ANTELOPE VALLEY COLLEGE : Transfer Advisory Center Opens

A new transfer center opened this semester at Antelope Valley College in an effort to offer better service to students considering attending four-year universities.

Patricia Hsieh, transfer center coordinator, said the new service will increase the number of students who go on to attend four-year institutions, particularly those who are most often underrepresented such as African-Americans, Latinos and American Indians.

“There’s really a great concern, dating back to 1980, that the transfer rate of underrepresented students is very low,” Hsieh said.

“I think before transferring, the most challenging thing is they don’t know where to get the right information. They don’t know what questions to ask. That’s why we are here.”

Hsieh said the center mails its calendar of events to underrepresented students and reserves special meetings for them with college representatives.

In addition, the center provides all students with college catalogues, workshops on adjusting to university life, a computer program on transferable classes and meetings with representatives from up to 20 different universities, some as often as twice a month.

“They wait here for 45 minutes to an hour in order to talk to a rep,” Hsieh said. “So, there’s really a high demand out here.

However, Ed Campbell, 28, the student trustee on the college district board, said he feels that other student services, such as overcoming delays in financial aid, are in greater demand.

“A transfer center’s nice, but we have a problem with getting financial aid to students,” he said. “It helps them get to other universities, but what good is it if people can’t pay to finish classes here?”

In response, Hsieh said the center was required by state lawmakers after a three-year pilot program by the state and community college systems in 1988 showed that transfer centers are successful. In 1991, state funds were granted for the new center at Antelope Valley College, with an estimated $100,000 annual budget.

Campbell also asserted that some of the center’s services duplicate those offered by the campus career center.

But Angela LeFevers, 19, a journalism major, said the career center’s offerings for transfer students are not sufficient. “The career center had a few things, but not as much as the transfer center does,” she said.

LeFevers said the transfer center recently saved her $55 on applications when a University of California representative told her that journalism is not a major in that system. “It has helped a lot,” she said. “It saved money and time.”