Some Schools Make Moving Up a Priority

The Oxnard College transfer center is a happening place. Students wander in, stopping by to meet with coordinator Gil Ramirez or to photocopy sections of university catalogs.

The walls of the spacious room are lined with pennants from schools such as Cal State Northridge and the University of Michigan.

Across the county at Moorpark College, faculty members often use class time to bring students to the transfer center. Some even offer extra credit to any student who researches a college scholarship.

But at Ventura College, the transfer center moves at a slower pace. Tony Chavez, who hopes to earn a bachelor’s degree in history at Cal State Channel Islands, said he has worked closely with counselors to keep track of what classes he would need to transfer.

When asked how the transfer center has helped him, the 46-year-old said, “I didn’t even know they had one.”

While the number of students transferring from Oxnard and Moorpark colleges to state four-year schools has increased considerably in the past decade, Ventura College has had almost no change, according to a recent report by the California Postsecondary Education Commission.

Oxnard College transfers increased 111%, and Moorpark College’s grew 41% between 1987 and 1997. But Ventura College saw virtually no growth. In 1987-88, 580 students transferred to either a UC or Cal State school. In 1996-97, 590 students transferred. University of California transfers dropped, but Cal State transfers increased.

“Are we doing as well as we could? I don’t think so,” said Jeff Ferguson, articulation officer at Ventura College.

Although almost 30% of Ventura College students said last fall that their goal was to go on to a four-year college or university, officials agree that transfer programs are not doing enough to help them get there.

How effective schools are at helping students transfer is important for two reasons: It gives an indication of the quality of the curriculum, and soon will serve as a state funding factor. Under the new Partnership for Excellence program, some funding will be tied to how well community colleges do in helping the state reach its goals of increasing transfer rates by almost 23,000 during the next six years.

But some community college officials discount the importance of transfer figures, saying the numbers don’t offer a complete picture or are misleading.

“I don’t think I am going to spend much time looking at these numbers to figure out what they mean,” said Carolyn Inouye, director of institutional research for the community college district. “I can make a whole list of [reasons] why these numbers are the way they are.”

Funding Is Factor

The figures’ reliability is complicated by several factors: A student who transfers to a private school isn’t counted in the state figures. And a student who completes most of his or her units at Oxnard College but then takes one last class at Ventura College will be marked as a Ventura transfer.

When Becky Hull took over running the Ventura College transfer center two years ago she studied what other colleges did to improve transfer numbers. She discovered that her counterparts at schools throughout the county and state had thousands of dollars a year to run programs.

But Hull had almost nothing. She submitted a proposed budget for nearly $20,000 to take students on trips to local universities and other activities. She was given $200 for supplies.

“I don’t even have $3 to buy a catalog from Berkeley,” Hull said.

Lyn MacConnaire, dean of student development, said Ventura College’s enrollment has grown slower than the other two schools’, which has meant lower funding increases for Ventura. She and Hull agree that more funding could improve transfer center programs.

But other schools, some with limited budgets, chose to funnel more funds into transfer centers.

“The importance of transfers has to be a No. 1 priority from the top down,” said Dan Nannini, transfer center coordinator at Santa Monica College, which boasts some of the highest transfer numbers in the state.

At Oxnard College, 82 students transferred to a UC or Cal State in 1987-88; the number climbed to 173 a decade later, according to the state report.

Transfer center coordinator Ramirez said his own records, which include private and out-of-state schools, show 226 students enrolled at a four-year school during the 1996-97 school year.

“I think the feeling out in the community is that students that go to Oxnard don’t transfer,” said Ramirez, who has been a full-time transfer counselor since 1986. “But it’s not true.”

Students can make a 30-minute appointment with Ramirez to discuss where they want to go and what classes they’ll have to take. But students are told they had better call early. Ramirez is usually booked solid.

Ramirez has a partitioned office but spends most of his day sitting in the center of the room meeting with students or answering general questions. He wants to see them reach beyond what they think is possible.

“If they say, ‘I want to be a secretary,’ I say, ‘Great. Why don’t you be the boss of an office and have your own secretary?’ ” said Ramirez. “A lot of the students just need a pat on the back, and others need a kick in the caboose.”

Student Iris Bullicer stopped by the center on a recent afternoon to pick up a letter of recommendation for her New York University application. The 18-year-old said she wants to move to Manhattan because she is ready for a change.

“It’s a good challenge for me,” she said. “I want to try something new, see a different side of the world.”

At Moorpark College, the number of students transferring accounts for more than half of the college district’s transfers.

Transfer center coordinator Candace Peyton said that for many Moorpark students, transferring is almost a given. And while many point to the east county’s richer economic base as the main reason for the higher transfer numbers, she said it is not the only factor.

“We have put more effort, time and money into making transfer a priority of this institution,” Peyton said. “And I’m sure that pays off.”

The Moorpark center is the only one in the county that sponsors a three-day Northern California tour of colleges. It is also the only one in the county that has a full-time coordinator and an administrative assistant.

Transfer centers were established statewide in 1986 after the numbers of students transferring to four-year schools plummeted in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

“Some colleges didn’t transfer anybody,” said Joshua L. Smith, who was the state chancellor in the mid-1980s and is now a professor of higher-education administration at New York University.

California’s community colleges must make transferring to a four-year school a priority, concluded the Master Plan Review Commission, which for more than a year in the mid-1980s assessed the condition of the community colleges.

“It made sense. It was an easy thing to advocate,” Smith said. “It was an important thing to advocate.”

State Figures Rise

And in the past decade, statewide transfer figures have increased. In 1987-88, 52,385 students enrolled at a UC or CSU from a community college. In 1996-97, that number grew to 58,841.

“One factor that contributes to the increase is the hard work that’s been going on in the transfer centers,” Smith said.

Community colleges helping students move on to four-year schools is “one of the underpinnings of our entire higher-education system,” said Kevin Woolfork, a senior policy analyst at the California Postsecondary Education Commission. “When transfer numbers fall, it becomes a concern to the state that that function isn’t working.”