(News on Manor Junior College)
Manor in Focus
Associate Degrees: Open Doors to Opportunity
The American axiom that every individual has a right to education beyond the high school level, to the limits of his or her abilities and motivation, is responsible for one of the most notable developments in post-high school education of the twentieth century, that of the two-year college, professionally known as the junior college. Emerging from the "enfant terrible" stage at the beginning of the century, the junior college has progressed on its own merits, as a specific type of educational institution in American Higher Education, which is qualified to confer the Associate in Arts and the Associate in Science degrees upon qualified graduates who fulfill the required graduation requirements.
In 1925, the American Association of Junior Colleges defined the junior college as an institution offering two years of instruction of strictly collegiate grade in courses equivalent to those offered in the first two years of a four-year college. The junior college does not purport to make its excuse for being the preparation for the university. It, nevertheless, prepares its graduates to further their study at a four-year college, in its transfer program. This is the junior college's traditional task; yet, it has other worthy purposes for students who will not be able to pursue further education in the university, and who, in fact, should not work toward the baccalaureate degree.
The Associate degree has frequently been looked upon with skepticism, and as an inferior type of degree. An evaluation of its merits proves it does have an interesting history.
At the turn of the century, in 1900, the University of Chicago began to award the associate degree in Arts to all students who successfully completed the two-year junior college program of studies. Stanford University required for entrance, on and after August 1, 1910, two years or sixty units of college work, equivalent to an Associate in Arts as granted by the University of Chicago. The California Junior College Federation passed a resolution in 1930, asking that the degree be authorized and conferred upon all graduates, irrespective of whether they had completed the certificate course or the semi-professional course. By 1956 the degree had gained wide favor in educational circles, which was, as of this date, authorized in all states where there were junior colleges, except in Virginia. The Federation requested that the Associate Degree be made the official stamp of approval on a junior college education as definite collegiate accomplishment.
Manor Junior College confers the Associate in Arts (A.A.) and the Associate in Science (A.S.) degrees on qualified graduates who fulfill graduation requirements. It stresses a minimum of 66 semester hours of work, of which at least 30 must be completed at Manor in the sophomore year, in addition to the completion of specific course requirements in the student's area of specialization. To graduate, the student must maintain a cumulative Grade Point Average of 2.0. Some of the diversified educational functions provided at Manor are:
Manor Junior College has demonstrated its ability to meet the needs of a changing society in its adaptability to a program of courses geared to these needs. This is especially true when the past five years of the college's existence are reviewed. As a private, independent Catholic college, Manor supports its complex liberal arts, secretarial, and career-oriented programs, partly by the tuition of the students, and partly by the moral and financial support of its benefactors and friends, in its Annual Gifts Campaign. Founded in 1947 by the Ukrainian Sisters of St. Basil the Great, Manor endeavors to maintain its cultural plurality, its Ukrainian heritage and traditions in its course program, and in the recently-opened Ukrainian Heritage Center and Folklore Museum. In addition to the traditional, already existent liberal arts and secretarial programs, Manor offers a variety of programs in the Allied Health Curriculum, which enables its graduates to obtain the Associate in Science Degree in Dental Assisting, Medical Assisting, and Medical Laboratory Technology, thus making available excellent job opportunities as Dental Assistants, Medical Assistants, and Medical Technicians, in hospitals, clinics and laboratories. The Business curriculum now includes such specialized programs as Accounting and Court Reporting.
The co-educational Evening Division and Continuing Education offers the Real Estate program, which has become a favorite with many students. Manor's graduates are accepted at Temple, Drexel, Rutgers, Villanova Universities, La Salle, Gwynedd-Mercy, Holy Family, St. Joseph, Penn State, West Chester, Bloomsburg, Wheeling Thomas Jefferson, and other colleges.
Post-high school education is thus made available to every student, although, not all students qualify for the academic program in a four-year college. Those who wish to pursue technical, vocational or professional preparatory programs in a variety of choices, and to find their place in their immediate community and in society, have a splendid opportunity to do so in a junior college. Students with a specialized talent might otherwise be neglected. Hence, the Associate Degree is not an inferior degree, or a "misnomer", but rather, a "stamp of approval," which opens to the student possessing it the opportunity to pursue career-oriented programs, or be for them an open door to upper level studies in a four-year college.
As such Manor has done, and will continue to perform, a vital educational service to young ladies, regardless of creed or ethnic background. Manor is located in a pleasant suburban area of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. The Admissions Office will supply any information regarding Manor, upon request. Write to: Manor Junior College, Admissions Office, Jenkintown, Pa. 19046, tel. (215) 885-2360.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 31, 1977, No. 289, Vol. LXXXIV
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