RMC, Fort Peck College collaborate on program

Rocky Mountain College will offer reduced tuition to Fort Peck Community College students registering for Rocky’s elementary education distance-learning program.

An agreement between the two colleges was signed recently by FPCC President Jim Shanley and Thomas Oates, president of Rocky.

Under that agreement, tuition for full-time Fort Peck students in the Rocky program will be $1,915 a semester, which is the same charged by Montana State University-Northern at Havre.

Students complete the degree by taking distance-learning classes taught by Rocky professors in Billings and transmitted by interactive television to classrooms at Fort Peck or in Wolf Point.

To find out more, contact Dan Burkhart at 1-800-657-6259 or via e-mail at [email protected].

At FPCC, contact Donna Buckles-Whitmer, 1-406-768-3231 or e-mail to [email protected].

Fort Peck students also must spend one summer semester at the Rocky campus in Billings.

More than 40 FPCC students have graduated from the RMC program and are teaching at elementary schools. Many are teaching at reservation schools.

"We have enjoyed a relationship with Rocky Mountain College for many years, and this move is one that will further strengthen that relationship and our combined efforts to improve opportunities for our students," Shanley said.

"We want to emphasize our commitment to a program that encourages FPCC students to obtain their teaching degree, a program which we have been involved with for 13 years," Oates said. "The reduced tuition cost should make the program available to a greater number of FPCC students who have completed their two-year associate degree."

Oates hopes to make similar agreements with other tribal colleges.

American Indian students encounter daunting economic obstacles, and the tuition reduction will help them overcome that hurdle, Oates said.

"The distance learning program is a way for them to avoid the high cost of relocating to a distant campus," he said. "It allows them to stay close to family and community."

Under an earlier agreement between the colleges, students who have completed an associate degree at Fort Peck Community College can work toward a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Rocky.

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