Students say transfer to PSH is smooth Students who change schools during their academic careers often have trouble transferring earned credits, which translates into additional classes and increased expenses. For those who choose Penn State Harrisburg as their final stop in the pursuit of a bachelor's degree, the transition usually takes place with very few glitches. Most of the concerns or complaints students have center around sched uling or lack of student facilities. Patti Lutz, a junior in psychology, attended the Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) before coming to PSH. Lutz participated in a dual admissions program that guaranteed credit acceptance into her major as long as she main tained a minimum 2.0 grade point average. According to Thomas Streveler, director Enrollment Services, Penn State Harrisburg and HACC also have an articulation agreement. The agreement is designed to allow students to attend HACC and then transfer into a major at PSH "having met the curricula admission requirements for the major." To ensure a smooth transition, advisers at HACC have transfer guides that give information on what courses are equivalent to Penn State's. "Staff, administra tion and faculty from both schools meet annually to discuss our joint work for transferring students," said Penny Carlson, academic advisor for Undergraduate Studies. For students transferring from other accredited schools the acceptance of cred its may depend on review of course syllabi in addition t 6 academic transcripts. Some degree programs may also require interviews, auditions and completion of certain prerequisites. "I don't find our policies any more rigid that those of other colleges and univer sities," said Carlson. She said that Penn State's programs are very fair when it comes to transferring credits as long as the course content is equivalent. Jenn Morris, criminal justice, transferred to PSH from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (lUP). Morris said that all of her credits transferred to PSH, although it took longer for everything to fall in place because she had attended other schools before lUP. "I like that everything can be done on the computer," Morris said With the use of the Transfer Course Evaluation Guide on Penn State's website, students can input course information for review online. Evaluated courses are Police Services seeks 2nd defibrillator By MICHAEL GREEN Staff Reporter One of the top priorities for Police Services's Chief Kevin Stoehr is for the Capital College to obtain another defibrillator to add to the two that the college currently has-one here at Harrisburg and the other at the Schuylkill campus. Stoehr currently has six full-time and six part-time sworn officers at PSH, and four full-time and three part-time officers at the Schuylkill campus. He also has numerous students serving as auxiliaries, normally with administrative tasks. The Harrisburg force maintains at least one sworn officer on duty at all times to patrol the campus from the Meade Heights area to the new Village residence area. One of the reasons that Stoehr would like to obtain a defibrillator is that it needs to be readily available for any possible incident. "People confuse a heart attack with sudden cardiac arrest. People have a gen eral idea what a heart attack is, and people are normally conscious. With sud den cardiac distress, the person's heart stops and they collapse. If the heart is not restarted with a defibrillator, they will die within five to eight minutes," Stoehr said. Currently, the defibrillator is carried by the officer on duty. However, if a per son would require the device in the Olmsted Building, Police Services would have to rush to the Olmsted Building, wasting precious seconds. The price for a new defibrillator has been estimated at roughly $2,400, with the price expected to continue to drop in the future. "You see [defibrillators] are everywhere now, as the price comes down, they'll be like fire extinguishers, you don't even notice them," said Stoehr. As the pool addition to the Capital Union Building nears completion, a new concern for Police Services is the expected influx of local community use of the pool. The local communities have funded the construction of the pool for use by their residents. While it is unclear how much traffic the pool will get, it will create a new set of parking patterns, new traffic on campus, a need for life guards and safety training, and more police patrols in and around the CUB. In regard to campus safety, the demolition of Meade Heights will allow offi cers to spend more time patrolling the central campus area between Olmsted and the CUB, ultimately shortening patrol routes. By JODI PREISLER Copy Editor RIGHT: Acedemic Advisor for Undergraduate Studies Penny Carlson (right) counsels Jerome Appel, an electrical enginerring major. photo by Jodi Preisler then stored in a database accessible to students and advisors "With good research and advice the transfer process can work very smoothly," Carlson said. Morris suggests that students who intend to transfer to PSH get things done as soon as possible. She and Lutz both found their biggest challenge was schedul- ing courses "I had a hard time making a schedule since PSH only offers their classes one time, whereas HACC offered every class about 10 times," Lutz said. "Overall I like PSH a lot better than HACC." Lutz said she especially loves the coffee shop, the cafeteria and the library. Students seem to find that in general PSH compares favorably to other univer sities. Jerome Appel, electrical engineering, started at Penn State's Wilkes-Barre campus. The only trouble he encountered was that some of the course numbers at PSH were different from what he was familiar with at Wilkes-Barre. Transferring to another school, like many other changes in life, can be relative ly painless with a little preparation. "My recommendation is that students should be proactive and thoughtful in planning for a transfer to any university when possible," Carlson said. The Undergraduate Admissions office is responisble for determining what credits will be accepted by the University. After that, the each department deter mines how the credits will be applied to the major's degree requirements.
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