CCLC Convention Re-emergence Features CVHEC Transfer Project/Mapper Panel
The Community College League of California Annual Convention 2022, which returns from its pandemic hiatus Nov. 17-19 in San Francisco, will include a panel by Central Valley Higher Education Consortium representatives presenting the consortium’s historic Transfer Project and its Pathways Program Mapper.
The CLCC Annual Convention – with the theme “Our Time is Now” and billed as the premier professional development event for California’s community college leaders – brings together CEOs, trustees, faculty, staff, administrators and partners from across the state to share tools, models and solutions to system issues, as well as celebrate accomplishments. (See details and registration).
The CVHEC panel, “Community College Transfers: The Breakthrough We’ve Been Waiting For!,” will present the consortium’s pilot project launched last year by UC Merced, Merced College and Bakersfield College that explores new strategies to increase transfers.
The session will also address how Program Mapper, a public internet-based software application, presents students with pre-approved course sequences aligning the community college Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) with the upper division requirements, by major, for successful degree completion.
Participants will hear about the groundbreaking collaboration of faculty and administrators to build this model and how it has been refined and replicated for implementation by several more Central Valley community colleges, said Stan A. Carrizosa Sr., president-emeritus of College of the Sequoias who currently serves as CVHEC southern regional coordinator.
He will be joined by three other Central Valley colleagues with expertise in transfer issues: Dr. James Zimmerman, UC Merced associate vice provost; Dr. Craig Hayward, Bakersfield College dean; and Tom Burke, chancellor-emeritus of KCCCD who is now coordinator of the CVHEC Transfer Project.
“UC Merced opened its arms to Central Valley community colleges to collaborate and increase the number of successful transfers,” Carrizosa. “Following the pilot project with Merced College and Bakersfield College, a streamlined process has been developed that brings UC and CC faculty/staff together like never before to achieve outstanding results.”
Panel participants will learn how, after UC Merced met with CVHEC in 2018 expressing grave concern for the low number of Central Valley community college transfers, the three CVHEC members launched the pilot project to explore new strategies to increase transfers.
At the same time, California State University, Bakersfield was collaborating with Bakersfield College to create full transfer pathways aligned with the CSU-approved ADTs.
This all was enhanced with a third element, the emergence of the Pathways Program Mapper, Carrizosa said.
“The significant breakthrough occurred when UC Merced agreed to pilot with MC and BC to convene select groups of faculty and staff to review the CSU-approved ADT’s to determine if they could also fulfill the lower division requirements for successful transfer to UC Merced,” he explains.
“Additionally, all parties embraced the Program Mapper application as the vehicle for creating easy access for students, counselors, advisors, high school students and parents to expedite their education planning and successful transfer to UCM.”
To date, six of CVHEC’s 15 community colleges members are implementing the Transfer Project andthe Program Mapper with five more scheduled to start the process this academic year. Statewide data is not available yet but Carrizosa said he knows of at least five more community colleges who are currently engaging with CSU campuses to increase transfers through the Program Mapper.
“Currently, CSU Bakersfield and UC Merced are the two institutions fully engaged as we started with a focus on increasing transfers for our Central Valley community college students,” Carrizosa said. “Other Central Valley CSU partners are in line to start – including Stanislaus State and Fresno State. Other institutions across the state who are already exploring Program Mapper include Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State Dominguez Hills.”
Previous CVHEC e-Newsletter stories:
• Pilot CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project Improves Process for Students
• Charting Better Maps to Degrees
• CV-HEC Guest Blog: An inside look at the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Pathways Initiative and Mapper
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