House passes higher education bill to governor

By Lesley Weidenbener
The Statehouse File

INDIANAPOLIS – The House voted 91-2 on Monday to send a bill to Gov. Mitch Daniels that will make it easier for Indiana’s college students to take classes that will transfer to other schools.

Senate Bill 182 creates a common numbering system for general education courses at all public colleges and universities starting May 15, 2013.

“This bill is about accessibility, accountability and completions for our college students,” said Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis. “This is a really good piece of legislation.”

The Senate already approved the bill.

The legislation is part of a larger effort by the Commission for Higher Education to ensure that general education classes a student takes at one college can be transferred for full credit to another.

Already, the state has a “core transfer library” that has about 85 different classes with credits that can be transferred among state schools. But the numbering system is different at each school. For example, the Introduction to American Politics at Indiana University is POLY-Y103 but the course is American Government and Politics at Purdue and is labeled POL 10100.

The bill will require the higher education commission to establish a common numbering system for those classes. That could help to ensure that students don’t have to retake classes after a transfer, which costs money and time.

Also, it would establish that a student with an associate’s degree is considered to have met at least 30 semester credit hours of the general education requirements for a bachelor’s degree.

The bill’s author, Rep. Mike Karickhoff, R-Kokomo, said the bill is a “student friendly initiative that will hold down costs for students and the state.

Lesley Weidenbener is managing editor of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.