Willamette University leaders are making it easier for Salem’s community college students to come to their school.
The university has a new partnership with Chemeketa Community College. It’s intended to guide students through their associate’s degree, then help them transfer to and graduate from Willamette.
“They’ve always been our biggest feeder in terms of a two-year institution but we’ve not had a great way of identifying who those students are,” said Sue Corner, Willamette’s dean of undergraduate admissions.
Dubbed the “Bearcat Pathway,” the collaboration between two Salem schools has been several years in the making.
It’s common for college students to spend two years earning an associate’s degree before transferring to a four-year university, saving thousands on tuition costs in the process.
Oregon’s community colleges typically have well-defined pathways that allow their graduates to bring credits to the state’s public universities.
“They don’t necessarily think about what the steps look like to go to a private college,” Corner said. Though their advertised tuition costs are high, private colleges can cost less for students to attend because they sometimes offer more financial aid.
Each year, between five and 12 Chemeketa graduates apply to transfer to Willamette.
The new partnership aims to make the process easy on two fronts.
First, transfer credits will be awarded without hassle. The program is designed for students in eight majors: business, civic communication and media, computer science, data science, economics, English, environmental science, politics and psychology.
Each major has a clear listing of equivalent courses at Chemeketa that cover the first two years of the degree. Corner said a major reason students don’t finish college is because of difficulties applying credits earned at other institutions toward a degree. That can add time and money to the cost of graduating.
“There won’t be this question of something didn’t transfer,” Corner said. “It’s a very clear investment of 2 additional years to get that promised 4-year degree.”
Second, students in the program will get extra support at Chemeketa.
Dedicated advising is intended to make sure students are on track to be admitted to Willamette and help students overcome challenges, Corner said.
Students in the program will also be issued a Willamette ID card, allowing them to come to athletic events, use the Willamette library and otherwise make use of the campus even while they attend Chemeketa.
Chemeketa students can apply to the Bearcat Pathway starting now. There’s no cost.
Being accepted into the pathway doesn’t guarantee admission to Willamette as a transfer student.
But Corner said there shouldn’t be any surprises with the process.
“They will be aware if they’re not on track to be admitted,” she said.
Bearcat Pathway students are automatically eligible for a renewable merit scholarship of $25,000 to $33,000 a year.
Chemeketa leaders have worked in recent years to ease the transfer process for students pursuing four-year degrees.
The community college and Western Oregon University inked a deal in 2022 guaranteeing WOU admission to Chemeketa graduates with a minimum 2.0 grade point average.
After years of enrollment declines, Willamette has seen growth the past two years, with 1,915 students in the fall of 2022. That’s in part thanks to the addition of new programs in data science and a merger with the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
“We want to maintain that robust enrollment and transfer students are a way to do that,” Corner said. “We really do see Chemeketa students in particular as a group that can be better served by an institution like us.”
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
