PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College is now fully accredited to offer its own four-year degrees, said Tom Keegan, college president.
The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities of Redmond evaluated the community college over the course of the spring quarter and granted the status to the school last month, Keegan said Tuesday.
The status means that the one four-year program that the college offers without working in partnership with another institution — the applied management bachelor’s degree — is accredited and also that it may begin offering other four-year degrees, although it has no plans to do so soon, Keegan added.
The letter from the Northwest Commission informing the college that it met its standards, says:
“The commission commends the Peninsula College faculty, staff, students and administrators as highly collaborative, dedicated, enthusiastic and genuinely committed and collectively determined to meet challenges faced by the college as evidenced by the institution’s beautiful, efficient facilities, successful grant development and effective teaching.”
The applied management program’s first class of 14 people graduated in 2009.
The program was set up as a pilot program as part of the process of accreditation, Keegan said.
“First, the Washington State Legislature has to approve the four-year degree on a pilot program, and then it goes to the Higher Education Coordinating Board, where we competed with other colleges, and we were selected for the program,” Keegan said.
“Candidacy status is the idea that you have to have a program before you can accredit it.
“This is a significant milestone for our college.”
Although it will not be Peninsula College’s own degree, the college is finalizing an agreement with Western Washington University in Bellingham to offer students at the community college a general studies liberal arts degree through the university, Keegan said.
He said he hoped the degree would begin in the winter quarter, but it depended on how negotiations with the university go.
Keegan said that degree program puts in place one of the final pieces since a study was done about five years ago that revealed local employers were looking for employees with degrees in environmental science, business management, liberal arts and teaching.
The college has worked in partnership with Western’s Huxley College of the Environment to offer a four-year degree in environmental science.
Seattle City University offers four-year teaching degrees through Peninsula College.
“It is time to redo that study and see what areas employers and employees are looking for us to have training,” Keegan said.
“We will continue to work with employers in workforce training needs and develop appropriate degree programs.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
