Transfer Students at CAL: Success and Diversity

By James Dudek
January 25, 2007

In December 2006, Vice Provost of Education and Interim Dean Christina Maslach hosted an L&S Colloquium on the topic of the transfer student experience at CAL.  Joining Maslach on the dais were several experts who were intimately aware of the issues facing such students.  What became clear as the discussion began was how transfer students were not only amazingly diverse and academically focused, but often stereotyped and misunderstood.

Eva Rivas, Director of the Transfer, Re-entry, and Student Parent (TRSP) center, and Ron Williams, Coordinator of Re-entry Student Programs and Services, gave an overview of the population to elucidate the large impact on campus.  A full 21% of all undergrads at Cal are transfers, and each year approximately 32% of all new students are as well.  Transfer students come from all over the country, though many are from the traditional “feeder” schools in the bay area such as Diablo Valley College and City College of San Francisco.  Within this group lies a wide-range of diversity:  transfer students vary in age from 13 to 83, many are parents in addition to being scholars, and in total they show a far greater ethnic diversity than the traditional four-year population.  This variety makes a richer experience for all students, as transfers come to their classes with previous work and life experience and see issues and education through a different lens.

One panelist, Sereeta Alexander, is a living representation of the vibrancy of the transfer population.  Not only is she a Cal alum and a student parent, but now also a Cal grad student.  Her experience has been far from trouble free, however.  Alexander’s residence hall assignment forced her to be separated from her partner and child before being able to find more suitable accommodations.  Sereeta explained that child care and financial issues are also a challenge faced more frequently by students parents and transfers than students entering the academy right after high school. 

In addition to dealing with life issues outside of their academic experience, transfers must also contend with stubborn and inaccurate stereotypes surrounding their population.  It is often said, for example, that such students are less academically successful.  When in fact, Maslach pointed out, GPAs for that group are the same on average as for the traditional four-year student body.  Professor Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, of the Psychology department, said that 50% of those surveyed commented that they at one time or another had an experience of feeling like they don’t belong at Cal. Mendoza-Denton presented research which showed such feelings can have detrimental effects as students sometimes start to believe they don’t belong and suffer academically as a result.

But it is clear that they do belong and do succeed at Cal.  It is also clear that the campus must continue to find ways to adapt and support transfer students.  Offices like TRSP, research like that of Professor Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton’s, role-models like Sereeta Alexander and open discussion like the one that occurred at December’s Colloquium are certainly a solid foundation on which to build further support.