For the past three years, Southern Union students have been able to start working toward their eventual college major by also taking classes at Auburn University. The program is called Path to the Plains, and it offers "pathways" to 27 different Auburn majors.
But what about students who want to major in something else, or who have no idea what they want to study?
Good news. There's a new "exploratory" pathway for that.
Path to the Plains, founded in 2019 as a partnership between Southern Union and Auburn University, is one of several concurrent enrollment partnerships offered at Southern Union. Concurrent enrollment, a form of dual enrollment, allows students to start on their major classes right away.
In the past, some students couldn't find a match between their interests and one of the 27 pathways.
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“We wanted to come up with a way to give students another avenue for those whose degree pathway was not offered yet,” said Tyler Laye, director of academic programs at Southern Union. “That’s where the exploratory pathway came in.”
The addition of the exploratory courses this fall will allow students to explore over 150 majors offered at Auburn by taking them through a variety of classes. Additionally, every course taken at Auburn through the program will be offered at Southern Union prices.
Ben Rushton, a junior in public relations at Auburn, first learned about the Path to the Plains program during orientation at Southern Unioin. At the time, the program only offered three pathways: two for engineering and one for public relations, which Rushton said is exactly what he wanted to do.
“I’m a generational Auburn student; I bleed orange and blue,” Rushton said. “This was an opportunity where I could take my core classes while still getting one foot in at Auburn.”
Each semester, students will complete their core classes at Southern Union, alongside one degree-focused class at Auburn. With this system, each student graduates after two years with an associate’s degree from Southern Union and is able to transfer to Auburn University with 12 credit hours, entering as a junior.
“It was the smoothest transition I could have asked for,” said Rushton, who transferred in the fall of 2021. “It’s the best thing that I possibly could have done in my situation.”
Hunter Cyr, a freshman in accounting, said he looked at Auburn’s “great finance opportunities” and liked the option that Southern Union provided him to “knock out” his basic courses through concurrent enrollment.
“I had always thought that I would do some of my basic courses at Southern Union … and I didn't realize that there was a program that made that so easy,” Cyr said. “You’ll have Auburn courses under your belt … [before] going into Auburn, and you’ll be more familiar with the community and the people there.”
Students enrolled in any pathway have access to the Auburn faculty and staff, including academic and career advisors, so they know they are on the right track before transferring.
“It really came down to the class sizes,” Cyr said. “I want to be able to have a professor who's going to be intentional about making sure that the class knows everything that they need to know, because these are foundational, and math is a key foundation in accounting.”
Today, Path to the Plains promises “access and affordability” to all its students.
To qualify, students must have been accepted to Southern Union, be a legal resident of Alabama, with a minimum 2.75 high school grade point average, be eligible for English 101 and program-specific math requirements, and have completed the application.
Those who wish to apply to the program can do so at https://www.suscc.edu/programs/ceoverview.cms.
“It's such a good program because it doesn't delay anything that you're trying to achieve,” Rushton said. “Southern Union and Auburn both set you up for success.”
Exploratory courses will begin for the first time fall 2022 and applications are first come, first served. For the spring semester program, the priority application deadline is Oct. 1, and the final application deadline is Dec. 1.
