In an effort to make bachelor's degrees more accessible, SFCC will join eight other community colleges and offer four-year degrees starting fall 2009.
Gov. Charlie Crist signed the law June 12 along with SFCC President Jackson Sasser and presidents of the other community colleges in the newly established Florida College System.
Larry Keen, SFCC spokesman, said the State University System is struggling to balance budget cuts and a rising demand for college-trained workers. Keen said the new system is "genius" because it doesn't require building a new set of middle-tier colleges to cope with the state's shrinking enrollment in universities.
The colleges in the pilot project will help establish and evaluate the Florida College System. The pilot includes some colleges that already offer bachelor's degrees, such as St. Petersburg College.
So far, the only bachelor's programs approved by the SFCC Board of Trustees are health science management and clinical laboratory technology.
The addition of the baccalaureate programs is meant to fill the needs for college-educated workers in local hospitals and the area's growing biotechnology industry, he said.
SFCC will continue all of its current programs and will not offer any degrees that would compete with UF programs, he said.
Janine Sikes, UF spokeswoman, said UF supports the Florida College System because of limited space in Florida's public universities.
Sasser said he is not worried about the perceived credibility of these new programs compared to degrees from established universities.
"A bachelor's degree is paramount for just about all citizens to lead a productive life," he said.
The school will retain its open-door policy and welcome any student with a high school diploma to complete a two-year degree. However, students will have to apply to get into a bachelor's program, he said. Funding for the program and the cost of tuition are two issues that still need to be resolved, Sasser said. The law mandates that the cost of tuition be lower than that of state universities.
