Coker, Florence-Darlington Tech form partnership
By Melissa Rollins, editor@newsandpress.net
During a joint press conference Tuesday, June 27, Coker College and Florence-Darlington Technical College announced that the two educational institutions are partnering for a bridge program.
Coker President Dr. Robert Wyatt and FDTC President Dr. Dillard signed the bridge agreement and talked about what the partnership means for their colleges.
“Thank you on behalf of our students for making this happen,” Wyatt said. “Thank you President Dillard for your leadership to help us jump through some of the hoops to get this done. We are elated to have arrived at this point now and, again, it is a good thing for all of our students.”
Dillard said that he was happy to finally have the program in place after working on it for six months.
“We appreciate the opportunity to partner with you guys,” Dillard said to Wyatt and other Coker administrators gathered at Tech for the signing. “A lot of our students want to stay local when they transfer. This gives them another opportunity and I know that you guys have initiated some scholarship money to help those folks so we are very excited about this. It is a very historic event, I think, for our two institutions to come together and partner.”
When a student transfers from one college or university to another too often credits don’t, leaving a student with additional classes required to graduate and money wasted. With the bridge program, once a student is accepted, there are 70 different courses that they can take which are guaranteed to transfer.
Dr. Suresh Tiwari, Vice President for Academic Affairs at FDTC, said that this program will benefit a lot of students.
“This opens up opportunities for our students and for other students who couldn’t get into Coker College,” Tawari said. “Now, we created structures for students to come into our Florence-Darlington Tech campus and once they are ready, they can go to Coker for whatever major they choose.”
Students who are accepted into the bridge program will not have to pay the application fee when they decide to transfer to Coker. They will also have an advisor from Coker who will help them make course selections and other academic decisions. As an added bonus, bridge program students can attend all Coker athletic and cultural events for free.
Other benefits for bridge program participants:
FDTC students may transfer a maximum of 76 semester hours with a grade of C or better to Coker College. A list of transferable courses is posted on www.coker.edu/bridgeprogram.
Bridge Program participants will attend an orientation program on the Coker College campus prior to the beginning of their initial attendance.
Currently, FDTC has only one other bridge program agreement, with Francis Marion University.
