USA Develops Undergrad Programs, Partners With Amazon

MOBILE, Ala. — The University of South Alabama (USA) is developing two new undergraduate programs thanks to support from Abraham “Abe” Mitchell, it recently announced. A BS program in Industrial Management and Technology will be housed in the School of Computing, and a BS program in Organizational Leadership will be housed in the College of Education and Professional Studies. Under the proposal, Mitchell will fully fund faculty startup costs for the Industrial Management and Technology program for 3 years beginning on August 1, 2022. He will also fund 75% of the faculty startup and marketing costs for the Organizational Leadership program for four years beginning on August 1, 2023. The university will cover the remaining 25%. Both programs will be reviewed after those periods to determine their status and success and would be offered once approved by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. “Not only will these programs provide USA students with job opportunities in high-demand fields, but they will also benefit our business community and industry partners,” Mitchell said.

A new partnership between USA and Amazon, through the latter’s “Career Choice” program, will see it reimburse its employees’ college tuition costs, the university announced. “Amazon pays the university directly up front,” said Bob Charlebois, director of USA’s adult learner services. “Many similar programs make the student pay, then reimburse them, which can be difficult for [the] student to come up with the money initially.” Since launching in 2012, the program has helped more than 50,000 Amazon employees attend college. Amazon funds college tuition toward bachelor’s degrees, as well as high school programs, GEDs and English as a second language proficiency certifications for eligible employees, including those who joined the company as recently as three months ago. USA is one of 180 institutions nationally and the first on the Gulf Coast to enter this partnership, it said. Amazon said it chooses partner schools based on the school’s history of educating adult students, such as those who went straight from high school into full-time employment or those who never had a way to pay for a college education right out of high school.