FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 25, 2008
Contact Ben Chambers, (770) 537-5756

WCTC ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH BREWTON-PARKER 

West Central President Dr. Skip Sullivan and Brewton-Parker President Dr. David Smith signed an articulation agreement March 7 allowing students to transfer credit between the two colleges.

Students from West Central Technical College can now transfer core courses and several other classes as electives to Brewton-Parker College.

Presidents of Brewton-Parker and three state technical colleges — West Central Technical College, West Georgia Technical College and Griffin Technical College — have signed articulation agreements making the transfers possible. The agreements designate certain courses as equivalents for credit — whether at the technical college or Brewton-Parker.

“What we do is all about students,” West Central President Dr. Skip Sullivan said after the agreements were signed at a ceremony March 7. “These kind of agreements open doors for students to pursue lifelong learning – not a ‘finish the course and close the book’ education, but an education that can grow and change with the needs of the student.”

The agreement also allows students to use 24 credit hours of technical courses as electives for Brewton-Parker’s technical management degree. Janie Lore, head of the satellite BPC program in Newnan, said the articulation agreements permit eight technical classes as electives.

“We have been in the process of talking about articulation of classes for quite awhile,” Lore said.

Progress on the articulation agreement sped in recent weeks. Dr. Cindy Skaruppa, Brewton-Parker’s vice president of enrollment services, talked about the proposal during a meeting at Newnan’s Central Educational Center in February.

West Central Technical College has a campus at CEC, which is a joint venture between Coweta County Schools, West Central Tech, and the Coweta Co. Chamber of Commerce.

Brewton-Parker is a four-year college affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention. The college’s main campus is in Mt. Vernon in southeast Georgia. Brewton-Parker has several satellite programs, including the one at CEC headed by Lore.

Smith said the agreements will allow Brewton-Parker to better serve the young people who study through its programs as well as “some not so young people that we serve.” Most students in the Coweta Co. BPC program have been non-traditional students — adults returning to the classroom after a hiatus.

Skaruppa remarked on the quick progress which brought the schools together to sign the articulation documents. She thanked representatives of the technical colleges for their input.

She also promised to keep the technical colleges informed about progress of their students who transfer to Brewton-Parker. “We will provide you with complete data,” she said.

In addition, Skaruppa thanked WCTC, WGTC and Griffin Tech for allowing Brewton-Parker recruiters to have a presence on their campuses.

Lore said the technical management degree will allow more people to earn a bachelor’s degree “in a very timely manner.” She termed the agreements “a good thing,” and added, “It’s what employers want.”

West Central Technical College, with campuses in Carroll, Coweta, Douglas and Haralson counties, offers over 90 associate degree, diploma and technical certificate programs of study. A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, West Central last year served over 10,000 students including credit enrollment, adult education, ESL classes, continuing education and corporate training.

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