Historic CHSU College of Osteopathic Medicine White Coat Ceremonies

California Health Science University recorded institutional history when the CVHEC-member campus held White Coat Ceremonies for its 199 medical students in the College of Osteopathic Medicine  Classes of 2024 and 2025 Oct. 2.

Like many campuses, the CHSU inaugural class of 2024 ceremony last year was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our first and second-year medical students participated in a time-honored tradition of receiving their short white coat signifying the beginning of their medical education journey,” reported CHSU spokesperson Richelle Kleiser. “Students invited fully COVID-vaccinated family and friends to attend in-person on a limited basis; all other guests could view the ceremonies via online live stream.”

See full story and videos.

Brandman is formally UMass Global

The conversion of Brandman University to UMass Global is now complete.

In May, Brandman which has two campuses that are members of the CVHEC in Modesto and Visalia, formed a strategic partnership with the University of Massachusetts. In September, Broadman formally became University of Massachusetts Global, a non-profit affiliate of the University of Massachusetts system.

“As UMass Global, we remain the same university our students have known and loved for over fifty years here in the Central Valley,” said Richard Carnes, director of the Modesto campus who serves on the CVHEC board of directors with Sonia Gutierrez-Mendoza, director of the Visalia campus.

“Our focus on high-quality programs for active-duty military, veterans, working adults, and other nontraditional students with busy schedules will remain steadfast. I believe the new affiliation with the University of Massachusetts will strengthen our ability to see our students obtain their educational dreams.”

See UMass announcement
Inside Higher Education story

(CVHEC members are encouraged to submit items for this column: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com).

Los Baños Campus of Merced College Celebrates 50 Years Nov. 5

Merced College will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of its Los Baños Campus with a free celebration Nov. 5 from 4 to 6 p.m. in the outdoor quad of the campus (22240 West Highway 152).

“The Merced College Los Baños Campus 50th year celebration highlights our commitment to serving the community and the thousands of people on the west side of Merced County who have advanced their education and created better lives for themselves,” said Dr. Chris Vitelli, president of CVHEC-member Merced College.

Campus Dean Jessica Moran, a native of Los Baños and a graduate of its high school said, “We plan to welcome our community to showcase what we have accomplished over the past five decades.”

The celebration will feature free food including taco trucks and a volunteer barbecue crew led by Merced College Trustee John Pedrozo and Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke. Free entertainment will include carnival games.

Present and past Los Baños Campus staff and students will be honored, as well as emeritus board member Gene Vierra and several adjunct instructors who have worked at the campus for many decades. Previous deans of the campus will be acknowledged including John Spevak, former Merced College president of instruction, who is now a coordinator for the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium.

Dean-emeritus Spevak contributed to this series of columns on the history of the Los Baños Campus published in the Merced Sun-Star:

See Merced College press release:  http://www.mccd.edu/news/press-releases/items/2021-10-19-los-banos-50-years.html

(CVHEC members are encouraged to submit items for this column: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com).

Dual Enrollment Success Stories: Celeste Galvan of McFarland

Celeste Galván of McFarland and her family celebrated her two degrees earned by the age of 19 thanks to dual enrollment courses through Bakersfield College before Fresno State. Here they pose with her at her high school graduation in 2018. She is now enrolled in CSU Bakersfield’s teacher credential program. All three campuses are CVHEC members.

CVHEC Dual Enrollment Spotlight:

Celeste Galván of McFarland

 

BY TOM URIBES
CVHEC Communications/Media Coordinator

From one end of the valley to the other, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium continues to spotlight student dual enrollment success stories.

Like Nataly Frias featured in our first story in September, Celeste Galván of McFarland earned an associate degree at age 17 before she even graduated high school, marching alongside thousands of other Bakersfield College students at the commencement ceremony in Memorial Stadium in 2018.

Dual enrollment alumnus Celeste Galván graduated from Fresno State in December 2020.

Then just two years later, after transferring to Fresno State, she earned a bachelor of arts degree in Liberal Studies in May and now, at age 19, she is enrolled in the credential program at California State University, Bakersfield while serving an teacher internship at a nearby elementary school. All three institutions are CVHEC members.

