The process of transferring to a California State University has gotten easier with the passage of a new law that guarantees admission to transfer students from community colleges in certain majors.

The student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, signed into law last fall, creates a new associate degree program under Senate Bill 1440 for community college students and it guarantees admission and junior status to a local CSU.

The bill to create the act was sponsored by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) in 2010 to change the California education code and develop the Transfer Model Curriculum, according to City College Curriculum Committee Manager and Vice President of Instruction Mary Turner.

The new associate degree, known as the Transfer Degree, will cover at least 60 transferable units of the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) or CSU General Education Breadth classes and units in the major area of emphasis.

Majors offering the Transfer Degree for the upcoming 2011-2012 school year will include communications, psychology, sociology and mathematics.

According to Turner, these majors had the majority of student transfers to CSUs.

“The law stated that we have to have two [Transfer Degrees] ready by fall, and [City College] will have four,” said Ginni May, City College curriculum committee chair.

The current method to transfer into a CSU is known as a transfer agreement, where students complete classes in the lower division of their major as well as general education classes. General education classes are classified into the IGETC or CSU General Education Breadth and are slightly different, sometimes causing students to re-take classes at their CSU that they have already taken at a community college, according to May.

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“I think what it really does for students is articulate the pathway [to transfer],” said Turner.

Additionally students are given a guaranteed priority option to transfer despite budget cuts or high freshman enrollment, which has been problematic for students following the current transfer agreement route. There has been no timeline set as to when all associate degree programs or majors offered from City College will have a transfer degree program, according to Turner.

“There have been multiple meetings between CSU faculty and community college faculty across the state in order to discuss the degree, common course numbering, common course content, and what courses should be included in the degree,” Turner said.

Majors that require high numbers of units to graduate, such as engineering or biology, require extensive work between community colleges and CSUs to articulate to the new law’s mandates.

Turner said she believes that transfer agreements for these majors will be available at a later date.

Currently, there are no plans to develop a transfer degree program into the University of California system. However, Turner said there is discussion in the Legislature to sponsor a bill for a similar transfer program to UCs.

“When students are working with their counselors to find their degree for their major, then the counselors can help them focus on what they intended for their educational goals,” said Turner. “Getting with a counselor and developing an educational plan with the counselors about what a student’s educational goals are really critical to the process.”