[Educationforall] UCSD policy limits community college students

Tue Mar 29 16:53:25 UTC 2011

In a message dated 3/28/2011 11:08:17 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
papasconchesse at hotmail.com writes:

_http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/mar/18/ucsds-new-transfer-standard-
roils-community/_ 
(http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/mar/18/ucsds-new-transfer-standard-roils-community/) 

UCSD policy limits community college students
Raising GPA requirement to 3.5 will exclude many students  from program
By _Pat Flynn_ (http://www.signonsandiego.com/staff/pat-flynn/)   
Originally published March 18, 2011 at 6:30  p.m., updated March 18, 2011 
at 7:16 p.m. 

Transfer agreement applications to UCSD
Local community  colleges for fall 2011
Cuyamaca: 61
Grossmont: 204
Imperial:  19
MiraCosta: 257
Palomar: 237
City: 105
Mesa: 363
Miramar:  128
Southwestern: 152

Explosion in applications at UCSD
2008: 408
2009:  1,946
2010: 3,427
2011: 8,715

Guarantee transfer requirements
UC San Diego: 3.5  GPA
UC Santa Barbara: 3.2
*Other UC campuses: 3.0
*UCLA and Berkeley  do not have TAG programs

With transfer applications  soaring and budget cuts looming, the 
_University  of California San Diego_ 
(http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/University_of_California,_San_Diego)  is raising the threshold on a guaranteed 
admission  program for the state’s community _college  students_ 
(http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/Student) .
For years, community college students who took specific  courses and 
obtained a 3.0 _grade-point  average_ 
(http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/Grade_(education))  could count on admission under the program called Transfer  
Admissions Guarantee, or TAG.
But faced with growing demand and limited  capacity, UCSD officials in 
recent weeks have notified community college  officials statewide that for 
guaranteed admission in 2012 and beyond TAG  students will have to earn GPAs of 
3.5 or better.
Mae Brown, assistant vice  chancellor and director of admissions at UCSD, 
said that TAG applications have  grown from 443 five years ago to 8,715 for 
fall admission this year.
“We  saw the exponential growth in TAG applications — this is a guarantee —
 and the  obvious issue is we don’t have the capacity,” Brown said. “Given 
the severe  budget situation, and the university (statewide) taking a $500 
million or more  budget reduction, if we are going to guarantee, we should 
be guaranteeing  admissions to the best prepared.”
UCSD’s program started in the early 1980s  and involved only two-year 
schools in _San Diego_ (http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/San_Diego)  and  
Imperial counties. Later, UCSD entered agreements with 33 colleges around 
the  state. And since 2009 it has offered the program to all 112 _California  
community colleges_ 
(http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/California_Community_Colleges_System) .
Brown said applications spiked dramatically for  2011 largely due to a new 
computer-based process that makes it easier for TAG  students to apply to 
multiple campuses. Still, she said, the trend was already  overtaxing the 
campus’ capacity.
The university’s decision has prompted a  sharp response from officials of 
Southwestern College, which serves a  predominantly minority population in 
the South Bay.
“We are very  concerned,” said Angelica Suarez, vice president for student 
affairs at the  one-college district. “It’s about access for our students. 
This is going to  narrow and reduce the number of students who can go to 
UCSD.”
Suarez and  Jaime Salazar, Southwestern’s transfer center coordinator, said 
UCSD’s  decision directly contradicts university policies calling for the 
removal of  barriers for students from traditionally underrepresented groups.
“They’re  always giving us lip service,” said Salazar. “They say they’re 
committed to  diversity, but it’s all lip service. It’s all about being the 
Ivy League of  the West, serving the elite.”
Brown, who has met recently on the issue with  representatives of all six 
community college districts in San Diego and  Imperial counties, dismissed 
the notion that the change runs counter to the  university’s diversity goals. 
She said that when the TAG program was  implemented in the early 1980s — 
available then only to local two-year  colleges — it was meant to boost 
then-low transfers from community  colleges.
“It had nothing to do with underrepresented minorities,” she  said.
Brown noted that UCSD will continue to admit community college  transfers 
through TAG and the non-guaranteed transfer process.
“Because  community colleges are so racially diverse, you automatically 
pick up more  diversity whenever you admit those transfers,” she said.
Of the nine  University of California undergraduate campuses, seven have 
TAG programs.  Berkeley and UCLA do not offer guaranteed transfer admissions 
to community  college students.
Nick Serrano, a Southwestern College student government  officer, disagrees 
with Brown’s contention that the decision is neutral in its  effect on 
minorities.
“The change from a 3.0 to a 3.5 is huge,” said  Serrano. “To a lot of our 
students this is discriminating because minority  students do tend to have 
lower GPAs.”
He added that many UC-eligible  Southwestern students can’t really consider 
other campuses in the system  because they can’t afford the cost of living 
away from home.
“It’s an  access issue,” Serrano said. “It will limit a lot of our 
students, who can  only go local, from going to UCSD.”
UCSD accepted 25 TAG students from  Southwestern in 2008, 46 in 2009 and 66 
in 2010. It has received 152 TAG  applications for fall of this year.
Brown said that based on 2010 data, she  estimates the 3.5 threshold would 
have reduced the applicant pool by about 50  percent.
Administrators at other local community colleges are not as  distressed by 
UCSD’s decision as their counterparts at Southwestern.
“I  agree that it’s a big jump (from 3.0 to 3.5,)” said Lynn Neault, 
vice  chancellor of student services for the _San  Diego Community College 
District_ 
(http://topics.signonsandiego.com/topics/San_Diego_Community_College_District) . “As the demand for higher education  increases, they’ve got to 
manage budgets and manage enrollment just like we  do.
“What we need to do is make clear to our students from the start that  they 
need to get as high a GPA as they can.”
Neault estimated that the  higher GPA would disqualify about 45 percent of 
her district’s TAG  applicants.
Southwestern College officials and others have asked UCSD to  modify its 
decision. They have suggested that students already in the program  be 
grandfathered in at 3.0 for 2012 admission.
Other suggestions include  keeping the threshold at 3.0 for San Diego and 
Imperial county students while  raising it for others. Another is that the 
level be raised only to  3.2.
Brown said the decision has already been made by the faculty’s  admissions 
committee. But the question of those in the pipeline, at least, is  open to 
discussion.
“We’ve met with the community college vice presidents,”  Brown said. “And 
we’ve talked about ways to accommodate students in that  bind.”

pat.flynn at uniontrib.com • (619)  293-2083

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