NORMAL - With about seven of every 10 Heartland Community College students planning to use the campus as a springboard to further higher education, college administrators are reaching out to other schools to ease those transitions.

At Tuesday's board meeting, trustees learned about some of the latest cooperative agreements Heartland has, including one focused on future business professionals and another for technology students. The purpose of most is to ensure Heartland course credits can be applied to future studies elsewhere.

Since the community college opened in 1991, Heartland students have transferred to more than 500 schools, said Allan Saaf, vice president of instruction.

The school to which most transfer is nearby Illinois State University in Normal.

Also at the meeting, the board approved starting the process to issue up to $3 million in debt certificates for campus computer technology upgrades. The board voted to retain First Midstate Bank and the Chapman and Cutler Law Firm to handle financial and legal aspects of the debt certificate process.

The issuance of the certificates, which happens every two years, will be later this fall.

"We have several thousand (personal computers) on campus, for example, and with this we can replace them every five years," said Rob Widmer, Heartland finance vice president.

While many course credits do transfer to schools, different institutional requirements don't make that a given, Saaf told the board.

One of the Normal-based college's new agreements connects Heartland tech students with Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, said Bob Shaw, who heads Heartland's technology division.

Another agreement, signed earlier Tuesday, allows Heartland business-track students a hassle-free transfer to the University of Illinois at Springfield's business program, including an online option, said Sarah Diel-Hunt, associate dean for business and social services.

Similar agreements already in place have proven fruitful. One with Franklin University in Ohio has resulted in 21 Heartland alumni earning bachelor's degrees in a few years.

The board also learned a variety of partnerships can help Heartland and its students. The latest strengthens its new radiography program by expanding its clinical sites, a key factor in expanding class sizes in health care studies.

Under the agreement, Illinois Valley Community College will be given two of 15 spots in the radiography class, and Heartland will gain two IVCC-area hospitals as clinical sites.

"These are just a few of the cooperative agreements we have," Saaf told the board.