Leaders of Bloomington's public institutions of higher education made history Thursday, signing an agreement that lets students move directly from a two-year degree at Ivy Tech Community College to a four-year program at Indiana University.

The so-called articulation agreement - the first for Ivy Tech and IU Bloomington - applies to degrees in general studies. But officials with both schools said they expect it to lead to broader collaboration on degree programs.

"I think this is certainly an excellent beginning for us, and a chance to think about what other opportunities we have to work collaboratively," said John Whikehart, chancellor of Ivy Tech Bloomington.

The agreement allows students who earn Ivy Tech's new associate of science degree in general studies to transfer course credits toward a bachelor of science degree in general studies at Indiana University.

Whikehart said he hopes it will open the door to additional degree articulation agreements, possibly in criminal justice, biotechnology and other areas where IU and Ivy Tech have similar programs.

It follows months of meetings and work sessions by Ivy Tech and IU faculty and administrators, including a July dinner meeting at which campus leaders agreed to move forward on the general studies plan.

"It's a good thing for the institutions and, I think, a very good thing for the community," said Sharon Brehm, chancellor for IU's Bloomington campus.

Twenty officials from IU and Ivy Tech were present Thursday morning for an agreement-signing ceremony in the formal setting of the Indiana Memorial Union Federal Room. The agreement was signed by Whikehart, Brehm, Judith Wertheim, interim dean of continuing studies at IU, and Jim Smith, dean of academic affairs at Ivy Tech.

For Indiana University, the agreement comes at a fortuitous time - less than three weeks before the start of the 2004 session of the Indiana General Assembly. Some lawmakers accused IU last year of resisting articulation agreements and making it hard for students to transfer to the Bloomington flagship campus.

IU Bloomington faculty argued that credits shouldn't transfer unless it could be shown that course requirements and outcomes were comparable from one institution to the other.

Working through the Statewide Transfer and Articulation Committee, put in place in April 2000, IU and other state institutions worked out agreements on transferring individual course credits.

Ron White, director of IU Bloomington continuing studies, said the campus now gives credit for 90 general education courses at Ivy Tech, four times the number it accepted two years ago.

But the lack of a degree articulation agreement with Ivy Tech gave IU Bloomington the image of an elitist institution that wasn't doing its part to meet Indiana's goal of improving access to higher education.

Officials said the general studies degrees seemed like a reasonable place to start.

At IU, the degree accommodates part-time and returning students who are likely to take longer than four years to graduate. The continuing studies program, which offers the degree, has classes at local high schools and the Bloomington WorkOne office to avoid parking hassles associated with the IU campus.

The Ivy Tech degree, offered this year for the first time, requires completion of 60 credit hours, including at least 12 each in arts and humanities, science and math, and social and behavioral sciences.

The IU bachelor's degree in general studies requires 120 credits.

Faculty from the two schools evaluated the general-studies transfer courses to make sure they were comparable at the two schools, said David Nordloh, IU associate dean of the faculties.

Brehm, who will step down as chancellor Jan. 1, said the agreement calls for continuing evaluation to make sure students who transfer from Ivy Tech are prepared for their IU classes.

"It's a template," she said. "Having done it once, it provides a structure for other collaborations."

Whikehart has argued publicly for stronger credit-transfer agreements with IU Bloomington since he took over the Ivy Tech campus in September 2001.

He said it's unclear how many Ivy Tech graduates will want to continue their education at IU, but many students say they want to use Ivy Tech as a launching pad for a four-year college education.

Whikehart said it's not only the general-studies agreement that's important, but the relationships that were built between faculty and staff at Ivy Tech and IU as they put the program together.

"It's the relationships established among the people in this room that made this happen," he said. "And it's those relationships that are going to be so important to us in the future."