By Leaders of California’s three higher education systems recently announced that plans are underway to promote collaborative efforts on several key issues affecting incoming college freshmen and transfer students.
Cal State University Chancellor Timothy P. White, University of California President Janet Napolitano and California Community College Chancellor Bryce W. Harris met in front of the UC Board of Regents last month to outline their ongoing plan.
“The system is designed for collaboration,” White said. “It will lead into the growth of the economic enterprise of the state.”
By streamlining the student transfer process, increasing student outreach programs and promoting communication between each system, the leaders said, they hope to strengthen the California Master Plan for Higher Education, which was created in 1960.
“I am the product of the Master Plan … I started in community college, then to Cal State [University] and finished with my graduate work at [University of California] Berkeley,” White said. “And just like the Master Plan, I think I’m fundamentally strong, but I’m a bit tattered around the edges.”
The Master Plan serves as a guideline for the roles of the UC, CSU, and CCC systems, according to the California State Department of Education.
Napolitano said one of their main goals is to make the transfer process as smooth and transparent as possible for students.
Napolitano said they are looking at establishing a new online student portal that would track academic progress and provide financial aid and transfer requirements to students. The portal would be tailored to universities that students are interested in applying to.
“One of the things we have learned and seen time and time again is that students in California select out of going to college or a four year university because they think they can’t afford it without knowing what resources might be made available to them,” Napolitano said.
In addition to creating the portal, Harris said they also hope to increase outreach to inform students and parents, starting at the seventh-grade level, that college can be feasible with good grades and student grants.
“Our ability to handle the challenges our state will face in the future is incumbent, on not only helping our students succeed in greater and greater numbers, but insuring that we don’t leave any of them behind in that process,” Harris said. “[We] intend to begin a very personalized communication campaign.”
White said that directing money into academics is an equally important step the higher education systems need to take to strengthen the economy over the next 50 years.
“Its not about saving money for money’s sake … but rather, think of ways in which we can direct the vast majority of our resources to our core issues of teaching, learning, research, scholarly activities and our engagement with the community,” White said.
In the coming months, White said he hopes to have more meetings with Napolitano and Harris, as well as the CSU, UC and CCC Boards, to move the collaborative effort forward.
CSU spokesman Mike Uhlenkamp said the plan is still new and the amount of work it will take is yet to be determined.
“This is still a work in progress … there will be additional information about specific initiatives in the coming months,” Uhlenkamp said.
