tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74135498962378306852024-03-13T20:11:48.029-04:00Transfer Rants (and Other Thoughts on Higher Education)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01011600105388418259noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7413549896237830685.post-45637432461711969732016-10-10T18:11:00.000-04:002017-12-21T12:37:37.425-05:00Real College<div class="MsoNormal">
A recent request on the NACAC exchange asked about
information for a student – certainly not unusual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, the other thing that wasn’t
unusual was the following: “She is not interested in community college programs
nor exterior programs where she is not actually admitted to a university, in
other words, she want to experience being as close to a normal college student
as possible.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p>F</o:p>or any other fans of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, let’s
pretend I am wearing the big furry hat, and this is a decree forever going
forward.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Community college is college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is real college. It is, based on the
fact that community colleges enroll more students than any other sector of
higher education by quite a bit, the <i>most</i> normal college. </div>
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Please understand, my feelings are not hurt when people say
that the institutions that I have worked with or at for my entire career are
illegitimate, or at least, as with this questioner, a lesser, other, option.
I have thick skin (and waist, and skull…). The reason that it’s
important for me to respond here is because comments in the vein of separating
community colleges as “other” in conversations of higher education are
generally dismissive of the students enrolled at them, the faculty that teach
at them, and the administrators and staff who make them work. This
creates several problems. <o:p></o:p></div>
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First, it actively discourages students who would be excited
to begin their higher education experience with a more local and in many cases,
more supportive experience by painting it as a negative option. It is not
the best option for everyone, but neither is an Ivy League school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By not portraying it as an experience of
equivalent stature, it damages those students who do not have my thick skin.
Students who are on the fringes of higher education for any of a thousand
reasons often find a safe place to become the academic stars that they were not
in high school, or an affordable place to gain traction in an environment that
is increasingly expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one is
confusing Harvard and LaGuardia Community College, but that goes both for
international reputation and for access for students who are generally
disenfranchised by a system based on elitism, wealth, and privilege.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m scoring that 1-1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Second, students who could be preparing for the transfer
process from high school are not, because they, their parents, and their
counselors are not acknowledging that option early enough. NACAC is
completely deficient in the transfer conversation (more on that soon), and
NACAC is the single biggest high school counselor connection to higher
education.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>AACRAO has been having a
transfer conference for better than a decade, but it tends to focus on the
technical aspects of the process (it is an organization for registrars), and it
lacks the high school counselors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even
NYSTAA, the New York State Transfer & Articulation Association, has
suffered such a disconnect between segments of the process (four-year
admissions and two-year advising) in recent years that specific workshops were
included in the annual conference last May to reintroduce the membership to
each other (full disclosure, I presented them).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There is very little by way of practical introduction as to how to
incorporate transfer planning for students until they are knee-deep in the
process, and many problems that could have been avoided are now front and
center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I understand that the community college experience is not
what most students want, or what most counselors or parents want for their
students. Unfortunately, this is due in large part to misunderstandings
about those institutions and the students they serve, and due in largest part
to incredibly poor PR. Open access does not mean that every student at
the institution is a poor student – many are outstanding academic
students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Affordable does not mean low
value – it simply means lower cost. (If it makes you feel better to pay more,
just pretend you’re an out of state resident or international student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me know if the higher rates increase your
value.) The only portrayals of community colleges in media are negative or
comic relief. Unfortunately, these portrayals, often combined with
parent, family, and counselor reinforcement, take on great power in the minds
of students who would and could be much better served by starting in the
community college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also weakens the
efforts of those institutions and of the students they serve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Unfortunately, the “otherness” of community colleges in
these conversations also reinforce the “otherness” of their students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not a small thing, as no other
segment of higher education enrolls as many students of color or as many
students of low-socioeconomic status.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
students use the community college as a legitimate entry point to higher ed and
all that that encompasses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They often
face a steep uphill climb to completion, for a variety of reasons, but it creates
an even steeper incline when they have to battle a lack of advice or
information, or worse, denigration for their institution of choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Community colleges have courses, credits, registrars,
