550 Junior College Students Tap New Pipeline to UCLA

Like many community college students, Pierce College sophomore Gregory Truempy is concerned about where he will transfer to finish his education.

“I want a degree that will look good on a resume,” he said. “I think that a UCLA degree will look just fantastic.”

The chances are better than ever for Truempy and other community college students who want to earn a degree from UCLA, thanks to a pilot UCLA program that guarantees priority admission to transfer students from designated community colleges.

In fact, transfer applicants from these community colleges may have a better chance of being admitted to UCLA than their counterparts from other University of California campuses or the California State University system, according to some educators.

Guaranteed Spot

Ten community colleges, including Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Valley College in Van Nuys and College of the Canyons in Valencia, were chosen last year to participate in UCLA’s Transfer Alliance Program. In the pilot project, qualified students are guaranteed a spot as juniors in UCLA’s College of Letters and Sciences, said Gayle Byock, director of the program.

The College of Letters and Sciences, which includes the humanities, social, physical and life sciences, accommodates 19,500 undergraduates and is the largest of UCLA’s colleges, said Juan Lara, dean of the department of interinstitutional programs. Admission cannot be guaranteed for the smaller School of Engineering, which has room for only 1,600 undergraduates, or for the School of Fine Arts, which is limited to 1,350, Lara said.

So far, approximately 550 students are enrolled in the UCLA program, Byock said. Pierce and Canyons each have 30 to 45 students in the program, but no estimate is available for Valley, she said.

Students in the transfer alliance program must complete a group of courses that are more in-depth than the community college’s regular course offerings, and they must maintain a 3.0 grade point average.

Because a 1960 higher education master plan requires that the university’s undergraduate population be composed of 40% freshmen and sophomores and 60% upperclassmen, the university is filled at the freshmen level, Byock said. But spaces are usually available in its junior class, she said.

Goal Increasingly Not Met

Said Lara: “One of the ideals of the master plan was that students can come to community colleges and then transfer to four-year institutions.” But, he said, that goal has eroded over time.

For example, transfers to UCLA from some Valley-area community colleges have decreased. In 1984, Pierce had 66 transfers, down from 93 in 1974; Valley had 49, contrasted to 151 ten years earlier. College of the Canyons saw only a slight increase, from 9 to 11 transfers.

Based on the master plan, “our desired goal is to have 1,600 community college transfers,” Lara said. Yet during the 1984-1985 academic year, only 886 transfers were from community colleges. “It’s pitiful,” Lara said.

Because of UCLA’s guaranteed priority admission program and its emphasis on community college transfers, some educators believe that it might be better for students who want to transfer to UCLA to take their lower-division courses at a community college rather than at another University of California or state university campus.

Several community colleges have stressed this advantage in order to attract students and help reverse enrollment declines in recent years. “It’s part of the pluses we hope to offer them,” said Richard Gearing, a Pierce counselor .

For example, Canyons tells prospective students that by attending a community college they will not only be able to pay less tuition and stay closer to home for the first two years of their post-secondary education, they will also enjoy priority admission to UCLA, said Prof. Bradley Reynolds, coordinator for Canyons’ High Intensity Transfer Education program.

Reynolds said a policy favoring community college transfers makes sense. “Students from UC and state universities have already been admitted to a four-year institution,” Reynolds said. “Community college students . . . should have priority.”

But Robert Williams, director of community college relations for California State University, Northridge, disagreed. He said the policy is not fair to state university students who did not get into their first choice of schools.

Nevertheless, Williams said, “I would advise the students within our own system to go to a community college if a campus of the University of California system is giving a priority to community college transfers.”

Mission Wants to Participate

Community colleges not included on UCLA’s list, such as Mission College in Sylmar, are trying hard to get on, said Horacio Fonseca, Mission College’s coordinator for relations with schools.

“We jumped on the bandwagon and we are in the process of developing an honors program,” Fonseca said. The school has also promised it will offer students the courses they need to meet their transfer requirements, said Irving Weinstein, dean of academic affairs. In the past, if not enough people enrolled in a transfer course, the course would be canceled.

Mission College is also interested in strengthening its relationship with UCLA because it wants to increase the number of minority students who transfer to that university, said Raul Cardoza, Mission’s former vice president for academic affairs. Cardoza left two weeks ago to assume the same post at East Los Angeles College.

“In my opinion, the minority transfer student consistently looked at the Cal State system as the only option for transfer,” Cardoza said. Five of six minority students will go to a state college because of accessibility, cost and tradition, he said. Students often reason, “ ‘My brother went there, my friends went there,’ ” Cardoza said.

In the 1983-1984 academic year, three minority students from Mission transferred to UC schools, whereas 41 transferred to state universities, according to statistics provided by the California Post-Secondary Education Commission.

Bolster Images

Community college administrators also promote transfer programs because the administrators want to strengthen their institutions’ reputations.

“Too frequently, parents and students have a negative attitude about going to a community college,” Gearing said. Pierce College wants to support “anything that builds our image in the community,” he said.

Said Reynolds of Canyons: “We want to let them know that they can get the same quality education in the first and second years at a community college that they can at a UC system school.”

In addition to offering guaranteed priority admission, UCLA’s transfer alliance program also focuses on academic guidance. In the past, students who said they wanted to transfer to UCLA often neglected to either take the prerequisites for their majors or the courses needed to meet UCLA’S general education requirements, Byock said.

Consequently, UCLA requires that community colleges in the alliance program provide transfer candidates with counseling to ensure that students know the courses they must take to transfer.

“We feel that if they know that the university is concerned about their ability to transfer and about their academic preparation, it would help them to move into the university,” Byock said.

UCLA is encouraging community colleges to set up similar transfer alliance agreements with other four-year universities, Byock said.