The inaugural class of bachelor’s degrees from Mt. SAC will be awarded in spring 2027 as a result of new provisions in Title 5 of California’s Code of Regulations that allow community colleges to award bachelor’s degrees.
“Mt. SAC’s inaugural class of bachelor’s degrees will be awarded in spring 2027 via Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations, which allows community colleges to award bachelor’s degrees,” the college announced.
Students will be able to graduate from the histotechnology program and transition into careers in the medical field. The histotechnology degree is one of 51 bachelor’s degree programs that will be available to California community colleges.
Advocating for the importance of the field, Rebecca Radabaugh, program director of Mt. SAC’s histotechnology program said, “I read an article at one point that 80 to 85% of a person’s medical record is based on laboratory results. So, yeah, without us, there wouldn’t be any real diagnosis, right?”
When asked why Mt. SAC would be a good fit for this particular bachelor’s degree, Radabaugh explained that the need for these positions is high throughout the state and country. “Yeah, Mt. SAC is the only college in California that offers the program. I think it’s a wonderful fit.”
She also emphasized the value of the bachelor’s program compared with other four-year programs. “I worked for the department of pathology for 25 years, and I was involved with the histology program for four years. And I can tell you that the cost here is nothing compared to what it was in West Virginia. It was at least $10,000 to $15,000 a semester. And I think I saw a graphic the other day here where it’s like $46 a credit hour. I mean, you can’t compare that.”
An acute need exists for technicians in this field. Radabaugh explained, “A lot of the histotechnology workforce we have are from the older generation, and they’re retiring, and we don’t have people in the younger generation coming up interested in that kind of field.”
At the moment, Mt. SAC only offers histotechnology as a bachelor’s degree. Colleges and their bachelor’s degree programs often take years to develop, pointing to the reality that offering these new programs can be challenging. Title 5 offerings have been steadily expanding in recent years, and given the many fields of study at Mt. SAC, bachelor’s degree programs are expected to expand here as well.
According to Dr. Meghan Chen, Associate Vice President of Instruction here at Mt. SAC, “local colleges determine what the needs are based on data sets from local labor market index called LMI,” These data sets and their findings go a long way in determining what bachelors degrees are going to be offered. Chen’s experience at Mt. SAC has included, “serving on the curriculum and instruction Council, which recommends courses and programs to academic senate and the Board for approval.”
Chen goes on to explain why there was a compelling need for a bachelor’s degree in a technical field like histotechnology, “What happens with the Associates of Science degree is they can’t move up. They can’t be promoted within the field. A bachelor’s degree is the minimum to move up to, say, a supervisory role.”
What is the future of bachelors degrees at Mt. SAC? Assembly Bill 1400 addresses this issue by calling for the establishment of 10 new nursing programs at community colleges where there exists a pressing need. In spite of overwhelmingly passing the legislature, Governor Newsom vetoed the bill, citing lack of coordination with CSU and UC systems, a dearth of faculty to teach these courses and earlier bills passed into law to address the need for healthcare workers.
