Expanding students’ access to college during challenging economic times will be the focus of the University of Central Florida’s third-annual College Access Summit on Thursday, Feb. 19.
More than 100 academic leaders from Central Florida high schools and community colleges are expected to attend. The summit will also tackle issues related to changing admissions processes.
Registration and breakfast will begin at 7:30 a.m., and the summit is scheduled from 8:30 until 11:30 a.m. The summit will be held in the Fairwinds Alumni Center, across the street from the Arena on UCF’s main campus.
Organizers hope to generate ideas among superintendents, principals, guidance counselors and UCF and community college leaders for developing a regional strategy for expanding access to a college education among high school graduates in Central Florida. The importance of informing high school students about college opportunities and about the strong programs offered by community colleges will also be highlighted.
At the first and second summits, academic leaders discussed the rapidly changing face of the college admissions process. This year, a greater focus will be put on ensuring that opportunities are still available for students despite the sunken economy.
“We will have close to 150 education leaders in our region at this meeting, which comes at a time when all of them are concerned with a difficult budget environment,” said David Harrison, vice provost for UCF Regional Campuses. “The difficult economy is on everyone’s mind, and we’ll confront it directly during this meeting."
“It makes collaboration more important than ever,” Harrison added.
Discussions will also focus on curriculum and guidance opportunities. The challenge for attendees will be to prevent future common obstacles, such as competitive admissions processes and state budget cuts, from getting in the way of students’ access to higher education. An important agenda item will be to review data regarding post-secondary participation rates by high school graduates in central Florida, and set targets for improvement. By the end of the summit, a regional strategy should be refined, along with what steps to take next.
To improve access, UCF became the first state university to sign a resolution with regional community college leaders to guarantee admission to their graduates. Brevard, Lake-Sumter, Seminole, and Valencia community colleges partnered with UCF to create the Central Florida Higher Education Consortium in 2005. The consortium established the DirectConnect to UCF program, which more closely aligns UCF’s admissions policies and procedures with its community college partners, resulting in an easier transition for students and the expansion of joint-use facilities and joint faculty and staff.
More than 28,000 students at the consortium community colleges have enrolled in the DirectConnect to UCF program. Last year, community college transfer students received more than half of the bachelor’s degrees awarded by UCF.
Invitations to the summit Thursday were distributed in conjunction with UCF’s community college partners. The event is invitation only. For more information on the summits, call UCF’s Regional Campuses administrative offices at 407-823-4547 or visit www.collegeaccess.ucf.edu.
UCF Stands For Opportunity: The University of Central Florida is a metropolitan research university that ranks as the 6th largest in the nation with more than 50,000 students. UCF's first classes were offered in 1968. The university offers impressive academic and research environments that power the region's economic development. UCF's culture of opportunity is driven by our diversity, Orlando environment, history of entrepreneurship and our youth, relevance and energy. For more information, visit http://news.ucf.edu.
Posted 02/19/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Posting of press releases is done as a service to Members and does not imply endorsement or support by NASFAA. NASFAA does not review this information for content or accuracy.
