New state reforms to transfer degrees may force Pierce College to develop more than 100 new courses as well as several new degrees, according to Pierce College President Kathleen Burke, who discussed the matter during Monday’s Academic Senate meeting.
There has been confusion throughout the state regarding exactly what is required from the schools with the introduction of Senate Bill 440, with some thinking they must adopt all statewide Transfer Model Curriculum (TMC), according to an email by Elizabeth Atondo, the chair of the District Curriculum Committee.
According to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office website, “The Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act (SB 1440 – Padilla), signed into legislation on Sept. 29, 2010, enables the California Community Colleges and California State Universities to collaborate on the creation of Associate in Arts Degree (AA) and Associate in Science (AS) Degree transfer programs.”
Burke, however, interprets the legislation differently.
“The way that I read the legislation is if we teach the discipline and there is a TMC offered thou shall adopt the TMC and the transfer degree,” Burke said. “There will no longer be an option whether we offer the degree or not. It’s my understanding from reading the legislation that we will be adopting these so that there is conformity up and down the state in terms of the offering of these degrees.”
Although the transfer degrees don’t offer a guarantee of acceptance to a specific campus, these academic routes give students assurance of acceptance to one of the 23 California state universities, confirming they have priority standing over all other applicants when applying.
“The idea behind them [AS-T/AA-T degrees] is for students who know what they want to major in to follow one of these TMC’s,” said Sunday Salter, Transfer Center director. “They can take their general requirements, take their major prep requirements, they’ll get to a Cal State and they’ll only need to take 60 more units to graduate.”
Issues may arise if President Burke’s understanding of SB 440 is correct, which could possibly force the school to create numerous new degrees even if there aren’t enough student interest.
But Atondo disagrees. Pierce is already in compliance with both pieces of legislation (SB1440/440) and is only responsible for adopting TMC degrees for which the school offers an associate degree, Atondo said.
Regardless of what develops from SB 440, the transfer degrees come with other issues, according to Salter.
“SB 1440 was a law that wanted to reduce the number of units that students were completing in community college in order to transfer,” Salter said. “The kicker with these degrees is that the CSU’s can determine individually whether or not they will accept this Associate Transfer Degree. So not all the CSU’s have to take our degrees.”
Pierce is currently only able to offer an AS-T in business and mathematics and is awaiting approval from the state for the other AS-T and AA-T degrees such as early childhood education, journalism, music, studio arts and others.
The school is still waiting for statewide development for the degrees emphasized in SB 440 before taking any action.
