Welcome to the seventh edition of the ASSIST Transfer Channel, a semi-annual newsletter for counselors, advisors, faculty, evaluators, articulation officers, and everyone else who is interested in the latest information about ASSIST.
We’re e-mailing this edition via the ASSIST-Channel- L@uci.edu e-mail listserv and would appreciate your forwarding it on to any others at your campus who you think might be interested. If you would like to have future editions of the ASSIST Transfer Channel automatically delivered via e-mail, please check out the Subscribe section of this edition for instructions. We’ve posted a copy on the ASSIST Information Center at info.assist.org/transferchannel.html where you’ll also find previous editions. If you haven’t read past editions, you may find additional information that would be useful to you and your students.
This edition includes an article especially oriented to students entitled “Five Questions” that answers some of the most frequently asked questions we receive from students. Feel free to print copies of this article and hand them out in Transfer Centers and other key places on campus. You can also find previous student-oriented articles to print out for your students in the newsletter archives Web page referenced above.
The 2006-07 academic year was another record-breaker for ASSIST in which over 1.1 million people viewed over 9.7 million articulation reports from July 2006 through June 2007. Activity on the site is heating up again as students plan for the upcoming CSU and UC admissions application deadlines and plan for spring 2008 classes. We’re continuing to see a steady increase in Web site activity and we thank all of you who are getting the word out to record numbers of students that they should be referencing ASSIST early and often.
Over this past year, one of our primary concerns has been ensuring that the server computers that run ASSIST are fast and dependable. We’re now in the final stages of replacing all of the primary Web application and database server computers that run ASSIST services. These upgrades will also include adding ASSIST server computers to an improved power source that has longer battery life and diesel generator powered backup service in the event of a power outage. At this point, we’re anticipating a final cut-over some time in mid-December if all goes well. Once this happens, you should start seeing a dramatic increase in the speed of the Web site. We will also be able to rest easier knowing that in the unfortunate event that a server dies, or is somehow otherwise disabled, we have backup servers being updated nightly that are waiting in the wings to take over within a very short time.
Thanks for continuing to promote ASSIST with students and your colleagues and please feel free to contact us at (949) 824-4385 if you have suggestions, comments, or questions. You can tune into the next edition of the ASSIST Transfer Channel in spring 2008 - until then. . .
Eric Taggart
Director
ASSIST Coordination Site
Five Questions
The ASSIST Web site offers users the opportunity to send feedback or questions to the ASSIST Coordination Site. While some of the questions concern the use of the site or the interpretation of the articulation, the overwhelming majority of the questions fall into one of five different categories. We know that counselors and advisors are familiar with this information, but we thought it would be useful to present the most common questions that we continue to get from students and our responses.
1. Where's the articulation for USC?
ASSIST is an intersegmental effort of the California Community Colleges, the
California State University and the University of California. All of our funding
comes from California taxes. Because we're publicly funded, there's no information
for transfer from or to any private university in ASSIST. There is a policy
that allows private universities to pay an annual fee and enter their articulation
into ASSIST, but no private university has chosen to do that.
The only private institution with information in ASSIST is Marymount College, a private two-year college. Marymount College pays an annual fee to have their UC transferable courses, CSU transferable courses, IGETC list, CSU GE-Breadth Certification list, and other course data in ASSIST. In addition to the course data, universities can enter articulation with Marymount into ASSIST.
For articulation with private universities, like USC or Chapman, students need to contact their community college counselors and admissions advisors at the universities.
2. Where's the information for Arizona State? or
Where's
a site like ASSIST for my state?
ASSIST is funded with California tax dollars, so there's no information for
transfer from or to any college or university outside of California in ASSIST.
Since different laws govern educational policies in different states and countries,
interstate and international transfer usually requires special evaluation from
the university campus a student attends.
There are some Web sites that provide similar information for other states or that support interstate transfer between specific campuses. Students can usually find these sites by doing a Web search that includes words like transfer, articulation, and the home state of the university that a student plans to attend.
3. When will the articulation for next year be available?
Articulation in ASSIST is entered and maintained by each university campus.
