Lincoln College signs transfer agreement with University of Illinois College of ACES

[May 21, 2014]  LINCOLN - Lincoln College has formalized a new transfer agreement with the University of Illinois’s College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES). Under the transfer agreement, Lincoln College students who meet the program criteria may transfer to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus to pursue one of nine majors offered in the College of ACES. The agreement was signed Monday morning by Lincoln’s President John Blackburn, Vice President of Academics Gigi Fansler, Dean of Academics Tina Nutt, College of ACES Dean Robert Hauser, and College of ACES Associate Dean Laurie Kramer. Students may begin taking advantage of the new agreement when they enroll at Lincoln College for the fall 2014 semester.

The nine majors included in the agreement are Agricultural and Consumer Economics, Animal Sciences, Crop Sciences, Food Science and Human Nutrition, Horticulture, Human Development and Family Studies, Agricultural Leadership and Science Education, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, or Technical Systems Management. Under the agreement, students will have the opportunity to take some on-line classes and spend a few Saturdays on the University of Illinois campus, which helps them acclimate to the larger university environment.

“This started with a conversation with someone last fall, and is ending with an agreement that will provide opportunities for a lot of our students,” said President Blackburn.

Dean Hauser added, “This is a win-win. We just had commencement, so this is a great time to do this. We’re trying to provide an education to as many young men and women as possible, and it’s gotten harder for young men and women to get into programs like [ACES] because of affordability and other issues, so this is a great opportunity.”

The University of Illinois has similar transfer agreements with 24 community colleges, but this is the first time they’ve signed such an agreement with a private college. Lincoln College has similar transfer agreements with St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing in Peoria and MacMurray College in Jacksonville.

“We are excited to reach this agreement with the University of Illinois which will simplify the transfer process for Lincoln College students entering the College of ACES. Through this cooperative relationship, both schools can better serve students to facilitate transfer, to minimize duplication of instruction, and to build on the two-year college and university experiences. Working together we are much stronger than what we can do individually, and both campuses should benefit as a result,” said Dr. Tina Nutt, dean of academic affairs at Lincoln College.

[Text received; TRACY BERGIN, LINCOLN COLLEGE]