Cramming them in

EdSource carries a piece in legislative pressures to admit more transfer students. (See excerpt below.) There remains the resource question: More students = more resources, more capacity, more construction, more faculty, etc. It also reflects the tendency of the legislature to focus on undergrad admissions to the exclusion of research, graduate programs, and so on. We have previously posted about the notion of constrained campuses such as UCLA creating "satellite" campuses.* Is there any doubt that if that approach were implemented, there would then be pressure to get undergrads into UCLA-Westwood as opposed to UCLA-Somewhere Else?

To fix what critics say is a confusing and discouraging system, the University of California is under pressure to create a new admissions guarantee program for community college transfer students. Currently, six of UC’s nine undergraduate campuses have transfer admission guarantee programs, which smooth the path from a community college to UC if students take the right courses. But each campus has different course and grade requirements for those programs, and the guarantees are limited to certain majors. Three of UC’s most competitive campuses — Berkeley, Los Angeles and San Diego — don’t have any guaranteed admission programs at all.

The Campaign for College Opportunity, a college access group that has often sponsored major legislation related to transfers, says it’s time for a more streamlined and student-friendly process that would guarantee transfer students a spot in the UC system if they meet certain criteria. It’s especially important, proponents say, because only a small fraction of students who intend to transfer are successful. And with enrollment down significantly at the community colleges in recent years, creating simpler paths to a four-year university could help keep students on track toward their degrees. A key lawmaker, Assemblymember Marc Berman, also told EdSource that a systemwide admissions guarantee for transfer students should be strongly considered.

The calls also come as a new formal statewide committee, the Associate Degree for Transfer Intersegmental Implementation Committee, is expected to soon convene for its first meeting. Established by Assembly Bill 928, a bill signed last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the committee’s charge includes making recommendations by the end of next year to the Legislature for improving the transfer process...

One possible roadblock to a more streamlined and wider transfer admissions guarantee is that the Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego campuses are already overcrowded and in high demand among both freshman and transfer applicants...

Full story at https://edsource.org/2022/university-of-california-faces-calls-to-reduce-barriers-for-transfer-students/676387.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/07/watch-regents-meetings-of-july-21-2022.html.