It’s a rare thing of beauty — two very different local colleges locked onto a shared objective and committed to achieving it together. This past week, Grove City College and Butler County Community College announced a partnership creating a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program.

According to the colleges, the program will be offered through GCC’s newly established Charles Jr. and Betty Johnson School of Nursing.

The program begins in the fall of 2020 for first-year nursing students attending Grove City. BC3 is planning an $18 million project that includes the $12 million Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building that will house the Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health.

The vision is a blend of GCC’s liberal arts and sciences education and BC3’s accredited technical, clinical and professional training.

Calling the program a hybrid would be oversimplifying the bona fide, four-year degree. Perhaps this is the point: There’s nothing simple about postsecondary education these days. There’s a sideways acknowledgment that liberal arts schools tend to leave wide gaps in the practical learning experience, while the technical and lab skills required of community college students take a back seat to no science program.

To each his own. And to each school its own particular educational mission. That said, the growing spectrum of career choices will require special training programs requiring exposure to evermore complex and varied information and training.

It might be said that this GCC-BC3 venture is borne out of necessity, as BC3 President Nick Neupauer described it when he said, “These are unique times. Collaboration is the key. And when a college like ours can partner with a nationally recognized institution like Grove City, it speaks volumes.”

More collaborations like this in the future are likely, and they are to be encouraged. Education has always been about the free exchange of ideas between students, faculty, administration and the community. It has always been the forte of the community college to introduce courses on a trial basis to gauge interest, anticipate demand, and respond sustainably to the interests of the community it serves.

There is an important distinction that must be emphasized: This BS in Nursing Degree program is not envisioned or planned as a quick fix — it is not a hybrid. It is not a mule — strong and resilient but lacking the capacity to reproduce itself for future generations.

Let’s hope the BC3-GCC nursing program becomes a template and prototype of the new college program — one that anticipates and accommodates a community’s most pressing needs and demands, and offers practical avenues to remedy them. Kudos to the trustees and administrators of both institutions as they venture into new academic territory.