Cal State Signs Pact to Assist Community College Transfers

State higher education leaders have signed an agreement to boost the number of students transferring from California community colleges to California state universities by 5% per year, or 2,500 students, through 2003.

Cal State schools already accept 50,000 community college transfer students yearly--far more than the University of California or California private universities.

But the new agreement between Cal State Chancellor Charles B. Reed and community colleges Chancellor Thomas J. Nussbaum aims to further increase transfers by making the process easier.

Nussbaum signed a similar agreement to boost transfers with leaders of the University of California system four years ago, and more recently with private universities.

So far, the UC agreement has yielded little in the way of results, however. Transfers from community colleges to UC schools have fallen well short of the targets, and sometimes even decreased since the agreement was signed.

Patrick Lenz, executive vice chancellor of the community colleges, acknowledged the difficulty of improving transfer numbers. Although the agreements are a useful first step, he said, “now comes the real challenge of implementation.”

Both Cal State and the community colleges will have to commit more staff time and money to ensuring that students get adequate financial aid and complete required transfer courses, he said.

In particular, Lenz said, community college officials will consider increasing services for part-time students, whose efforts to transfer are often made more difficult by job and family obligations.

Cal State officials listed several strategies for improving transfer rates, including greater efforts to ensure that transfer students don’t have to repeat courses, and allowing students to begin fulfilling requirements for certain majors while still at community colleges.

The expansion of “dual admission” programs that allow community college students some of the same privileges as enrolled Cal State students is also under consideration.

Cal State officials have already increased their outreach efforts. They recently printed 10,000 posters for distribution at community college campuses that list courses students ought to take to meet Cal State requirements, said Ken Swisher, Cal State spokesman.

Efforts to increase transfers from two- to four-year schools have been stepped up in recent years as colleges and universities seek ways to accommodate increasing numbers of high school graduates.

Community colleges are expected to absorb the largest share of this new wave of students--the children of baby boomers. Their success in getting bachelor’s degrees will depend on their success in transferring, said Warren Fox, executive director of the California Post-secondary Education Commission.