Roane To Tech Pipeline Strengthened By New University Partnership

The Roane State to Tennessee Tech Pipeline is getting a boost this fall thanks to a new partnership between the schools announced Wednesday.

Tennessee Tech Undergraduate Admissions Director Dr. Steve Keller said admission to Tech can be guaranteed through two pathways. Dual enrollment through select programs or completion of any associates degree.

“We wanted to make it as easy as possible for students to begin their education at Roane State,” Keller said. “Go through that wonderful institution and then finish things up at Tennessee Tech with the least amount of resistance.”

Keller said prior to the partnership, hundreds of Roane State students were making the transition to Tech, making the community college the first priority for partnership. Keller said taking part is simple, either speak with the student success coach to do dual enrollment or simply apply to tech if you’re completing your associates degree.

“There are five parent programs that are included in the initial list of dual admission, Roane to Tech program,” Keller said. “There’s agriculture, biology, business, psychology, and sociology. These programs also include multiple concentrations. For example, within biology there’s botany, cellular and molecular biology, conservation biology, environmental biology, fisheries biology, health science, marine biology, wildlife biology and zoology. So that’s just one example.”

Keller said a larger part of this effort is a way to blend the two institutions together. He said the two schools want to blend the transfer populations, even combining their mascots.

“The term Golden Raider, really just came about because we want there to be little to no daylight between our two institutions,” Keller said. “At Tennessee Tech we’re the Golden Eagles and at Roane State they’re the Raiders and so we are the Golden Raiders for students who are a part of this Roane to Tech program.”

The program between the two is launching during the fall semester. As Roane to Tech continues, the number of accepted academic programs is expected to grow.