From the Chapman University Press Room:


Chapman University and 
Saddleback College
 have joined forces in an effort to create more graduates in the sciences. In a formal agreement to be signed by the two schools on April 21, the partnership aligns Saddleback College’s science programs with Chapman’s Schmid College of Science and Technology majors and 
Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences
 majors.

Under the transfer agreement, to be eligible, Saddleback students pre-identify a science major and take a specific set of courses that will automatically fill the first and second year course work of the major at Chapman. As long as the students achieve high performance standards for these courses, they are eligible to transfer directly to Chapman University to complete their science major.

“Saddleback is an official STEM-designated college; STEM – an acronym for science, technology, engineering and math – making this transfer agreement a perfect match for Chapman,” said 
Janeen Hill, Ph.D.
, dean of both the Schmid College of Science and Technology and the Crean College of Behavioral Sciences at Chapman. “This partnership allows students a more affordable option to obtain a four-year degree in the growing demand in the sciences.”

This agreement has been two years in the making as Chapman has been working to enhance its presence in the sciences. Chapman is considering more partnerships with other community colleges.

“It is a true honor to be the first community college to partner with Chapman University on this momentous transfer agreement,” said 
Tod A. Burnett, Ph.D., president of Saddleback College
. “Not only does the agreement enable our students to seamlessly transfer to Chapman, but the university provides a top-of-the-line learning environment for our students to succeed.”

This partnership follows in the steps of other major announcements from Chapman in the past year dedicated to growth in science. In addition to purchasing new facilities in Irvine that are being transformed into the 
Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus
, Chapman is currently raising funds to build the new 
Center for Science and Technology
 on its Orange campus.

Further, the formal creation of the Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences to be led by Dean Janeen Hill was recently 
announced
 – it will split off from the Schmid College of Science and Technology, and become an independent school on June 1, 2014. The Schmid College will be led by incoming 
Dean Andrew Lyon, Ph.D.
, who comes to Chapman from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Also on the horizon in the sciences at Chapman are the enrollments of the first cadres of students in the fall of 2015 for both the 
School of Pharmacy
, as well as for the new 
Physician Assistant
 program; both of which are housed at the Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus in Irvine.

Between the Schmid and Crean Colleges, Chapman offers 11 undergraduate degree programs, eight graduate degree programs and one Ph.D. degree in both basic and applied sciences. The undergraduate programs include biochemistry and molecular biology, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, computer information systems, environmental science and policy, health sciences, math, physics, psychology, and software engineering. The graduate programs include food science, physical therapy, marriage & family therapy, and computational science, which has both an M.S. and Ph.D. degree program offering. There are also three Centers of Excellence in: Earth Systems Modeling and Observation; Computation, Algebra and Topology; and Complex and Hyper Complex Analysis.

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