LSUA News Articles

Dec 2, 2020, 08:58 AM

Central Louisiana Technical Community College (CLTCC) and Louisiana State University of Alexandria (LSUA) are partnering to help students save money as they complete general education courses while ensuring hours earned count toward a four-year academic degree.

“We are very excited about this program and the ability to partner with LSUA to benefit students throughout Central Louisiana,” said CLTCC Chancellor James Sawtelle. “Under this unique program, students can complete their general education requirements at CLTCC for a single, significantly reduced flat rate and then have the opportunity to transfer those credits to LSUA and receive up to $2,000 a year in scholarship awards from LSUA.”

LSUA Chancellor Dr. Paul Coreil reiterated Sawtelle’s sentiments. “Through this program, students ineligible to be admitted at LSUA can begin their college studies at CLTCC and then transfer to LSUA to complete a bachelor’s degree. This program opens the door for more students to enroll at LSUA and earn a four-year degree. We are pleased to partner with CLTCC to expand opportunities for degree-seeking students interested in completing their degree at LSUA.”

Dr. Heather Poole, executive vice chancellor of student services, enrollment management and foundation relations, explained that students can take 15 hours of general education classes – which includes courses such as English, biology, history, algebra and psychology – at CLTCC for a flat rate of $2,000. “Between a combination of tuition reductions and providing chancellor’s aid, we are able to offer the 15 credit hours at a flat $2,000 rate,” Poole said. “In addition, students can take advantage of our open resource textbooks, which means almost all of the textbooks are available at no cost to the students.”

Once they complete the coursework, students can transfer the credit hours to LSUA to count toward work on a four-year degree. “Based on their grade point average, the students can earn scholarship dollars from LSUA totaling up to $2,000 per year,” Poole said. “LSUA is recognized as having the lowest tuition of any four-year institution in the state, and the scholarship dollars can help make getting a high quality college education a reality for even more area students.”

Poole noted the credits earned for completing the general education courses can be transferred to any public university in Louisiana and are applicable to any major. However, the opportunity to earn up to $2,000 in annual scholarship funding is unique to the agreement with LSUA.

Under the terms of the transfer scholarship program between CLTCC and LSUA, CLTCC students with a 2.5 or greater grade point average (GPA) are eligible for up to $1,000 per year from LSUA. Students with a 3.0 GPA (a B average) are eligible for up to $1,500 in annual scholarship dollars. Students who are members of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society are eligible for $500 in scholarship dollars. “So, a CLTCC student with a 3.0 grade point average or above who is a member of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society would be eligible to get $2,000 in annual scholarship dollars from LSUA and the general education course credits they earned at CLTCC would transfer and count toward their degree work at LSUA,” Poole said.

A formal announcement will be provided at a press conference on Thursday at 11 a.m. at CLTCC.