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Butler University is partnering with a national not-for-profit to create a two-year college on its Indianapolis campus—an initiative it says will offer an affordable pathway for historically underserved students who want to pursue higher education after high school, the university announced Friday.
Students can begin enrolling in the program in the fall 2025 semester. The college will initially offer associate degrees in business or allied health but will likely expand to include other fields of study. Butler is launching a national search for an inaugural dean for the new college.
The program, which is designed for students of color, first-generation college students and those from low-income households, will also create a pathway for students who want to pursue bachelor’s degrees.
Students enrolled in the program can earn their associate degree with no debt or out-of-pocket expenses, and most will have the opportunity to continue at Butler and earn a bachelor’s degree for less than $10,000, Butler University President Jim Danko said.
“This gives them a credential and a pathway to a degree, and addresses our state workforce strategy—the idea of increasing and retaining college graduates and training workers,” Danko told IBJ.
The university is also in the process of securing a donor for the new college, which does not yet have a name.
Butler is the third university to join the New York City-based Come to Believe Network, a not-for-profit that helps higher education institutions launch two-year college programs. The not-for-profit provided Butler with $500,000 in seed funding, made possible by a gift from Chicago-area-based Schreiber Philanthropy.
Steve Katsouros, founder and president of the Come to Believe Network, said more than 80% of graduates from CTB programs transfer to four-year schools and 75% graduate with a bachelor’s degree.
“We believe that Butler will be very successful in replicating our model,” Katsouros told IBJ.
The not-for-profit has also launched programs at Arrupe College at Loyola University in Chicago and Dougherty Family College at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.
Carlos Martinez, a Chicago native who enrolled in the program at Arrupe College and now works for Come to Believe, said the two-year college looks to support youth who are often overlooked because of their backgrounds.
“I grew up with a single mother who did not complete college,” Martinez said. “Come to Believe is trying to reach these types of students, because they are so talented. They’ve really blown me away with their talents, their intelligence and their commitment to developing themselves.”
The launch of the program comes as other higher education institutions are working to increase the number of job-ready graduates in Indianapolis and make college more accessible to Hoosiers.
Last month, Indiana University said it would allow students at Indianapolis Public Schools who have a grade point average of at least 3.0 to receive automatic admission to IU Indianapolis.
About 53% of Hoosier high schoolers went to college in 2021, according to data from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, which is down from about 65% in 2015.
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This “Come to Believe” Network sounds like a scam run by private schools to trap low-income students into paying exorbitant tuition for their final two years to earn a bachelor’s, after having earned a reasonably-priced associate’s degree. This might make Butler more affordable, but it certainly doesn’t make college more affordable in Indiana. Budget conscious students already have excellent opportunities in Indy through IU and Purdue.
If you want an affordable college degree you go to Ben Davis University – graduate high school with an associates and then commute to IU/Purdue Indy for 2 years and you have spent maybe around 30k to get an instate college degree
Still not feasibly affordable for most
The article says “most will have the opportunity to continue at Butler and earn a bachelor’s degree for less than $10,000”. How is that an “exorbitant tuition” for the final two years?
The way I read it, the $10,000 is for the associate’s degree — if not, the article has omitted the cost of the associate’s degree, which would be odd.