Did you know:

April
2012

Dear Julie,

Now that you have created your two associate degrees for transfer to be compliant with SB 1440 requirements, should you be creating more degrees now that more TMCs are out there?

Good question! And congratulations on meeting the initial target set out when the associate degrees for transfer were first launched. As you mention in your letter, there are more Transfer Model Curricula (TMCs) now available and local faculty, informed by Articulation Officers and counseling faculty, should continue to create AA-T and AS-T degrees. Eighteen TMCs now exist, which gives students many options for transfer pathways, and more TMCs will available by the end of the academic year.

The marketing campaign for the associate degrees for transfer will soon be underway, and high school counselors, high school students, and their parents will be looking for these degrees at your college. For the benefit of students, your college should plan to offer as many AA-T and AS-T degrees as you possibly can. Counseling faculty will need to develop good messages to students about choosing one transfer pathway over another, and the SB 1440 implementation website at http://www.sb1440.org/ offers the latest information about the guarantees and critical considerations for this particular transfer path, and the C-ID website http://www.c-id.net/ has information about the degrees, TMCs, catalog language, and more.

Making these degrees work for students is a joint project between the California Community College and CSU Systems. As with any endeavor that brings together two large organizations with lots of faculty, administrative and political interests, there will be a good deal of intense problem solving and tight timelines. Each year that students are awarded the degrees - with the Spring 2012 cohort as the first - the admission process and the road to a baccalaureate degree will become smoother. For the community colleges, each college should plan to develop as many degrees as possible to ensure students have options and to guarantee that our system fulfills its obligation to the spirit and intent of the law.