Program helps prepare students for university life

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) A program that helps prepare undergraduate students for the rigors of a university is giving Oklahomans more chances at getting a higher education. <br/><br/>The program allows students

Monday, June 13th 2005, 6:30 am

By: News On 6

STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) A program that helps prepare undergraduate students for the rigors of a university is giving Oklahomans more chances at getting a higher education.

The program allows students to enroll at the two-year Northern Oklahoma College, which teaches undergraduate classes in a shopping center across from Oklahoma State University.

Students can live, study and eat on the OSU campus, where they enjoy the same privileges as OSU students. After completing 24 hours of NOC coursework they can transfer to OSU, where officials say they will be better prepared for a university education.

Joseph Blythe, 49, hadn't been to class since graduating from high school in 1974. But he was ready for a change after a backbreaking career of servicing oil wells.

At NOC, Blythe found smaller classes, remedial courses to bring him up to speed in English and math and more interaction with professors. He excelled in his studies and works part time as an algebra tutor.

The Stillwater man enrolls this fall in OSU's honors college, where he wants to study business.

``Making the choice to come here is one of the best things I've done in my entire life,'' Blythe said. ``It's like I'm a kid again.''

Lacey Bleem, 20, of Duncan, said she feared she'd get lost in the big classes at OSU, but she wanted the same campus experience as her older brother.

She likes attending OSU football games and uses the library and computer labs frequently.

``It's just like being an OSU student,'' said Bleem, who'll take another semester at NOC before transferring full time to OSU, where she'll study to be an elementary school teacher.

The sutdnets are examples of Oklahomans who might not have sought a college education in another setting, said Debbie Quirey, director of the NOC campus in Stillwater.

Students benefit from classes that have no more than 45 students, though most have half that. Because most professors are adjunct or also teach at NOC's main campus in Tonkawa, they have more time to focus on student achievement than do tenure-track professors at research universities, Quirey said.

OSU also benefits because NOC provides remedial courses to OSU-enrolled students. Most remedial students need help with math.

NOC offers classes in a renovated movie theater in the Cowboy Mall shopping center. Keeping up has been difficult, as enrollment has grown from 500 two years ago to an expected 1,500 in the fall.

The enrollment surge has made the NOC system one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the nation.

NOC is expanding into space that a pizza parlor and military recruiting office vacated. A higher education bond issue approved by the Legislature will provide $3 million for a new classroom building that OSU and NOC will share.