New program from JWCC and SIUC allows students to ‘become Trailblazers and Salukis at the same time’

QUINCY — The John Wood Community College Trailblazers and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale Salukis finalized an agree Wednesday afternoon, as leaders from both institutions presented a program that will enable JWCC students to continue their educational careers at SIU-C online and at a lower cost.

JWCC President Bryan Renfro and SIUC Chancellor Austin A. Lane shared a few laughs, a couple of sarcastic comments about the lovely 89º fall weather Illinois has been having and a handful of ‘Do you know so and so?‘s’ before signing an agreement for the Saluki Step Ahead program in a virtual ceremony. It was a very midwestern — albeit modern — affair.

With Renfro stationed at the college’s 1302 S. 48th St. campus and Lane situated some four hours south in Carbondale, it was also representative of the convenient and community-minded nature of the program itself.

“(Students) don’t have to come to Carbondale (four) hours away,” Lane said. “They can stay right there with you and not upset your economic development that’s happening in Quincy … We’re excited to have this partnership.”

JWCC is the 45th college to join the Saluki Step Ahead program, which launched in 2021. The partnership offers 12 online programs through SIUC and $8,000 in scholarships to qualified students wanting to pursue their bachelor’s degree in a convenient and cost effective manner. 

Saluki Step Ahead aims to save students time and money

With extensive backgrounds in leadership positions at various institutions of higher education, Renfro and Lane share in a deep understanding of what their students need and how to help them achieve their goals.

“It doesn’t surprise me that someone with a community college background (and) understanding… was involved in crafting (the program), so we appreciate that here,” Renfro said.

“For us, it’s about creating as many different opportunities for our students that we can. We know some of them may want to come there (to Carbondale), but some of them may want to stay here (in Quincy). Either way, we know that they’re getting a quality education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.”

Students must graduate with their associate’s degree from a partnered institution with at least a 2.0 GPA to qualify for the program. To maximize cost efficiency, students should apply for the program during their first year at JWCC; doing so will ensure students won’t end up taking classes they don’t actually need to obtain their bachelor’s degree.

Most programs require 60 credit hours to be completed to obtain an associate’s degree and an additional 60 credit hours of program-specific courses to obtain a bachelor’s degree, resulting in 120 credit hours total by the time a student graduates. But Lane said transfer students from community colleges often arrive at four-year institutions with far more credit hours than needed.

“The financial piece is critical because … community college students are coming with maybe 70, 80, 90 hours, when it doesn’t take that many hours at all. They’re graduating with us at 150 (credit hours), so we want to cut that way down,” Lane said. “The way to do that is to put them on a pathway as soon as they get to John Wood: they can make their decision to sign with us and be done in four years — if not, sooner.”

Are a few extra credit hours really that expensive, though? 

According to tuition estimates based on the 2023-2024 academic year,  the cost of tuition and fees for one 3-credit hour class at JWCC can range from roughly $540 to $900, depending on if the course is online or in person and if a student is from inside or outside of John Wood’s 2,400 square-mile district.

Tuition estimates for the fall 2024 semester at SIUC estimate the cost of tuition and fees for one 3-credit hour course at SIUC to range from about  $1,200 to $2,475, depending on if a student is online or in-person. 

By these figures, an extra semester’s worth of unnecessary courses can cost a student anywhere from $2,870 to $8,250.

Simply put: yes, especially without any grants or scholarships, unnecessary credit hours really are that expensive.

Creating opportunities, from Quincy to Carbondale

In addition to the convenience of online programs and the obvious financial benefits of lower overall costs, the programs hail from an institution with robust research initiatives spanning several disciplines. The university is categorized as a R-2 doctoral research university indicating “high research activity,” and was recognized by The Princeton Review as being one of the best colleges in the midwest for 2025.

Eligible students will have twelve online academic programs to choose from to complete their bachelor’s degree:

• accounting;
• business administration;
• criminology and criminal justice;
• early childhood;
• elementary education;
• healthcare management;
• history;
• industrial management and applied engineering;
• information technology;
• nursing (RN to BSN);
• psychology;
• and radiologic sciences.

“We put our Saluki Step Ahead in place really as a way to put our flag in the ground to be one of the most transfer-friendly institutions in the state,” Lane said. “(SIUC) is focused on… making sure (transfer students) continue their hours to count towards their degree, and not just the transcript.”

The Saluki Step Ahead program is one of several ways SIUC seeking to appeal to transfer students. The institution has articulation agreements with 544 colleges, including JWCC,  that guarantee students’ credits will be successfully transferred to SIUC; agreements incorporate specific courses at individual junior colleges and SIUC into program specific degree plans and comprehensive transfer guides. The university also has their AIM High/Saluki Commitment, which covers whatever costs that aren’t covered by a qualifying student’s financial aid package for four consecutive semesters for transfer students.

Three out of four JWCC students are planning on transferring to four-year colleges after obtaining their associate’s degree, according to a press release regarding the JWCC University Transfer Center, which opened in the spring.

Quincy native Alayna Schmoe, a sophomore at JWCC studying communications, is one of those students. 

“I plan to transfer to a four-year university,” she said. “Go study there, maybe get my masters.”

The location and price is what made Schmoe choose to attend JWCC before moving onto a larger school. Though she had to take out loans for her first year of classes, she obtained a full-ride scholarship for the 2024-2025 school year.

“I never really thought about it until I got to college — of how much it really does cost to go to college,” Schmoe said. “So definitely being here, I understand how cost effective … the programs that we have here at John Wood are because they offer great classes and everything like that for a really reasonable rate.”

‘Imagining’ a new path forward for SIUC

The Education Data Initiative estimates that “the average public university student borrows $32,362 to attain a bachelor’s degree,” making programs that incentivize students with significant cost cuts, like the Saluki Step Ahead, especially attractive to students.

Enrollment at SIUC had been steadily declining since reaching a peak of almost 25,000 students in the fall of 1991. But this fall, the university announced that, for the first time in over 20 years, enrollment rose two years in a row. The recent rebound can be attributed to the efforts of the university’s Imagine 2030 plan, launched in November of 2021, which identified five pillars of focus that served as a guide for strategic planning:

• student success and engagement;
• diversity, equity and inclusion;
• branding and partnerships;
• research and innovation;
• and sustainability.

The plan seeks to earn a spot on US News and World Report’s top 200 list of national universities (they’re currently tied with University of St. Francis in Joliet for #280); Princeton University currently holds the #1 spot. SIUC does, however, rank #151 on their Top Public Schools list, which the University of California, Berkeley takes the top spot for.

With the latest enrollment numbers, the university is on track to meet yet another one of the plan’s objectives: to reach an enrollment of 15,000 students by 2025.

With a 111 percent annual enrollment increase in the Saluki Step Ahead program as of this month, a pack of Trailblazers could very well assist in the attainment of that goal.

“(Students) become Trailblazers and Salukis at the same time,” Lane said. “When they walk onto the John Wood campus, they can really exhale knowing they’re Salukis while they’re going to John Wood and that in two years, they’re going to be right on track to finishing their degree.”

Students interested in the Saluki Step Ahead program can apply here. The general application for undergraduate students, which is free to submit until Oct. 31, can be found here.