For release: September 12, 2011
For press information, contact Bobby Smith, 731-425-3520

Beginning this fall, students at Jackson State Community College can choose, while still enrolled at Jackson State, to be admitted to the University of Memphis, for an easier transition from the two-year school to the four-year one.

U of M President Shirley Raines and JSCC President Bruce Blanding will sign the Partnership Enrollment Program (PEP) agreement Tuesday, Sept. 13, at 3:30 p.m. at Jackson State Community College in the McWherter Center’s Kisber Conference Room.

The program is open to Jackson State students who have taken fewer than 30 credit hours toward their associate’s degree. Immediately upon earning their two-year degree with a minimum overall combined GPA of 2.0 as computed by the University of Memphis, they will be eligible to begin classes at the U of M. 

The agreement benefits students by reducing the total cost of higher education by encouraging students to complete the associate's degree at the community college. It will enable them to enjoy improved and collaborative academic advising, and to make an easier transition to a four-year university. In addition, PEP participants will not be charged an additional application fee when they transition to the U of M after graduation from Jackson State.

Operation of the program will be shared between the two schools. They will jointly oversee such responsibilities as academic advising, decisions regarding class content and coordinating participants’ transfer process.

Other partner community colleges include Southwest Tennessee Community College, Dyersburg State Community College and Mid-South Community College.

This fall, the U of M began offering classes at its new Lambuth Campus, which was created after Lambuth University, a private, Methodist-supported school, ceased operation after more than a century and a half.  The former Lambuth campus and facilities have been leased by the Tennessee Board of Regents until final transfer arrangements are finalized.  At the Lambuth Campus, the U of M will teach classes that it formerly taught on the Jackson State campus, and it will also offer classes for upperclassmen, making it a four-year, public college campus in Jackson, within easy access for Jackson-area and West Tennessee-area students

More information about PEP is available from Jackson State Community College at 731-425-3520, ext. 432, from the University of Memphis at 901-678-2111, or online at www.memphis.edu/pep.