Each campus updates and publishes its articulation on a schedule based on campus
policies and priorities. Since each campus determines its own schedule, we
can't predict when new articulation will be published.
The review of new requirements and new community college courses can be a complex and time-consuming process, and often the universities need to wait until an academic year has started to know about new majors on campus and new requirements. Additionally, different academic and professional schedules can mean that there can be delays when the universities request information from the community colleges.
Articulation doesn’t typically change too much from year to year, so articulation from a prior year is generally a good guide for a current year. Universities try very hard to accommodate students that were following published articulation in ASSIST, but students should always contact an admissions advisor at the university if there is no current published articulation with their community college.
4. Where's the information for transfer between two university campuses?
ASSIST is intended to support transfer from a California Community College
to a CSU or UC campus. Each university is responsible for its own articulation,
and they all concentrate on community colleges and especially on their primary
feeder colleges. Some universities enter articulation with other universities,
but there is relatively little university-to-university transfer information
in ASSIST. For the best information, students should contact an admissions
advisor at the campus they plan to attend.
5. Exactly which courses should I take?
The ASSIST Coordination Site staff is not trained as academic advisors and
we don't have access to any student records. We can't provide general academic
advising or offer any guidance about which courses would be good choices for
students. When a question like this comes in, we always advise students to
talk to their community college counselor and to an admissions advisor at the
university they plan to attend.
We hope that this summary of questions and answers will help everyone better understand the scope of the information in ASSIST. It may be useful, when advising students about the articulation and course transfer information that they will find in ASSIST to also share this information about what they won't find.
Name Changes, New Colleges, and Campus Closures
One of the really great features of ASSIST is the ability to find transfer course information for past years. For most campuses, you simply select a previous academic year. Things can get complicated, though, when a campus has closed or changed its name. Here are some examples of how ASSIST handles campus name changes, closures, and adding new campuses.
Two colleges with information in ASSIST have recently lost their accreditation: D-Q University and Compton College. The circumstances are a little different for the two campuses, so ASSIST deals with their data differently.
D-Q University has closed, but you can use ASSIST to find information about articulation, transferable courses, and IGETC and CSU GE- Breadth Certification courses by selecting D-Q University. If the current year is selected, the system automatically changes to the last academic year when D-Q was accredited, 2004-2005. If D-Q is selected for the 2004-2005 academic year or earlier, the historical information is displayed.
Compton College also lost accreditation, but courses are being offered by El Camino College and it is now known as the El Camino College Compton Center. If you choose Compton College and the 2006-2007 academic year or later, ASSIST notifies you that the course information now comes from El Camino College, and automatically changes the selected college. If you choose Compton College and an earlier year (when Compton was still accredited), the system does not change the selection to El Camino College and allows access to the historical information from Compton College.
Two campuses have recently changed their names: CSU Hayward is now CSU East Bay, and Vista College is now Berkeley City College. The institution selection list in ASSIST shows both the old and the new names. If you choose a campus and then choose an academic year in which the campus name was different, ASSIST displays a brief notice and changes the selection to the campus name that was in effect for the selected academic year. This is also true for other campuses that have changed names, like Kings River/Reedley College and Rancho Santiago/Santa Ana College. Because ASSIST keeps track of the historical records of institutions and courses, you can be sure that you're getting information that was in effect in the displayed academic year.
Many colleges and universities have satellite campuses or learning centers at sites other than the main campus. We don't include them separately as independent campuses in ASSIST until they have received their own accreditation. This was the case with the two newest campuses in ASSIST, Folsom Lake College and West Hills College Lemoore. Folsom Lake College was originally a learning center associated with Cosumnes River College. West Hills College Lemoore was a satellite campus of West Hills College. The two campuses are now both listed in ASSIST and the original West Hills College campus is now known as West Hills College Coalinga.
Name Changes, New Colleges, and Campus Closures - Printer Friendly Version
On Campus
The "On Campus" feature looks at transfer programs and practices at colleges and universities throughout the state. Each issue of the ASSIST Transfer Channel focuses on a different college or university. In this edition, Aurelia Long talks about articulation news at the University of California, Berkeley.
