Hey Siri, what’s the way to transfer? California passed two bills to aid the transferring process

BY ANASTASIYA OREL Reporter

Figuring out which educational pattern to follow for transfer and how to complete all of the required courses can be like putting together a puzzle with missing pieces.

It is time-consuming, complex and stressful—and don’t forget the part where students have strict deadlines to meet.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently passed Assembly Bills 928 and 111 to limit confusion for students planning to transfer and fulfill their educational patterns.

AB 928 is a legislative bill that will streamline the IGETC and the CSU GE into a single pattern with a purpose for students to complete the first half of their pursued bachelor’s degree by taking their general education and major preparation at a community college. This bill will also include the student’s Associate for Transfer (ADT) pattern.

AB 111 will provide a universal course numbering system throughout all of California’s community colleges. For example, instead of one community college labeling an introduction to psychology class as PSYCH001 and another naming it PSYCH101, every community college will have the same name for the course.

Transfer Center Director Sunday Salter said the bills received pushback because of the complications of combining the UC and CSU educational patterns and eligibility for transfer.

“We want to make it easier, simpler and clearer for students,” Salter said. “Right now, it’s like a maze trying to determine which way to take depending upon the ultimate goal that the students have.”

Salter said many students change their major therefore requiring them to change ADT and GE patterns. If AB 928 and 111 are implemented, they can limit the amount of alterations needed and apply the relevant courses they had previously taken to their new major.

Articulation officer and counselor Cristina Rodriguez the syncing of the course numbering system AB 111 bill has been brought up before. In the 90’s, a course articulation number was called a CAN number and was used with the same intent.

Rodriguez said the problem with the same course numbering system is that it does not address articulation.

“This is one of those things that are good in theory, but putting it into practice is going to be a challenge,” Rodriguez said. “So it could be that a chemistry class at Pierce transfers to UC Berkeley to meet the major requirement, but ELAC’s chemistry class does not.

I’m afraid this may create some confusion.”

AB 928 is planned to be reinforced in fall of 2025 and AB 111 to be implemented starting July of 2024. Rodriguez said she believes it is not enough time to carry out this change.

“There’s a lot of issues I think they’re going to come up with—for example, articulation,” Rodriguez said. “The legislators are not people that work at the community college. They don’t realize that these issues are going to need to be addressed and in some cases, it would take decades to just fix some of these things.”

Sophomore Anya Nosa said she sees the appeal of the legislative bills.

“I think it’s beneficial in terms of less stress, and I do see them as a plus,” Nosa said. “I currently have two CSU pattern courses that aren’t complete which means I will have to take them there at the university. It’s inconvenient and I think if the courses are all under one pattern, it would be a lot easier.”

Nosa said the current transferring process is confusing and has not been as helpful as she hoped it would be.

“The transfer application and process is a very independent thing,” Nosa said. “I feel like they don’t really do what they publicize, and most of the stuff that I had found was on my own. They don’t have any resources for private universities and it’s pretty much a ‘go figure it out’ thing.”

Nosa said that as a student planning to transfer for the next fall semester, the new Zoom lounge provided by the Transfer Center has been slightly helpful but is still lacking assistance for transfer students.

“The counselors can definitely try to go out of their way and help certain students with what they’re asking and not just give generic answers,” Nosa said. “I think the bills would help students like me in making the process more efficient and convenient. I think it can bring options for people to do more classes they want to and are interested in.”

Rodriguez said the California community colleges have already undergone many adaptations within their systems because of the pandemic. The legislative bills could either ease or increase difficulty with those changes.

“I personally think that what we have now is not perfect, but it works well,” Rodriguez said. “It helps students that have different goals and there’s more flexibility.

I’m afraid that we’re going to lose some of those ways that we can help students out if this is the route that we’re going.”