Troy University Reaches Out to Business Community
March 2016
By David Zaslawsky
Photography by Robert Fouts
When Troy University Vice Chancellor Lance Tatum first came to lead the Montgomery campus, there was one corporate partnership with the Montgomery Water Works & Sanitary Sewer Board.
A corporate partnership is a win-win for the university and an organization’s employees. For Troy University the win is more students, and for employees, there is a 10 percent tuition discount and application fees are waived. The application fee for undergraduate is $30 and $50 for a graduate. That 10 percent discount ranges from $86 a class for an undergraduate to $148 for a graduate student taking an online course.
Plus an employee who goes back to college for either a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree may benefit with higher pay and promotions. There were nearly 70 applications submitted and there were 15 new enrollments.
Although the program is in its infancy, there are now 19 active corporate partnerships and three that are awaiting signatures.
The university is at the stage of “building awareness for this type of program,” said Tatum. “We are probably looking at a two- to three-year growth period before we really see the type of involvement with the corporate partnerships.”
The Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce is a corporate partner and that means that not only full-time Chamber employees, but full-time employees of Chamber members are eligible to participate in the program. Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce, Millbrook Area Chamber of Commerce and Wetumpka Area Chamber of Commerce are also corporate partners.
Some state agencies are corporate partners and two businesses – MAX Credit Union and Jackson Hospital – are corporate partners and Tatum said they would like to have other financial institutions and health care firms join the ever-growing list.
“We’re always looking to add more,” Tatum said. “We want to strengthen our connection to the business community.” He said the university targets businesses and organizations “where our degree plans are relevant to them.”
So far, the bulk of the participants in the corporate partnership program study in the Sorrell College of Business to obtain a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree. Some are enrolled in a graduate-level computer science program.
He talked about the region’s higher education being “a very crowded market. We have a number of quality, respectable institutions that are in this community. To go head-to-head with Alabama State or Faulkner or AUM on traditional experiences is really not what we’re about.
“What we’re trying to do is find a space in there that we can operate in. We really think it’s that career advancement/professional development piece where we’re going to find the best opportunity for us to (grow).”
The focus is on graduate education, Tatum said, but not at the expense of undergraduate degrees. This past fall the average age of first-time students at the Montgomery campus was 21, according to Tatum. The focus is also on a non-traditional student, “who most likely is working a full-time job and who is looking to go back to school,” Tatum said.
There are late afternoon and evening classes as well as online classes. The majority of associate degree classes and nursing classes are held during the day.
When Tatum talks to businesses and organizations about becoming a corporate partner, he said there is a reluctance about appearing to limit employees to one option. “I have no problems if you have partnerships with other institutions. I think that’s great. All I’m looking for is being in the mix.”
The university recently hired Amy Waters as director of community outreach to “maintain those relationships (corporate partnerships) and make sure that we’re doing the types of things that we need to do to keep the partnerships alive and relevant,” he said. “And look for new business opportunities as well in partnerships.”
