2-Year College Students Holding Own : Transfers to UC, Cal State Keeping Pace With Non-Transfers

Students who transfer from community colleges to either the California State University system or University of California system are doing as well in school as non-transfer students, officials told a Monday press conference.

The officials cited the success of transfer students as proof that the separate higher education systems are working effectively together.

Rancho Santiago College Chancellor Robert Jensen pointed to a statewide study of 5,000 community college students who, after one year at a UC school, had a 2.8 grade-point average, close to the UC systemwide average of 2.85.

One factor that may be contributing to the success of transfer students is that general education courses at the community colleges are comparable to those at the four-year institutions, and thus these credits transfer without penalty to students, said Jewel Plummer Cobb, president of Cal State Fullerton. General education courses are classes students are required to take in various disciplines outside their major fields of study.

No distinction is made between students who transfer to a UC school from a community college and those who enter UC as freshmen, said Dennis Galligani, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs at UC Irvine. Faculty at the various higher education institutions work together at formulating class content, he explained.

“UCI is very serious about using community colleges as an alternative to those not accepted by UCI,” Galligani said. “There is no difference between the excellence of UCI native students and UCI transfer students.”

The panel of educators also addressed the community college budget, criticizing the state’s allocating money according to the average daily attendance at the schools. That system is similar to the way the state appropriates money to its public schools--kindergarten through 12th grade.

Reacting to such criticism, Gov. George Deukmejian Saturday pledged to provide the community colleges $140 million more next year than he originally proposed, giving the districts a 7.6% increase instead of a 3.7% increase. He did not address the issue of changing the funding formulas.

In response to the governor’s new proposal, David Brownell, chancellor of Coast Community College District, said it was too soon to know exactly how much money the Orange County districts would receive and in what areas it will be allotted.

Brownell also complained that the lack of an established governing body for the community colleges hurt the group’s ability to mobilize in order to get the money and structural changes they want from the Legislature.

“There is confusion and competition in the governance area,” Brownell said. “We don’t have an established system like the UC Board of Regents. The Legislature acts like a super-school board.”

Brownell said he hopes the revision of the state Master Plan for Higher Education will solve the funding and organizational problems.