In high school, Celeste participated in a Bakersfield College pilot program at the Wonderful College Prep Academy in nearby Delano that provided students with the opportunity to complete an associate of science in agriculture business from BC by the time they graduated from high school.

Before her senior year, Celeste’s family moved to Bakersfield and she chose to stay with her grandmother in McFarland to finish her BC degree work with the Wonderful Academy.

A typical day for Celeste would start at 4 a.m. to get ready for practice with the cross country team, where she took second place at the CIF Central Section Championships in Woodward Park in 2015. After classes, she would stay at the school library as late as 8 or 9 p.m. to finish her college and high school classwork since she didn’t have access to wifi at her grandmother’s house.

Celeste rode that Renegade/Bulldog/Roadrunner spirit through Bakersfield College, Fresno State and back to CSUB.

ROMEO AGBALOG — President of the KCCD Board of Trustees

Romeo Agbalog, president of the Kern Community College District Board of Trustees, wrote in a Bakersfied.com op-ed in January that the success of Celeste and other students prepared Bakersfield College to scale up its model by launching the Early College program in 2019, with the vision of providing a pathway for every high school student in   Kern County to earn between 12 and 60 units of college credit before graduation.

“Every incoming freshman at McFarland High School is enrolled in college-level courses alongside their regular classwork, developing the tools for college and career readiness. Today, over 23,000 students have completed a total of approximately 90,000 college credits at 36 high schools across the county” said Agbalog who also noted the program is successful in closing equity gaps.

“Early College has had a 93 percent student success rate across all high school campuses in the last academic year, consistently exceeding BC’s own institution-set standard for student success by 15 to 20 percent,” he wrote. “Most importantly, more than 85 percent of students from rural areas who were in an associate degree completion pathway went to college after high school.”

See Trustee President Agbalog’s column.

Background: 

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium has been playing an increasing role in furthering Dual Enrollment as an equity-driven strategy to reduce disparities in student persistence and completion rates, which is the essence of the CVHEC mission, including

the creation of a task force in 2019, the Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP).

With over 60 education leaders from the CVHEC region, CVHEC’s Central Valley Dual Enrollment for Equity and Prosperity (CVDEEP) Task Force is identifying and establishing the best elements of a sustainable strategy for dual enrollment that is intentional and aligns with Guided Pathways.

Made up of representatives from Central Valley K-12 districts, colleges, and universities, the task force developed a collaborative regional accord on an equitable delivery of dual enrollment, culminating in a Central Valley Higher Education Consortium white paper in July 2020, “Dual Enrollment in the Central Valley.”

This consensus framework document is designed to assist the nine-county region in the advancement of dual enrollment by reviewing where it has been, identifying the bright spots, identifying challenges and working together to develop solutions.

CVHEC efforts focus on policy implementation and delivery of support to faculty and administrators working on these efforts. The work focuses on regional strategic scaling of Guided Pathways; math pathways; corequisite support (AB 705 and EO 110 implementation); California College Guidance Initiative; and dual enrollment as strategies for equity and degree attainment.

CVHEC will continue to highlight stories about dual enrollment students like Celeste and Nataly in its e-newsletter, and social media platforms. Also, a showcase video conveying the value of dual enrollment for all students through the stories of individual valley students is currently in production and due to be released later this fall semester.

 

For CVHEC media inquiries, contact Tom Uribes at cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu or text 559.348.3278.

 

 

Charting Better Maps to Degrees

Historic UC Merced transfer initiative with Bakersfield, Merced Colleges launches Nov. 4

A hybrid convening at the University of California, Merced Nov. 4, “Charting Better Maps to Degrees,” will launch the historic UC Merced Transfer Pathways initiative between three Central Valley Higher Education Consortium member campuses and demonstrate how the new Program Pathways Mapper can revolutionize positive outcomes across enrollment, completions and equity for students.

UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz will be joined by Bakersfield President Sonya Christian, Merced College President Chris Vitelli and CVHEC Executive Director Benjamin T. Duran. Also speaking will be Dr. Craig Hayward, dean of Institutional Effectiveness at Bakersfield College and  Wayne Skipper, president of Concentric Sky.

The pilot transfer project and the hybrid in-person/virtual event are the result of a $500,000 grant from the California Educational Learning Lab to Bakersfield College, Merced College, and UC Merced for the development of 2+2 transfer maps that streamline and guide the transfer of community college students to the University of California system.

During the event, which will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the UC Merced Conference Center, the grant team will unveil the UC prototype of the Program Pathways Mapper that will make online, interactive transfer maps freely available for current and prospective students.

The convening also will be digitally mediated allowing both virtual and in-person attendees to interact and participate together while providing a higher education bridge across the valley floor.

“UC Merced was created in the Valley to help serve the Valley and we are dedicated to fulfilling that mission,” said Chancellor Muñoz, who will welcome the participants at 9 a.m. followed by the community college presidents and Duran. “This project to simplify transfer pathways means that more young people from our region will recognize a UC education as an achievable goal, and will help students, educators and families chart a course to that goal.”

Duran will discuss CVHEC’s support for the regional roll-out of the Program Pathways Mapper for colleges and universities in the Central Valley. CVHEC consists of 29 colleges in the nine-county region from Stockton to Bakersfield with the presidents/chancellors of each member institution serving as the board of directors.

He said this groundbreaking project, which supports CVHEC’s core mission to improve college completion rates while also supporting the valley’s only UC campus in collaboration with member community colleges, is unique in the state.

“Nothing like this is taking place anywhere else in California that I’m aware of,” said Duran a former Merced College president. “This kind of collaboration, especially intersegmentally, just isn’t happening. This is a big win for the Central Valley.”

Work is well underway to implement the same type of partnership transfer agreements between CVHEC’s CSU member campuses at Bakersfield, Fresno and Stanislaus, he said, with the intent to make this new model available for community college transfers in other regions of the valley.

Members and prospective members of the Program Pathways Mapper community are invited to attend the free event that will include breakfast and lunch. Space is limited but registration is available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/program-pathways-mapper-convening-tickets-168987649609.

For additional information and updates, including details on speakers and breakout sessions, see www.foundationccc.org/ChartingBetterMapstoDegrees.

Additional event questions may be directed to Lori Ortiz,  executive secretary for the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at Bakersfield College at lori.ortiz@bakersfieldcollege.edu.

CVHEC Guest Blog: ‘What the CV-HEC is Happening’

 

Jamie Moore, professor of English at CVHEC-member institution College of the Sequoias in Visalia and a teacher in the statewide Puente program, was featured by the California Acceleration Project in its “Voices from the Field” blog with her entry, “Transforming The Research Paper: Using Oral History To Center  Students’ Voices And Communities.” She also is a doctoral student at CVHEC-member University of California, Merced studying pedagogy and faculty development.  CVHEC proudly presents this as our “What the CV-hec Is Happening” guest blog feature this issue.

 

COS Puente prof featured in CAP Blog
for her oral history/research paper entry

Jamie Moore, professor of English at CVHEC-member institution College of the Sequoias in Visalia, was featured by the  California Acceleration Project (CAP) in its “Notes from the Field” blog with her entry, “Transforming The Research Paper: Using Oral History To Center  Students’ Voices And Communities.”  

Prof. Moore, a teacher in the statewide Puente program, discusses how she uses oral history to transform the research assignments in her first-year composition classroom.

She invited students to interview members of their communities about issues that matter to them, including questions of identity, health care access, and citizenship laws. The approach increased student engagement, enabled students to claim their own identities as academic researchers, and elevated the voices of their communities.

And during the social isolation of the pandemic, the assignments created an avenue for “the research process to serve as a method of community care.”

She said that, as an instructor for the Puente Project, celebrating her students’ voices, communities and cultures is a priority.

