Higher Learning Commission gives OK for eagerly awaited degrees Monday
Colorado Mountain College can now offer bachelor’s degrees.
With Monday’s approval from the community college’s accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission, Colorado Mountain College will start offering two new bachelor’s degrees in the fall: a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Sustainability Studies. Several additional degrees are being evaluated for future years.
Over the past 18 months, the college has received approval to offer bachelor’s degrees from its elected board of trustees, the Colorado Legislature and Gov. Bill Ritter. The Colorado Commission on Higher Education’s permission was granted this spring, pending a positive outcome from the HLC.
“CMC will be a dual-purpose college,” said Dr. Stan Jensen, president and CEO of the college. “We will continue to be a comprehensive community college, and our other purpose is to be a college that offers excellent four-year degrees.”
To illustrate this, Jensen said, “Students can come to Colorado Mountain College to earn a career and technical certificate, a two-year associate degree and/or a four-year baccalaureate degree.”
To enroll in upper-division courses toward earning a bachelor’s degree, students must hold a 2.3 grade point average and have completed 45 transfer-level credit hours at Colorado Mountain College or another accredited college or university.
“With the addition of these bachelor’s degrees, we will be even better-equipped to serve our communities and students,” said Jensen. “At Colorado Mountain College, we can provide higher education that supports job preparation and is an engine for economic development.
“These are real-world degrees that will help our students create a better future for themselves, their families and their communities,” said Jensen.
Colorado Mountain College is located in Steamboat Springs, Rifle, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, Glenwood Springs-Spring Valley, Aspen, Edwards, Dillon, Breckenridge, Leadville and Buena Vista. Of these locations, the college’s three campuses in Spring Valley, Leadville, and Steamboat Springs are residential. The college’s Central Services administrative offices, which serve all other locations, are located in downtown Glenwood Springs.
Colorado Mountain College has been offering associate degrees and certificates of occupational proficiency since 1967.
For more information about these degrees, including curriculum, cost and admission process, please go to http://www.ColoradoMtn.edu/4year