The incoming president of Howard Community College hopes to create a curriculum that will result in bachelor's degrees in technology and information technology, a move to enhance the school's stature within Maryland's blooming high-tech community.

Mary Ellen Duncan, who on Monday will become the school's third president in 32 years, said in an interview this week that she will work to make Howard Community College the first junior college in the state with a four-year curriculum culminating in a bachelor's degree.

Maryland's 18 community colleges now offer course work that lasts up to two years and results in certificate or associate degrees. Duncan's proposal, which she said she would "explore" for some time before pitching formally, would require the Maryland Higher Education Commission to change the state's community college charter.

Although the curriculum would make the community college in Columbia more like a university, Duncan said she would preserve the central mission of the school, which is to serve wide-ranging needs from continuing education to college preparation to vocational training. Her views reflect the transformation of community colleges across the country as they have changed from stepping stones to higher education to key components of an area's economic development and business community.

"What we see in the Maryland system is that they are much more tied into economic development initiatives then they used to be," Duncan said in a telephone interview from her office at the State University of New York at Delhi, where she has been president for seven years. "We must make sure the work force is able to keep up with the needs of business and industry."

During her tenure at Delhi, which followed a stint at Catonsville Community College, Duncan created New York state's first junior college curriculum spanning four years and ending in a bachelor's degree. Now students at Delhi can earn bachelor's degrees in hospitality management, created to feed New York's thriving tourism trade. Her proposal was approved two years ago by the State University of New York's board of trustees.

Referring to her Maryland plan, Duncan acknowledged that "this will drive people crazy when they hear me say [this]" because it marks a departure from a junior college's traditional role. But she said the economy and the state's employers are demanding a better trained work force. The four-year degree she envisions would not only entail classroom assignments but also significant time working in the technology field through internships.

"There are an enormous amount of jobs that go begging in this area," Duncan said. "A four-year degree would be appropriate."

"I don't like to think about stature," she continued. "I like to think about it in terms of 'Is this what the industry is asking for?' Our tradition is to meet the needs of the whole community."

David A. Rakes, chairman of the college's board of trustees, said he has not discussed a four-year curriculum with Duncan, but is excited by the prospect.

"That is certainly something interesting and something we would want to consider," Rakes said. "It is clearly consistent with our movement in that direction anyway."

Under the direction of Dwight A. Burrill, the former president who retired last fall after 16 years, Howard Community College emerged as a well-regarded training ground within the high-tech community, with 5,000 students earning credits and 12,000 others who use the campus for continuing education. The school was among the first to give every staff member a laptop computer and has been a pioneer in the area of online classes.

Duncan plans to build on those successes, not only through the four-year curriculum proposal but also by strengthening performance measures to ensure that students are achieving what they set out to accomplish.

In some fields, she said, that will take the form of new "pencil and paper" testing, while in others it could be measured by scores on licensing exams. At the same time, the school, with an annual operating budget of $30 million, will be getting a new computer system that will manage administrative tasks from financial aid to grades to payroll.

Duncan, who declines to give her age, said she will be moving from a beautiful campus in the Catskills back to an area she loves. Her only daughter, Kathryn, works on Rep. Constance Morella's Capitol Hill staff.

Duncan is an avid golfer -- one of her legacies at Delhi will be an 18-hole golf course that used to feature only nine holes -- and is also a reader of contemporary poetry and all forms of prose. She also gardens, although she admits to having too little time for it.

"I guess I hope that they feel renewed excitement about what they are doing," Duncan said of what she most hopes to impart to her staff. "That their ideas should be free-flowing and will be listened to."