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By Noah Grand

Daily Bruin Reporter

UC transfer admissions have increased and are expected to increase in the future as a result of Tidal Wave II and the dual admissions proposal.

Tidal Wave II refers to the expected influx of 60,000 students to the UC over the next decade.

UCLA admitted 7.6 percent more transfer students from community colleges this year, including a 10.2 percent increase in underrepresented minority admissions.

Between 35 and 38 percent of the undergraduates at UCLA are transfers from community colleges, said Tom Lifka, interim director of admissions.

“Transferring from a community college is a really important and useful way for students to enter UC,” said Manuel Gómez, interim vice president of educational outreach for UC.

UC’s partnership with Gov. Gray Davis for state funding and UC accountability calls for a 6 percent increase in transfer enrollment in return for funding, Gomez said.

The dual admissions proposal, expected to be voted on by the UC Board of Regents this summer, would allow students between the top 4 and 12.5 percent of their high school class, otherwise ineligible for UC admissions, to apply to a UC and a community college simultaneously. Students who are accepted would be admitted to that UC after completing a transfer program at a community college.

“We’re trying to respond to the state’s desire to get more transfers from California community colleges into the UC system,” Lifka said.

UC signed a memorandum of understanding with the California community college system in 1997 to increase the total number of transfers from California community colleges to UC by one-third in 2005.

“We set goals that we had to reach to keep transfer rates up with freshman growth rates,” said Dennis Galligani, associate vice president of UC student academic services.

Christopher Cabaldon, California community college vice chancellor of policy, planning and external affairs, said that the dual admissions program and memorandum of understanding will help establish clearer rules on how community college students can transfer to the UC.

Both would provide increased counseling services to help students transfer to the UC. Galligani said this could help any community college student transfer into UC, not just those in the dual admissions program.

Cabaldon said one of the difficulties of the transfer process is convincing community college students that they will be able to transfer to a UC campus.

“You have to open their eyes to the possibility of transferring, you have to make sure their eyes don’t glaze over with the complex rules, and you have to assure students that, if they follow the rules, they will succeed,” Cabaldon said.

UCLA is involved in a number of programs designed to bring more community college transfers to UCLA. These programs focus on making the UC more visible on community college campuses by visiting more often, said Alfred Herrera, director of community college partnerships.

“Community college students need information about us,” Herrera said. “They need to feel that they belong and see us as a place that welcomes them. We’re doing that a lot more now.”

A number of educational outreach programs have been attempts to reach out to minorities after the end of affirmative action. SP-1, passed by the UC regents in 1995, ended the use of affirmative action in enrollment, starting in 1998.

In 2001, 18.8 percent of all transfer students admitted to UCLA were underrepresented minority students – the highest percentage since 1997, the last year affirmative action was used. That year, 20.3 percent of admissions were underrepresented minorities. In 1998, this dropped to 16.7 percent.

Gomez said that the increased outreach programs toward underrepresented minorities was partially responsible for the increased enrollment in those groups.

“I think things are going in the right direction,” Lifka said.

The repeal of SP-1 and 2 in the regents’ May meeting is unlikely to affect the current admissions process, Lifka said. Affirmative action is still banned throughout the state by Proposition 209, passed by California voters in 1996.

He said the repeal could raise the number of underrepresented minorities applying to UCLA. Some of these students may not apply to UCLA because SP-1 made them feel less welcome, he added.

Lifka said the repeal of SP-1 could persuade more of the transfer students UCLA accepts to enroll here, because they may feel more welcome.

There was a systemwide increase of 16.3 percent in the number of underrepresented minorities admitted this year. Although UCLA had a smaller increase, only UC Santa Barbara admitted more underrepresented minority students than UCLA.

UCLA’s and UC Berkeley’s growth in accepting new students are expected to be smaller than the other UC campuses because UCLA and UC Berkeley are more selective campuses. Lifka said UCLA’s growth plan involves increasing the number of transfer students more quickly than the number of freshman students.

Admissions for community college students rose 8.6 percent for all students throughout the UC system. A total of 13,134 students were admitted as transfers, the largest number in UC history.

Transfers from California community colleges are given priority in the admissions process, according to the California master plan for higher education.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRANSFERS Original graphic by MAGGIE WOO/Daily Bruin

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