says the agreement will boost educational attainment in the greater Capital Region.
“For existing students, it’s a matter of connecting with our advising center and filling out the application. For new students, we’re going to identify that upfront- so, if they have an interest in that so that we can connect them with the resource from day one,” Truckenmiller said.
UAlbany will also have a transfer advising center on the FMCC campus, about 35 miles away. Speaking Tuesday, UAlbany President Dr. Havidán Rodríguez says the partnership was only natural.
“FMCC is a critical partner to the University at Albany. And every year we have students who complete two-year degrees here at FMCC, who decide to continue their education at the University at Albany,” Rodríguez said.
Talia Klippel is a current FMCC student who plans on making the transition to UAlbany after graduating. While she was admitted to UAlbany before the program was formalized, she says it’s great to have a clearer pathway to continue her higher education journey.
“I started here at F-M my senior year of high school during the early admissions program, I had an idea about what I wanted to do but no clue where to start. The following year, in the fall of 2022, I came to F-M and took an Intro to Helping Professions class. This was the class that helped me learn about all the paths there are to take and inspire me to want to work in the field of social work,” Klippel said.
Johanna Duncan-Poitier is SUNY’s Senior Vice Chancellor for Community Colleges and the Education Pipeline. She says the college journey can be challenging.
“There will be challenges and roadblocks for students to transfer on completing their associate's degree; from financial difficulty, as was mentioned, cumbersome credit transfer process, and sometimes even life gets in the way. But having this facility right here on this campus is going to make a difference in terms of helping to smooth the way,” Duncan-Poitier said.
Rodríguez says he hopes the partnership will change trends showing while some 80 percent of two-year college graduates want to earn a four-year degree, only 16 percent actually do so.
“Students already like the two students that you met today, they had already had been admitted to the university at Albany quite recently, right. So they were not part of this new arrangement. But that partnership, and the possibilities of transition to UAlbany already existed,” Rodríguez said.
Capital Region Assemblywoman Pat Fahy chairs the Higher Education Committee. The Democrat from the 109th District says the agreement is a needed one.
“Enrollment is slipping, demographics are working against us. Lack of population growth is working against us. This is a national issue now on college campuses. But it's this type of creativity and innovation that is going to keep those enrollment numbers going in the right direction. We are here to help you,” Fahy said.
Fahy adds, as the child of immigrants and a first-generation college graduate, she understands the struggle students face.
Assemblyman Robert Smullen, a Republican from the 118th District, is also on the committee.
“This is the American Dream for us here in upstate New York, where a kid from Ephratah, from Mayfield, from St. Johnsville, from Canajoharie, can go to school, they can be born and raised, and they can come to their community college, and then go to their university and live the American Dream. It’s the embodiment of rural equity in modern upstate New York. And I think it's absolutely brilliant,” Smullen said.
Eileen Casey is Director of FMCC’s Nursing program. She says the agreement will help ease a shortage in the field, noting a 100 percent employment rate for FMCC program graduates within months after graduation.
“This partnership will offer another pathway to success. With FMCC bringing skilled RNs to the community and SUNY UAlbany, the RN to BSN programs, our students and our graduates are on the right track for a successful career,” Casey said.
A similar partnership was announced with Hudson Valley Community College in Troy earlier in March.
