Students who have been out

of high school for five years or more and have completed fewer than 30

semester hours of transferable college credit must take the COMPASS test

before applying for admission.

Those students will be given

an extension until July 31 to complete the test. Students are encouraged

to prepare for the COMPASS test by purchasing Chart Your Success on the

COMPASS by Callahan, Commander, and Cotter (available at the Clayton State

Campus Store) or by reviewing the information provided on the Clayton

State Testing Center Web site at www.clayton.edu.

Following approval by the Board

of Regents of the University System of Georgia, Clayton College &

State University will begin offering academic classes at the Fayette County

Higher Education Center to students accepted for admission into the University

for the Fall 2003 term.

Clayton State has been offering

non-credit, Continuing Education and small business development classes

since October through the Fayette County Center, located in the Peachtree

City Tennis Center.

Starting in August, four college-credit

evening classes will be offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays. A group of

43 students, divided into two sections, will be admitted for the fall.

So far, just 10 applications

have been received for the Fayette Center specifically, said John Shiffert,

spokesman for the university.

But the number isn't surprising,

he said, because people tend to wait to the last minute to apply for almost

anything, and the CCSU hasn't had much time to promote these programs.

"Although we did surveys

on local interest for academic programs at the beginning of 2003, we did

not receive approval (from the Board of Regents) to go ahead with those

programs until May. In other words, we haven't had much time to get the

word out," Shiffert said.

"The decision to apply

to a University is not typically a spur-of-the-moment thing, so the results

to date are not surprising."

Space remains for Fayette students,

he said, but students are still encouraged to apply before the July 1

deadline.

"We expect to fill in

whatever spots are still available after July 1 with current Clayton State

students from the Fayette County area" already enrolled in the University,

Shiffert said.

Courses will be offered again

at the Fayette Center in the spring, which actually starts in early January

2004. The deadline for applications for new students who wish to start

classes then will be Dec. 1.

This fall's classes will be

focused towards adult or non-traditional students who have little or no

college credit but wish to pursue a bachelor's degree. Non-traditional

students are defined as those individuals who graduated from high school

five or more years ago.

"We are focusing on non-traditional,

adult students to better serve that part of the population in Fayette

County ... the people that would have a hard time getting to our main

campus in Morrow," said Dr. Sharon E. Hoffman, provost and vice president

of Academic Affairs. "Working parents, individuals holding full-time

jobs during the day, people working in the Peachtree City or Fayetteville

areas and the like are the populations we are targeting. We feel we can

serve people who want to get started in college, but haven't had the time

or opportunity."

For more information on Clayton

State, call 770-961-3500 or go to www.clayton.edu.