Page 22 - BusinessWest November 24, 2025

Elms College
President
Harry Dumay
recently
announced
that the
college
expanded its
articulation
agreement
with HCC
and STCC
to allow
students
at those
colleges to
live on the
Elms campus.
“We’re really
centering equity
efforts. We don’t
always want
to polish just
the shiniest of
apples, but we’re
making sure we’re
reaching out to
that student who
may not have
thought of college
as an option —
but help them
do it in ways that
make sense.”
ing or life experience. Under the new agreement, students who
are accepted into UWW-IS and have completed Tech Foundry’s
18-week immersive hybrid training program will receive 15 credits
via special transcript, which is equivalent to a full semester course-
load. The collaboration builds on earlier programs in which UMass
Amherst IT provided internships for Tech Foundry trainees.
“Tech Foundry’s senior team has been collaborating with various
members of UMass leadership in a variety of ways over the last cou-
ple of years. Our partnership has evolved to include working with
the IT staff on workforce priorities and employment opportunities,”
said Tricia Canavan, CEO of Tech Foundry, who called the new col-
laboration an important expansion of opportunity for Tech Foundry
students.
UWW-IS Department Administrator Siobhan
Henderson said the collaboration also enhances
University Without Walls’ longtime relationship
with Springfield residents. “We are committed
to meeting learners where they are — profes-
sionally, academically, and geographically. This
collaboration aligns with our UWW-IS mission
that was founded more than 50 years ago: to
open doors to adults who thought achieving a
bachelor’s degree was unattainable.”
Opportunity Knocks
Gov. Maura Healey has called Early College
programs a central element of her administra-
tion’s Reimagining High School initiative to pre-
pare students for college or careers and expand
access for those historically underrepresented in
higher education — at a time when higher edu-
cation is already facing demographic headwinds
in the form of fewer high school graduates.
“Early college is an important and effective
tool for making higher education more acces-
sible and affordable for every Massachusetts stu-
dent,” she said earlier this year. “These new partnerships give more
young people the opportunity to earn college credit at no cost while
still in high school, setting them on a path to success and helping to
close opportunity gaps.”
Dodge sees such efforts as steps in the right direction, and con-
siders the college campus immersion element an important part of
the process.
“The intent, in senior year, is to have students be on our campus
taking college-level courses, similar to the models for dual enroll-
ment in the past,” he
explained. “Students
can take 12 to 15 credits
over the course of senior
College
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NOVEMBER 24, 2025
Business W est