“I was burnt out on the traditional concept of the research paper and how we define ‘academic research’ for beginning comp students,” Moore wrote in her summary. “My students and I explored how we could expand our collective definition of academic writing and academic research to make space for our expression. Oral History was the KEY!”

Prof. Moore, who also is a doctoral student at University of California, Merced – also a CVHEC-member — studying pedagogy and faculty development, has presented at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, the Strengthening Student Success Conference and the Puente Project statewide trainings.

The award-winning Puente Community College Program​​ founded statewide in 1981 has been on the College of the Sequoias campus 25 years. COS is an Hispanic-Serving Institution based in Visalia with two other campuses also in Tulare County.

CAP, founded in 2010 by two community college teachers who wanted to do something about the poor outcomes of students placed into remediation, is a faculty-led professional development network that supports the state’s 114 community colleges to implement reforms that substantially increase student completion of transferable, college-level English and math requirements, a critical milestone on the path to degrees and transfer.

See the CAP blog and a webinar conversation with the guest author.

Mini-Grants – COS Equitable Teaching Institute Supports Faculty Learning

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Mini-Grant Success Stories

COS Equitable Teaching Institute supports faculty learning

NOTE: For the past three years, Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Mini-Grants have been awarded to member institutions in support of CVHEC’s mission to increase degree attainment rates. We are highlighting how our member institutions’ innovative uses for the grants are positively impacting students. 

The Equitable Teaching Institute at College of the Sequoias this summer engaged 10 faculty in an innovative four-week interdisciplinary cohort-based summer learning session that studied equitable pedagogy and how to apply it to gatekeeping courses at COS thanks to a $7,500 Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Mini-Grant.

The CVHEC Mini-Grants project, currently funded by the College Futures Foundation, provides awards up to $10,000 each which faculty from member institutions have creatively used for individual projects that help achieve the consortium’s strategy of increasing degree attainment rates. Previous mini-grants have supported assistance and professional learning associated with Guided Pathways, Math Pathways, implementation of Corequisite English and math, course development and advancement of Pathways for Associate Degrees for Transfer.

The 2021 funding cycle also sought to additionally incentivize basic needs and equity, race and social justice work.

At COS, ten faculty selected a different gatekeeping course and examined ways to reduce equity gaps for that specific course. This occurred in two phases done over four weekly themed sessions led by project coordinators Megan Baptista and Matthew C. Nelson, English professors at COS.

The Equitable Teaching culminated with the ETI Faculty Presentation Showcase Aug. 11 as part of the college’s Faculty Development Workshop Series attended by over 40 faculty colleagues during Fall 2021 Convocation Week.

At the culminating showcase, the ETI participants shared their findings, proposed changes and new pedagogy insights, reported Nicole Bryant Lescher, Far North regional coordinator for the California Community College Success Network (3CSN) who served as observer for the project’s first phase in June.

“The presentations were received well with many staying more than 30 minutes over the scheduled two-hour time slot to engage their colleagues about this work,” reported Lescher, who is a professor of English at the College of the Redwoods. “Faculty who attended this workshop left very positive comments in their evaluations and often remarked on changes they hope to make in their courses as a result of these presentations.”

Dr. Benjamin T. Duran, CVHEC executive director, said the COS Equitable Teaching Institute is “a perfect example of how Mini-Grant funds can support faculty learning toward equitable teaching.”

The faculty participants had three learning outcomes for the institute, Lescher reported: review equity concepts and identify local contexts driving equity gaps; explore culturally relevant teaching pedagogy; and use culturally relevant teaching and other equity frameworks to developed student-centered practices, policies, language and assignments for each cohort member’s identified gatekeeping course.

They also had three deliverables as a result of the program: a detailed reflection on their learning that outlined the changes they intend to make for their gatekeeping course; a proposal for a project inspired by the institute (the deliverables for each project varied, but typically these deliverables were tied to ETI faculty presentations during convocation week); and the final presentation at the ETI Faculty Presentation Showcase.

“One key takeaway many instructors found in the data was that small changes in how we teach can help us reduce and even close gaps,” Lescher said. “For example, in English 1, we observe equity gaps for African-American and Hispanic students.

