Harper degree gets new support

Harper College in Palatine has found a new ally in freshman State Sen. Matt Murphy.

The Palatine Republican said Monday he now supports a bill that would make the two-year school the first in Illinois to offer bachelor's degrees.

As a Harper trustee, Murphy was steadfast in his opposition to the idea, telling the Daily Herald in March 2003, "I see a community college actively partnering with four-year universities, but never, ever becoming one itself."

But Murphy came to support the bill, which the House approved 69-48 in April, after working with legislators over the last couple of months to amend the pilot program to meet certain conditions.

"They were not going to get any votes if they didn't meet my concerns," Murphy says. "They need Republican votes to get this done."

If approved by the Senate, Harper would offer four-year degrees in two areas: public safety administration/homeland security and technology management.

Murphy joined Northwest suburban police and fire chiefs Monday at a Des Plaines fire station to promote the bill. He wrote an amendment he said he considers an ironclad guarantee that no funding will come from property taxes, the state or tuition hikes for traditional two-year students.

The $1.5 million needed to run the pilot program over four years will instead come from tuition for the program and from private corporations, including Square D in Palatine and defense contractor Northrop Grumman in Rolling Meadows.

Murphy said he wants Harper to keep its focus on partnering with universities, not establishing its own bachelor's degree program.

"This concept should be a last resort," Murphy said of Harper offering four-year degrees. "I don't want this to detract from our core mission."

Trying to ensure this, Murphy wrote an amendment giving nearby public universities "right of first refusal," meaning four-year schools would have the opportunity to offer degrees on Harper's campus before Harper starts its own pilot program.

The amended bill would also have the pilot program audited at the end of its trial run to make sure no prohibited money was used.

Finally, since the bill will "sunset" after four years unless extended by law, credits students earn would be transferable to any public state university with the same or similar program.

Murphy's changes were an all-or-nothing proposition, according to Harper spokesman Phil Burdick.

"He was adamant that he was not going to back down," Burdick said. "We didn't want limits or constraints on the bill but decided we could live with them since they don't dilute what we're trying to do."

Now Murphy will throw his weight behind the bill and its Democratic co-sponsors, state senators Dan Kotowski of Des Plaines and Mike Noland of Elgin. The two were at the fire station Monday with Rep. Fred Crespo, a Hoffman Estates Democrat who sponsored the bill in the House.

"We've brought ideas together in a bipartisan way and worked constructively to produce a solution," said Kotowski. "Isn't that a nice solution for Springfield?"