University Business - May 2007 - (Page 24)

MIO N E Y I AA TA I D S F NANC M L TER semester courses as well as availability of academic scholarships. VALUE RESPECTED In contrast, institutions aware of the value of transfers develop clear articulation agreements with key feeder two-year schools and communicate those agreements to prospective transfers via the web and other vehicles before they even apply. They offer special orientation, academic advisement, and registration sessions for transfers, reserve space in housing and courses, and have specific scholarship resources set aside. At Iowa State University, for example, under the Admissions Partnership Program (www.admissions.iastate.edu/partnership), students receive mentoring and guidance from both ISU and the community college they attend from the time they are accepted into the program. They are guaranteed acceptance into the university’s bachelor’s program as long as all program requirements are met. They also have opportunities to live in ISU housing, have access to career and other resources, and receive student pricing for athletic and other events before they are actually enrolled at ISU. Early orientation and registration at ISU are also available to program participants. The Admissions Partnership Program has the additional advantage of building relationships between the advisors at participating community colleges and academic advisors at ISU. As Mark Harding, director of Enrollment Services, notes, “We just held an advisors forum on our campus for Des Moines Area Community College advisors and Iowa State advisors to review our progress, discuss issues, etc. It was well attended and a very positive experience for all involved.” Chris Belle-Isle, Career Center director at Monroe Community College (N.Y.), points out that keeping articulation agreements up to date requires resources from both two-year and four-year institutions: “It can’t be the 17th thing on the assistant dean’s plate.” At MCC, the Career Center, with a staff of 11.5 professionals and support personnel, sends significant proposed curricular changes (new courses, new programs, program changes, etc.) to the institution’s four-year partners to make sure the new curriculum will be transferable. This is a critical process, given that two-thirds of all MCC students are planning to immediately go on to complete a four-year degree. In addition, the Career Center team works with students to identify optimal course sets given their transfer goals, as well as to help those students in terminal degrees pursue their career goals, which may also include transfer. SMC will be within the mix of schools transfer students consider. IGETC also works well with the 20-plus articulation agreements that we have with California community colleges.” TRANSFER STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT Some institutions that have been less than enthusiastic about transfer enrollments believe that, unless they have a student for the full four years, they cannot achieve the outcomes they desire for their students. This voice is most often heard from faculty. To address this concern, research should be conducted to better understand what differences may exist between graduates who began as freshmen and those who transferred from two-year schools. For example, do the two populations have different cumulative GPAs at graduation? Do they have different success in acceptance to graduate school or in careers? Do they have different alumni giving participation rates? It is important to quantify these matters in order to confirm hypotheses or dispel false beliefs. Data about the achievements of transfer students should also be shared with community college partners so they know about their former students’ successes. Similarly, it’s important to share information about how four-year campuses, particularly private institutions, are making their costs affordable to transfer students. At four-year institutions that are serious about serving transfers, transfers can represent as much as 30 percent of new student enrollments. For many four-year institutions today, transfers are needed in significant numbers to meet overall enrollment goals, given the mobility of student populations. The rest need transfers for educational reasons. In order to serve their students well, community colleges need to prepare them for the next step in their journey—which more and more frequently now involves continued education. Collaboration and cooperation between two- and four-year schools is no longer a luxury (if it ever was). It is a necessity. Monroe Community College helps students identify optimal course sets given their transfer goals. Although the Career Center facilitates the process, much of the communication is between faculty at MCC and at partner four-year institutions. For example, under a grant from the Jack Kent Cook Foundation, faculty at Cornell and Amherst College (Mass.) are working with MCC faculty to identify and work with students from low- to moderate-income backgrounds to prepare them to transfer from MCC to these highly selective fouryear institutions. Many states are mandating articulation agreements between two-year and four-year state-supported institutions. In California, for example, the University of California system and The California State University system have agreed to accept the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC), a set of courses that prospective transfer students attending California community colleges may complete to satisfy the lower division general education requirements. Some private institutions in California, including Saint Mary’s College of California, have now agreed to accept all or part of IGETC as well. As Michael Beseda, vice provost for Enrollment at Saint Mary’s, explains, “Since most California students are looking at UC or CSU campuses, accepting IGETC enhances the possibility that 24 | May 2007 universitybusiness.com http://www.admissions.iastate.edu/partnership http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - May 2007

Contents
College Index
Advisory Board
Company Index
Editor's Note
Behind the News
Viewpoint
Money Matters
Marketing
Human Resources
Financial Aid
Community Colleges
The Innocents Abroad
The Big Business of Research
What’s New in A/V
The Kids Are All Right
Designing a Unified Campus
Business Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - May 2007