SIOUX CITY -- Western Iowa Tech Community College is adding more transfer agreements with other regional universities, as the college moves deeper into a second half-century of educating students.
The first WIT graduating class went through ceremonies in 1967. Growth has taken place over the decades since in terms of facilities, students and staff. A recent development has enabled students to take WIT courses, then transfer those class credits to other colleges and universities where students can pursue advanced and four-year degrees.
The most recent of those so-called articulation agreements was announced in early February in conjunction with Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska.
Western Iowa Tech President Terry Murrell and Wayne State College President Marysz Rames praised the transfer agreements that allow WIT students to seamlessly transfer a wide array of associate’s degrees to earn a bachelor’s degree at Wayne State College.
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Thirty-one program articulations have been written, each laying out the pathway of courses and academic credits from the start of the WIT program all the way through to the completion of Wayne bachelor degrees.
“Wayne State College has been a great partner over the years and we are looking forward to expanding our partnership to offer more opportunities to our students," Murrell said in a news release.
Pathways from AAS to bachelor’s degree in technology include Accounting Specialist, Cyber Security and Digital Crime, Financial Services, Human Resource Management, Management, Mechanical Engineering, Network Administration and Security, Office Management, Technology Studies, and Welding Technology.
Pathways for associate of arts degree programs to bachelor's in science include Elementary Education and Business Administration.
Other articulation agreements are in place with WIT and such institutions as the three public universities in Iowa, which are Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Iowa.
WITCC’s impact isn’t limited to Sioux City and Woodbury County. Campuses and educational centers serve students in Denison, Cherokee, Le Mars and Mapleton.
Currently in the spring semester, 5,156 students attend WIT, including 2,774 college students and 2,382 dually-enrolled area high schoool students.
Iowa legislation in 1965 helped establish WIT as a vocational-technical school. Initially, three programs (mechanical design and drafting, electronics and nursing) were offered at the old Hobson School Building in the South Bottoms on Floyd Boulevard in Sioux City.
Shortly thereafter, the college began a transformation into a multi-facility campus along Stone Avenue. It started with the Dr. Robert H. Kiser Building, which was named after the college's first president. The KWIT radio station and Applied Technology building followed in the 1970s. WIT now features dorms, a security institute, a student center (named after former president Robert Dunker) and an advanced sciences building.
The number of courses offered grew throughout the '70s and '80s. In 1991, the year Dunker became president, WITCC shifted to include liberal arts and sciences in offerings, thereby becoming a comprehensive college.
That led to the addition of science labs, which allowed the school to offer a full range of science courses and establish degrees in biology, sociology, English, math and more.
James Rocklin, president of Rocklin Manufacturing, was on the board of directors when the transition was made. Rocklin said the board considered a name change to represent the shift.
“We had a discussion if we should remove ‘Tech’ from the middle of our name and the board said, ‘No, that’s how we started and that’s who we are.' It doesn’t detract from the arts and sciences, but it maintains the integrity of how we started," Rocklin said.