Greetings from Cal! I am pleased to announce my new position as UC Berkeley’s Articulation Officer. My previous UC articulation experience includes serving as UC Davis’ ASSIST/Articulation Coordinator where I worked with many of you in support of articulation efforts. Part of my interest in working in articulation is that I admire transfer students for their tenacity and diligence in pursuing a university degree. As you know, students utilize the Articulation Agreements by Major displayed on ASSIST at www.assist.org to plan their course work. Currently, we are in the process of reviewing and updating the agreements for the 2007-2008 academic year, and you should expect to see these published on ASSIST by the end of October. While there are no new majors to report, there are updates to the lower-division requirements of some of the 100+ majors which you will be able to view once the new agreements are published. In addition, the community college articulation officers will be provided details of curricular changes through the CIAC list service within the next few days.
I am committed to expanding the articulation of courses between your community college and Cal to facilitate students’ transition and reduce their time to degree at the University. As such, I encourage community college Articulation Officers to submit UC-transferable courses for review. I look forward to working with all of you to increase articulation at UC Berkeley!
California Community College Articulation Officers, please send your course outlines via e-mail to Aurelia Long, aplong@berkeley.edu and/or Myrna Aguilar, myrnaa@berkeley.edu, or by U.S. mail to:
Office of Undergraduate Admissions
University of California, 110 Sproul Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-5800
Aurelia Long
Articulation Officer
UC Berkeley
Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Keeping it Current
There's a lot of valuable information on the ASSIST Web pages, but there may be some things you are not aware of in ASSIST. Besides the new articulation agreements that are published every day in ASSIST, there are new majors as well as changes and additions to transferable courses entered regularly. Since this information is literally at your fingertips in ASSIST, we want to make sure you know about it so you can use it. The fact is that there is always something new in ASSIST.
Explore Majors
You find articulation information in ASSIST by following the path through Exploring Transfer Information or Exploring Majors. The Exploring Majors path offers students a chance to search through majors at all UC and CSU campuses, compare emphases and requirements, and see how their community college courses meet the university major requirements.
The examples of new majors below show the kind of new information that you will find in ASSIST for 2007-08. This is not an exhaustive list of changes but it should give you an idea of the type of new information to watch for.
New majors offered at University of California and California State University campuses:
UCLA
Spanish and Community and Culture, B.A.
CSU Bakersfield
Economics, B.A.
CSU Chico
Applied Computer Graphics, B.S. with Option in Production
Concrete Industry Management, B.S.
Environmental Science, B.S. with Atmospheric Science Option
CSU Fullerton
Theatre Arts, B.F.A. Concentration in Acting
CSU Long Beach
Natural Science, B.A. Concentration in Biodiversity Stewardship
CSU Los Angeles
Liberal Studies, B.A. with Option in Interdisciplinary Studies in Culture and Society
Mexican-American Studies, B.A. with Elementary Subject Matter Teacher
Prep Directed Electives
Urban Learning, B.A. with Elementary Subject Matter Teacher Prep
Option: Directed Electives
Urban Learning, B.A. wit Elementary Subject Matter Option
CSU Monterey Bay
Economics, B.A.
Psychology, B.A.
CSU San Bernardino
Bioinformatics, B.S.
Criminal Justice – Crime Analysis Option, B.A.
ASSIST Articulation
In addition to articulation agreements between institutions, ASSIST offers information about courses that are transferable to UC and CSU for credit, that meet GE certification patterns (IGETC and CSU GE/Breadth), and that fulfill the CSU American Ideals requirement. To give you an idea of just how much this information changes and why it's important to check ASSIST for the latest information, we've put together a list showing the number of changes to transferable courses that have been entered for the current year.
Additions and Changes to Articulation Data in ASSIST for 2007-08 include:
UC Transferable Courses
720 new community college courses added as UC transferable
CSU Transferable Courses
2,324 courses added as CSU transferable
IGETC
946 courses newly approved for IGETC
CSU GE/Breadth
1,028 newly approved courses
CSU American Ideals
19 newly approved courses
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