June 01, 2022

Media Advisory: Saluki Step Ahead agreement with SIU, Southeastern Illinois College

Southern Illinois University Carbondale Chancellor Austin A. Lane and other university officials will be at Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg on Thursday, June 2, to sign a Saluki Step Ahead agreement and bring the expertise of a doctoral research university to place-bound students. Southeastern Illinois College President Jonah Rice, along with other college officials will be joining Lane.

The ceremony is at 2 p.m. in the college’s E building first-floor theater lobby. Reporters, photographers and news crews are invited to cover the ceremony. Parking is available in the south lot, front row visitor parking area below the flagpole.

The agreement will give qualified community college students the option to earn their bachelor’s degrees remotely and at a lower cost in six academic programs: accounting, business and administration, health care management, radiologic sciences, criminology and criminal justice, and psychology.

This new agreement will bring SIU Carbondale to a total of 19 Saluki Step Ahead pacts that the university has with community colleges in Illinois and Missouri.

Following graduation with an associate degree from the community college, students can go on to complete their SIU bachelor’s degrees online. Students in the program pay the community college rate for their first two years. In the third and fourth years, they receive an annual $4,000 scholarship. The goal is to allow them to earn their degree for $25,000 or less. For more about Saluki Step Ahead, read last fall’s press release.