“Between 2014 and 2021, those students were significantly less likely to succeed in English 1,” she explained. “However, the minimum number of students from those groups who would have needed to pass to shrink the gaps is 13 and 80, respectively. If we could get 31 more African American and 181 more Hispanic students to pass English 1, the equity gap disappears.”

She said there are 116 sections of English 1 being offered in fall 2021 and “each of us, making small changes focused specifically on disproportionately impacted student groups, can help close these gaps. If we can help just one more disproportionately impacted student meet the learning outcomes and pass in each English 1 section, we will have almost closed these gaps.”

The participants observed similarly achievable goals in all the gatekeeping classes examined during the institute, Lescher noted.

Nine out of the ten faculty members who presented and their topics are:

  • Randy Villegas – “Students in Political Positions of Power”
  • David Jones – “Grading Systems and Income Inequality”
  • Jenny Heaton – “Reducing Student Anxiety and Fostering Student Agency”
  • Samantha Sousa – “Creating a more equitable syllabus”
  • Tracy Redden – “Syllabus Updates for Equity”
  • Lisa McHarry – “Freeman, Engaging Diverse Voices with Social Annotation”
  • Melissa Myers – “Creating Equitable Math Content Courses for Pre-Service Teachers”
  • Courtney Traugh – “Student Learning Teams”
  • Victoria Rioux – “Using UDL to Make Fieldwork More Equitable”

The project also provided an additional outcome: faculty participants engaged in learning together and found ways to apply what they learned to their courses, said Baptista.

“The grant money allowed us to pilot a project that engaged faculty in equity work, improving both our understanding of the work and how that work appears in our classrooms,” she said. “In the words of one of the participants, ‘I was unsure of this equity work, but after finishing the course, I am fully onboard.’”

The COS project’s $7,500 funding was proposed in the two phases with two main categories: stipends (6,500) and materials (1,000). For stipends, $1,000 each was earmarked for the two coordinators and $2,250 each for the nine participants.

The remaining $1,000 was used to purchase texts to facilitate continued faculty learning and engagement with equity conversations in their discipline and in their courses.

Applications for the next Mini-Grant cycle will be accepted beginning November 1, said Angel Ramirez, CVHEC operations manager (angelr@mail.fresnostate.edu).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Inaugural CVHEC Blog: ‘What the CV-HEC is Happening’

With the fall semester in full swing on college campuses across the nation, we take a look at the past 18 months since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the world —  as we crawl back to some sense of normalcy — through the “blog eyes” of our CVHEC southern regional coordinator, Stan A. Carrizosa Sr., retired College of the Sequoias superintendent/president. Stan reflects on the ups and downs, lessons learned and the opportunities to be had from this era. This new CVHEC blog, “What the CV-HEC is Happening,” will feature members of our team, board of directors, partners and guests occasionally presenting insights into the world of higher education.   

 

Making our Mark on History: Looking Back on a
Pandemic Year in Valley Higher Education

By Stan A. Carrizosa Sr.
Retired Superintendent/President, College of the Sequoias
CVHEC Southern Regional Coordinator

2020 was a year like no other!

Like so many during the pandemic lockdown I found myself in a heightened state of introspection, securing my health and safety, adapting to new forms of communication, trying to recreate routines for the simplest of things like sleeping, eating and exercising … and of course binging on classic movies. An all-time favorite that popped up one day is “Apollo 13” which is the historical account of the infamous mission to the moon that went terribly wrong!

I began to see the pandemic and its impact on community colleges through the eyes of the astronauts on Apollo 13. Like NASA we were at the height of our success, riding a strong economy, new funded state mandates to address historic trends in low student achievement, and unprecedented growth in partnerships and collaboration.

Then with one quick stir of the oxygen tanks an explosion derails our lunar module and sends us into crisis-response mode as we fight for our lives:

  • We turned our entire institution on a dime and transitioned to fully remote education and online classes and services.
  • We scrambled to make technology, training, equipment and support available to students and staff.
  • We changed our modes of communication, outreach and follow-up to comply with health and safety mandates that required us all to remain physically isolated from each other.
  • We endured significant periods of panic, uncertainty, and confusion as we waited for the “return flight plan” from headquarters to come before running out of oxygen.

