New York State TYESANew York State TYESANew York State TYESANew York State TYESA

Mark G. CourtneyTYESA President

Associate Professor of Engineering

Dutchess Community College

courtnm@sunydutchess.edu

Two-Year Engineering School Association

www.tyesa.org

Genny E. PondTYESA Vice President

Associate Professor of Engineering

SUNY Jefferson

gpond@sunyjefferson.edu

What is TYESA?(pronounced tie-eh-sah)

• A consortium of the 27 Community Colleges in New York State offering Engineering Science A.S. programs and the 16 New York State ABET accredited Universities.

• These A.S. degree programs are primarily designed for transfer as a 2 + 2 degree for any university in the USA.

• TYESA’s Mission in short:

Collaborate, Recruit, Ensure “Same As Same As” while Encouraging Individual

Campus’ Uniqueness, Maintain Rigor

Collaboration Efforts:Collaboration Efforts:

1. Articulation Agreements: The foundation of a good relationship between two year and four year engineering programs is a written articulation agreement that spells out in detail, course by course, how the two year curriculum matches to the curriculum at the four year institution. TYESA also created a SUNY wide articulation agreement which all the two year colleges agree to abide. This enables each school to maintain continuity between the two and four year schools, yet also allows flexibility for degree programs and campuses.

2. Transfer of Credits: Importance is given to ensuring that the bulk of credits in the campus two year A.S. degree are accepted by their transfer school. Potential problems with transfer of credits seem to be inadequate coverage of particular topics within a specific course in the two year course syllabus; mismatch of credit hours (i.e., Dynamics was a 3-credit course, but the transfer school has 4-credits); mismatch of hours within a course devoted to laboratory practice; and mismatch of textbook or computer software (i.e., C++ vs. Java, etc).

3. Students Accepted as Full Juniors: A.S. Engineering degree programs is designed for transfer as full juniors, and upon transfer are able to complete the remainder of the studies for their B.S. engineering degree in two years. This means that extensive communication must happen between each school and each transfer institution, as well as among the different engineering disciplines upon transfer. TYESA acts as a clearing house, giving everyone access to the decision makers at these institutions and within each of their departments.

4. Knowledge of Transfer College Resources: Some of our four year institutions value this relationship so much that they have specific scholarships for transfer students from the TYESA schools. These are big dollar scholarships that allow current faculty to designate their top graduate(s) for $10,000 - $13,000 at their transfer school; without competition.

Collaboration Efforts:Collaboration Efforts:5. Campus Visits and Information Exchange:

Special trips for students at the two year schools to visit four year institutions they are interested in transferring to are extremely valuable. Transfer officers at the four year school visiting engineering classes at the two year school are also a good method for information exchange. The four year institutions hosts these student groups from the two year schools for EXTENSIVE college visits (not a transfer fair), company visits, team design project collaborations, design lab tours, and general marketing and info exchange. 8.

6. Regular Communication: Communication between the four year school's transfer office and

Department heads and the two year engineering faculty is facilitated through the website, mailing lists, events, and the annual conference. This is the "oil that lubricates the rest of the machinery.” Regular communication and just getting to know each other on a familiar basis goes a long way toward facilitating all the points above. Specific transfer problems that sometimes arise for individual students can also often be ironed out through communication between the two year engineering faculty and the four year school's transfer office. The four year schools also take turns hosting the TYESA annual conference (2 days) and market their school in the process; getting all the two year schools’ faculty and administration to visit, network, and tour.

7. Distance Department and Faculty Mentoring: Since some of the two year schools are

small, there may be only one or two Engineering Faculty. Many times, the “One Man Show” for that college’s engineering curriculum lacks a cohert of like minded people on their campus. Having this consortium helps with isolation issues and provides curriculum change sounding boards. The faculty member may be alone on their own campus, but they have support, advice, supporting data, and trusted re-assurance from the rest of the state and other colleagues. TYESA also can provide that needed justification for that one person’s “opinion.” Many of the TYESA members serve on each others advisory committees and SUNY 5-yr review teams where their curriculums are peer reviewed. Also, each year, specific coursework is reviewed state wide (with the two and four year schools) and reviewed for best practices, “same as same as,” and for consistent rigor.

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