SACRAMENTO — Officials urged the University of California to improve its outreach to transfer students, but members on the UC Board of Regents disagreed with each other on whether the UC should increase its enrollment of transfer students.
At its bimonthly board meeting, the UC Regents discussed a report that presented possible solutions to increase the diversity and number of the UC’s transfer students, most of whom come from just one-third of the state’s community colleges.
Judy Sakaki, co-chair of the UC Transfer Action Team and vice president of student affairs at the UC Office of the President, recommended the UC to start a partnership with 30 community college campuses that have relatively low transfers to the UC.
Sakaki said the UC should also take advantage of technological advances to reach out to transfers, such as creating an online student planning portal and a wide database tracking all prospective transfer students. In January’s regent meeting, Napolitano said the UC is working on create a website similar to what Sakaki recommended.
George Johnson, co-chair of the team and the chair of Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, suggested creating new transfer pathways corresponding to Associate Degrees for Transfer, which allow students who have taken required general education and major requirements to be guaranteed transfer to the California State University system.
Johnson also said developing the “Transfer Success Kit,” an inventory of campus services, would enable students to transition easier to the UC. The kit would include services such as a guaranteed on-campus housing for transfer students, transfer orientation that has a quality similar to freshman orientation and a transfer credit evaluation for every transfer students.
Johnson, however, said the academic requirement to transfer into UC campuses should not be weakened.
“We must not streamline our work if it doesn’t meet our academic preparation need,” Johnson said.
Regents voiced some skepticism at the transfer report, especially the recommendation that the University significantly increase its enrollment of transfer students. The report urged the UC to enroll at least 33 percent transfers both systemwide and by campus.
Regent Richard Blum said the UC should not present an overly optimistic message to transfer students.
“Let’s not kid those students about the reality of getting into the UC,” Blum said.
It is also difficult to understand how the UC seems to have a lower standard for transfers than it has for freshmen, Blum said. He added that it’s hard for him to understand how the UC turns down freshman students with a stellar academic record while it accepts transfer students who may be UC-eligible but not as qualified as freshmen.
Regent Eddie Island pressed for more details on the guaranteed offers to Stephen Handel, the associate vice president for undergraduate admissions, who said the UC makes a place for every eligible transfer. According to the Master Plan for Higher Education, UC-eligible transfers students are “to be given priority over freshmen” in the admissions process.
Regent Bonnie Reiss asked a different question, asking why not all UC-eligible transfer students are admitted to the UC. She said the team should update the regents regularly and dig deeper into the data.
Brown said the UC does not need to grow given that the number of high school graduates in California is staying flat for next decade.
“The growth in itself is not an unchallengeable good,” Brown said. “We have to live within limit.”
Given the limit, Brown said the UC should consider increasing the number of transfer students it enrolls in order to increase the diversity and maintain the quality of the UC, even if doing so may means decreasing the number of freshmen students.
“The cost structure of the UC isn’t really consistent with keeping tuition down … (and) something has to give,” Brown said. “Transfer is the way to … lower our cost structure.”
The UC regents meeting will continue Thursday in Sacramento.