Number of transfers on the rise

By Noah Grand
Daily Bruin Reporter

UC transfer admissions have increased and are expected to
increase in the future as a result of Tidal Wave II and the dual
admissions proposal.

Tidal Wave II refers to the expected influx of 60,000 students
to the UC over the next decade.

UCLA admitted 7.6 percent more transfer students from community
colleges this year, including a 10.2 percent increase in
underrepresented minority admissions.

Between 35 and 38 percent of the undergraduates at UCLA are
transfers from community colleges, said Tom Lifka, interim director
of admissions.

“Transferring from a community college is a really
important and useful way for students to enter UC,” said
Manuel Gómez, interim vice president of educational outreach
for UC.

UC’s partnership with Gov. Gray Davis for state funding
and UC accountability calls for a 6 percent increase in transfer
enrollment in return for funding, Gomez said.

The dual admissions proposal, expected to be voted on by the UC
Board of Regents this summer, would allow students between the top
4 and 12.5 percent of their high school class, otherwise ineligible
for UC admissions, to apply to a UC and a community college
simultaneously. Students who are accepted would be admitted to that
UC after completing a transfer program at a community college.

“We’re trying to respond to the state’s desire
to get more transfers from California community colleges into the
UC system,” Lifka said.

UC signed a memorandum of understanding with the California
community college system in 1997 to increase the total number of
transfers from California community colleges to UC by one-third in
2005.

“We set goals that we had to reach to keep transfer rates
up with freshman growth rates,” said Dennis Galligani,
associate vice president of UC student academic services.

Christopher Cabaldon, California community college vice
chancellor of policy, planning and external affairs, said that the
dual admissions program and memorandum of understanding will help
establish clearer rules on how community college students can
transfer to the UC.

Both would provide increased counseling services to help
students transfer to the UC. Galligani said this could help any
community college student transfer into UC, not just those in the
dual admissions program.

Cabaldon said one of the difficulties of the transfer process is
convincing community college students that they will be able to
transfer to a UC campus.

“You have to open their eyes to the possibility of
transferring, you have to make sure their eyes don’t glaze
over with the complex rules, and you have to assure students that,
if they follow the rules, they will succeed,” Cabaldon
said.

UCLA is involved in a number of programs designed to bring more
community college transfers to UCLA. These programs focus on making
the UC more visible on community college campuses by visiting more
often, said Alfred Herrera, director of community college
partnerships.

“Community college students need information about
us,” Herrera said. “They need to feel that they belong
and see us as a place that welcomes them. We’re doing that a
lot more now.”

A number of educational outreach programs have been attempts to
reach out to minorities after the end of affirmative action. SP-1,
passed by the UC regents in 1995, ended the use of affirmative
action in enrollment, starting in 1998.

In 2001, 18.8 percent of all transfer students admitted to UCLA
were underrepresented minority students ““ the highest
percentage since 1997, the last year affirmative action was used.
That year, 20.3 percent of admissions were underrepresented
minorities. In 1998, this dropped to 16.7 percent.

Gomez said that the increased outreach programs toward
underrepresented minorities was partially responsible for the
increased enrollment in those groups.

“I think things are going in the right direction,”
Lifka said.

The repeal of SP-1 and 2 in the regents’ May meeting is
unlikely to affect the current admissions process, Lifka said.
Affirmative action is still banned throughout the state by
Proposition 209, passed by California voters in 1996.

He said the repeal could raise the number of underrepresented
minorities applying to UCLA. Some of these students may not apply
to UCLA because SP-1 made them feel less welcome, he added.

Lifka said the repeal of SP-1 could persuade more of the
transfer students UCLA accepts to enroll here, because they may
feel more welcome.

There was a systemwide increase of 16.3 percent in the number of
underrepresented minorities admitted this year. Although UCLA had a
smaller increase, only UC Santa Barbara admitted more
underrepresented minority students than UCLA.

UCLA’s and UC Berkeley’s growth in accepting new
students are expected to be smaller than the other UC campuses
because UCLA and UC Berkeley are more selective campuses. Lifka
said UCLA’s growth plan involves increasing the number of
transfer students more quickly than the number of freshman
students.

Admissions for community college students rose 8.6 percent for
all students throughout the UC system. A total of 13,134 students
were admitted as transfers, the largest number in UC history.

Transfers from California community colleges are given priority
in the admissions process, according to the California master plan
for higher education.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRANSFERS Original graphic by
MAGGIE WOO/Daily Bruin