Evangel students' options expand

Linda Leicht
News Leader

When Jon Calvin takes his CPA exam at the end of the year, he will be more confident of passing because of advanced auditing classes he will take at Missouri State University.

Calvin, however, is an Evangel University student.

Thanks to a new collaboration between the two universities, some

Evangel students, such as Calvin, will be able to take graduate courses at MSU without the hassle or the expense of applying to the state university for admission and then applying to Evangel to have the credits transferred.

Friday morning, Evangel President Robert Spence and MSU President Michael Nietzel signed an agreement that allows Evangel students to participate in MSU’s accelerated master’s option.

“It’s really a great transition for outstanding, ambitious, high-achieving students,” said Nietzel during the announcement.

The accelerated master’s option, previously offered only to MSU undergraduates, allows outstanding students to be admitted into graduate programs and to enroll for a limited amount of graduate course work in their junior and senior years. Through the program, students can complete their undergraduate work while gaining credits toward a master’s degree.

Evangel students will be allowed to take MSU courses that are not available at Evangel, which only offers graduate programs in education and psychology, or at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, which offers master’s degrees in theology and ministry.

“It’s a win-win situation,” said Spence, who explained that discussions about the collaboration began a year ago when Nietzel joined MSU. “It provides MSU with some very outstanding students.” Calvin agrees. He also expects that the program will attract more students to Evangel.

“I think it’s going to be great for future students,” said Calvin, 22, of Nixa. “It will be helpful for prospective students if they know those courses are offered.”

The cost of the MSU classes will be covered in students’ Evangel tuition. Student aid and scholarships will also apply to the MSU courses, said Paul Logsdon, spokesman for Evangel.

Don Tosh, a math professor at Evangel, said his department graduates between six and 10 students each year, sending one or two to MSU to earn their graduate degrees. The new collaboration will make it possible for those students to complete their graduate studies in two years or less, he said.

“Our math department has had a very close collaboration with the

Missouri State math department,” said Tosh. The two departments held a conference last fall and will do so again this fall, he said.

The new program may draw even more Evangel students to complete their graduate studies at MSU, he said.

“Our students come from all over, but quite often by the time they’ve been here two or three years they have become comfortable with Springfield,” he said. “They would like to go to graduate school here.

“What this program would do is let them test the waters at MSU without having to make a full commitment.”

Mike Vander Steen would definitely be interested in participating in the program and going on to MSU after graduating from Evangel in 2008.

“It’s something I would love to do,” said the accounting major, who lives in northwest Indiana. He would have qualified to graduate in just three years, but now he plans to stay through four years, and add a few more semesters at MSU to complete graduate work.

“I would definitely plan on completing my master’s at MSU, rather than going somewhere else,” he said. “I think it’s a great way to recruit Evangel students.”

Nietzel said he hoped that the Evangel students would stay in Springfield and earn their graduate degrees at MSU. The collaboration, he said, could add students to the school’s graduate college, but that is not the reason for it.

“It will help students,” he said. “The issue of affordability is the motive.”

MSU will track the pattern of enrollment by Evangel students to ensure that their needs are being met, he added.

Nietzel said discussions are taking place with other area colleges about providing the same opportunity.

Related Release: Missouri State to provide accelerated master's option to Evangel students