Looking back now on those flashes of hopelessness we are reminded of the power of the human spirit and our tremendous resiliency. With vaccines gaining significant momentum we are now feeling the sense of relief that our “heat shield” has survived the intense impact of re-entry and we’ve landed safely in the ocean and preparing to return to mission control.

We know that when we must, we can mobilize very quickly. When we are not marred in regulation, bureaucracy and political power struggles we can get things done and achieve incredible feats just because they are best to serve students and staff.

We have learned many things that will help us going forward as we enter a new “normal” that in many respects, we will never be the same as we were pre-pandemic. It is exciting to be part of shaping this new future that now must address challenges like increasing statewide access to quality internet/broadband, continuing use of remote communication modalities for things like counselor/advisor appointments, small-group office hours, extended learning opportunities, tutorials and just about any other engagement that we previously limited to face-to-face experiences.

Finally, we have learned much about providing higher quality instruction. We’ve learned how to enhance virtual learning and build a sense of community among online classes. We better understand the individual needs of learners and how to differentiate instruction to meet these needs. We know how to cultivate virtual study groups and build relationships among students in a virtual setting.

This fall semester offers us the most exciting opportunity in a generation, to be the leaders who will shape a new course for higher education in California community colleges. Many recount the Apollo 13 mission as an historic failure where others consider it NASA’s finest hour.

I tend to agree with latter and as we look to the future of community colleges, remember beneath all the red tape, mandates, equity plans and pathways, in California community colleges we are doing our own little share of God’s work, and there is no purpose more destined to succeed!

Mini-Grants – Reedley College’s Motivational Poster Project 

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Mini-Grant Success Stories

Reedley College’s Motivational Poster Project 

seeks equitable, inclusive spaces on campus

NOTE: For the past three years, CVHEC Mini-Grants have been awarded to member institutions in support of CVHEC’s mission to increase degree attainment rates. We are highlighting how our member institutions’ innovative uses for the grants are positively impacting students. 

More than 70 motivational posters profiling a diverse range of student success stories were produced by the Reedley College Academic Senate thanks to funding from Central Valley Higher Education Consortium’s Mini-Grant project.

Currently funded by the College Futures Foundation, the Mini-Grants project provides awards up to $10,000 each which faculty from member institutions have creatively used for individual projects that help achieve the consortium’s strategy of increasing degree attainment rates. Previous mini-grants have supported assistance and professional learning associated with Guided Pathways, Math Pathways, implementation of Corequisite English and math, course development and advancement of Pathways for Associate Degrees for Transfer.

The 2021 funding cycle also sought to additionally incentivize basic needs and equity, race and social justice work.

At Reedley College, Rebecca Al Haider in the Communication and Languages Department undertook the Motivational Poster Project as part of the college’s Academic Senate’s anti-racism action plan “to create campus spaces that are equitable inclusive and diverse” by producing 70 posters that were printed in various languages, framed and displayed on campus.

The posters contained messages in English, Spanish, Arabic and Punjabi representing 33 students and 12 faculty, staff and administrators from various ethnicities/races, genders, sexual orientations, ages, religions, abilities, educational achievements and goals.

One of the posters highlighted Business Administration student Alejandra Reyes Enriquez, who began her higher education at Reedley College in the English as a Second Language program where she earned her high school diploma and enrolled in Business Administration classes. She transferred to Fresno State where she is pursuing a degree in accounting. Al Haider said Alejandra’s posters highlight her great achievements as a mother, immigrant and first-generation college student.

“What started out as a desire to simply learn a new language, turned into a desire to build a better future for myself and my family,” Alejandra said. “It is never too late to achieve your goals and change not only your story, but your family’s story for generations to come.”

In addition to poster printing and frames costs, Reedley College’s $8,100 grant provided two monitors and computers installed in the cafeteria and Math/Science Building to display videos of twelve profiled students and employees sharing their educational experiences and achievements as well as offering advice.

