ECSU Pitt Community College Sign Criminal Justice Degree Agreement

Elizabeth City State University is continuing its push to partner with regional community colleges. On Wednesday Jan. 18 Chancellor Thomas Conway met with Pitt Community College President Dennis Massey to enter into a partnership that will allow PCC students to continue pursuing a Criminal Justice degree at ECSU.

The agreement will allow PCC students who graduate with an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice Technology to transfer seamlessly to ECSU to earn a bachelor’s degree. Students at PCC will complete 65 credits toward a four-year criminal justice degree at the community college campus before transferring to ECSU to complete their remaining 59 credit hours.

“Students who complete bachelor’s degrees at ECSU through the partnership now in place will increase their opportunities for employment at higher levels within the criminal justice field” said PCC criminal justice instructor Sherri Joyner.

At the signing ceremony ECSU Chancellor Thomas Conway said criminal justice is one of the university’s largest programs and ECSU plans to keep it growing. He said ECSU has signed criminal justice program agreements with other regional community colleges and he intends to sign more in the near future.

Last fall Chancellor Conway signed agreements with Roanoke-Chowan Community Halifax County Community College and Beaufort County Community College. Unlike the transfer partnership with PCC those agreements established an onsite bachelor’s degree program at each of the community college campuses. Students finish their associate’s degrees and then move on to earn their bachelor’s degrees while attending class at their regional schools.

These programs give students the opportunity to pursue a higher education when it might be financially challenging otherwise.

PCC President Massey said with student debt becoming a growing concern nationally completing the first two years of a criminal justice degree at a community college offers students a financial advantage. Chancellor Conway has also noted that agreements such as this increase the chance for residents of Northeast North Carolina to change their future through access to higher education.