Mesa College gets permission to broaden its bachelor degree programs despite opposition from CSU

Mesa College has gotten permission to offer a bachelor’s degree program for prospective physical therapy assistants despite opposition from California State University San Bernardino, which claimed that the San Diego community college was replicating one of its courses.

The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office disagreed with CSUSB’s claim and gave Mesa permission to add its second bachelor’s program. The first is focused on health information management.

The dispute represents the latest run-in between the state’s community colleges and the CSU system over bachelor’s degrees.

The state Master Plan for Higher Education used to confine community colleges to offering associate’s degrees and teaching vocational education. Bachelor’s degrees were the domain of the CSU and University of California system.

That began to change in recent years when the state slowly began to allow some community colleges to offer a limited number of bachelor’s programs. It did so because there is heavy demand for bachelor’s degrees, especially those that could be offered at lower prices than the CSU and UC.

The community colleges have received strong support from David Alvarez, a state assemblymember from San Diego, who told the Union-Tribune Friday, “I think we need a vision for what role community colleges can serve in instances like this one, where you’ve got an institution like Mesa that’s looking to offer a (particular) degree that’s not being of...