For more information about the Mini-Grant process, contact Angel Ramirez at angelr@mail.fresnostate.edu.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Pilot CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project improves process for students  

Rollout of Program Mapper software app for transfers set for Nov. 4

A pilot program developed between the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and three member institutions — UC Merced, Merced College and Bakersfield College — is showing promise for outstanding results that can enhance a community college student’s transfer experience including a new web-based software application, Program Mapper.

This new initiative, the CVHEC/UC Merced Transfer Project, was presented to the CVHEC Board of Directors, made up the presidents and chancellors of CVHEC’s 29-member institutions, at its quarterly meeting Sept. 3.

Tom Burke, chancellor-emeritus of the Kern Community College District, has been recruited to serve as the Transfer Project coordinator, Dr. Ben Duran, CVHEC executive director, also announced to the board.   

The specific aim of the initial pilot project is to increase the number of successful and timely transfers from the Central Valley member community colleges in CVHEC’s nine-county region to UCM, reports Stan Carrizosa, southern regional coordinator for the consortium.

And work is well underway to implement the same type of partnership transfer agreements between Bakersfield College and CSU Bakersfield with the intent to make this new model available for community college transfers to the region’s other California State University campuses at Fresno and Stanislaus as well, Carrizosa reported. Project resource teams are currently being solicited from each community college with the goal to eventually begin replicating the faculty convenings and admissions/articulation alignments developed through the pilot.

“All of CVHEC’s 17 community college members have accepted our invitation to participate in the process developed by the colleges in the pilot project with the tentative timeline for completion projected for the end of the spring semester and summer,” added Carrizosa, a former superintendent/president with College of the Sequoias. “This tentative timeline would position all final transfer admission pathways to be approved by UC Merced for full implementation beginning in the fall semester, 2023.”

Duran said this groundbreaking project, which supports CVHEC’s core mission to improve college completion rates while also supporting the valley’s only UC campus in collaboration with member community colleges, is unique in the state.

“Nothing like this is taking place anywhere else in California that I’m aware of,” Duran reported to the board. “This kind of collaboration, especially intersegmentally, just isn’t happening. This is a big win for the Central Valley.”

This new initiative builds on the 10-year effort by the state’s community colleges to expedite a successful transfer by implementing the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) agreement, specific lower-division course sequences for approval by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and CSU campuses, to fulfill the 60-unit transfer requirements for various majors offered throughout the colleges in the CSU system.

Specifically for this pilot, UCM faculty were invited to review the CSU-approved ADT’s developed previously, and which are becoming more widely known by Central Valley community college students. They were asked to consider approval of selected ADTs to fulfill the lower division transfer requirements for these same discipline majors at UCM.

“To date, the work of the pilot project colleges is progressing nicely,” Carrizosa reported. “These intersegmental teams have reviewed and approved up to 15 different ADT discipline majors. They adjusted and aligned course syllabi where needed — to be approved by UCM faculty — to fulfill the lower division requirements for successful transfer admissions to UCM.”

In addition to the review and approval of the various ADT discipline majors, Carrizosa said the teams are also identifying the specific upper division courses required for students once admitted to UCM and aligning these with the ADT to show a four-year sequence to be called the “UCM transfer admission pathways for students.”

Once completed and approved, the courses are being uploaded into the new web-based software application Program Mapper.

“This application enables students to select the community college they are attending and identify the ADT they may be interested in being enrolled in,” Carrizosa said. “From there, Program Mapper will automatically display the required community college courses for their ADT and the required upper division courses for that major at UC Merced in the format of a four-year Transfer Admission Plan (TAP).”

Plans are underway to unveil the Transfer Project and Program Mapper application at a special event Nov. 4 at UC Merced. (Event details of the Program Mapper and launch will be forthcoming in the October CVHEC e-newsletter).

Funding for the Transfer Project is provided in part by the Fresno K-16 Collaborative with support from California Governor Newsome’s office and by the College Futures Foundation.

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