bursars, financial aid, liberal arts, arts, and technical training,
Ph.D.-bearing faculty, and students with aspirations and accomplishments
both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some have dorms, some have
intercollegiate sports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They enroll
nearly 8 million students, almost half of the total undergraduate population of
the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Community colleges are college,
for better or worse, with all that entails, except the pretension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of that,
they could use a bit more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01011600105388418259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7413549896237830685.post-75425181982357712602016-10-04T13:01:00.000-04:002016-10-04T16:41:45.283-04:00NACAC 2016 – The thank yous.<div class="MsoNormal">
I recently spent four very exciting, informative, collegial,
and occasionally troubling days at the NACAC 2016 Conference in Columbus,
OH. Starting with the great stuff, and
working towards the stuff where there is great potential (in the next post):<o:p></o:p></div>
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I remain floored by how I got there to begin with. NACAC is not generally considered something
for or by people of my ilk (transfer out at the community colleges), so my
involvement has been pretty much limited to the exchange and the regional
affiliate, NYSACAC – that that involvement started when I was in four-year
enrollment management, not because of my current role. Still, despite that fairly limited engagement
(length of emails notwithstanding), when Steve Peifer discovered that I wasn’t
attending and that to do so was budgetarily unattainable, he asked if he could
seek aid on the exchange. Here is my
actual and unaltered response:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>I’ve had people offer
to pay me to stay home before, so that would be a change. Go for it, I’m shameless. I’m dying to see the framing anyway – Dear
membership: It has come to my attention
that we will be shy a pretentious windbag at the coming conference, throwing
our balance dangerously out of whack between that group, the pretentious but
quiet, the non-pretentious windbags, and the category everyone assumes that
they are part of. For just a dollar a
day (averaged over the next thousand days or so, payable up front), you can
sponsor this opinionated blowhard for your own amusement or as revenge on an
enemy who will be attending. Act now!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Clearly, I did not anticipate what was to come. In days, and before I had actually remembered
to ask for permission to go, Adam Ingersoll of Compass Education Group, Akil
Bello and James Murphy of Princeton Review, and Cigus Vanni, recently retired
HS counselor from NJ and current consultant, had booked my flight,
registration, and paid for the hotel.
Cate Armstrong of Academic Services in CO also contributed, buying a
wonderful dinner for Steve and myself.
Arun Ponnusamy of Collegewise made sure I didn’t pay for drinks for two
straight nights, and more importantly, introduced me to incredible people and
conversations. To all of these
individuals, and to all of those who thanked me for my meager contributions
over the last few years, I cannot express enough gratitude. If nothing else were to come from this,
getting to meet the force of nature that is Marie Bigham; verifying that Jon
Boeckenstedt is a real person, and not just a computer or magician; connecting
with ACCEPT: Admissions Community Cultivating Equity and Peace Today;
reconnecting with old friends, connecting in new ways with more recent ones,
and creating new ones – makes this one of the more remarkable conferences I’ve
ever been to. So, thank you. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And Steve, you’re the man. </div>
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(By the way - if you want to have your emotions treated like Silly Putty for a few hundred pages, read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dream-So-Big-Unlikely-Journey/dp/0310326095/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475600144&sr=8-1&keywords=steve+peifer" target="_blank">his book</a>. When I say "I laughed, I cried," I mean it, often on the same page, and usually to the acute discomfort of whomever was riding next to me on the train into work.)</div>
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I’m hoping to start contributing with my next post, I promise. <o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01011600105388418259noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7413549896237830685.post-20734629730134263622016-10-04T12:51:00.000-04:002016-10-04T12:51:29.884-04:00An Introduction to Transfer Rants (and Other Thoughts on Higher Education)<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, this is my contribution to the blogosphere, to the discourse on
higher education issues, and to the sanity of my colleagues in NYSTAA, NACAC,
and elsewhere, whose poor, unsuspecting inboxes have been often been weighed
down with my longwinded responses, rants, and clever witticisms (or snark,
depending on your personal bent of humor).
I’m hoping that by creating this blog, I can provide a perspective on
issues that are critically important to our nation and to an enormous number of
underserved students. Or at least, amuse
myself and give myself a virtual soapbox to blather from. Either way, I’m good. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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And let’s get this out of the way early – the views expressed here are
my own, and not those of my employer.
I’m going to work very hard not to do anything that will embarrass my
bosses, college, or system (I do have a mortgage and three kids, including twin
toddlers, so I need to remain gainfully employed for the next 75-100
years). It would probably be smarter to
do this anonymously (I’m a huge fan of <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean">Dean
Dad Matt Reed from InsideHigherED</a>, who wrote that way for a very long
time), but part of the impetus for this blog would make that impossible to do,
I think. Steve Peifer (the Director of
College Counseling at The King’s Academy in West Palm Beach and NACAC guru)
planted the seed for a blog probably a year ago, and in the year and a half
that I’ve been at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, NY, I find myself
increasingly answering NACAC Exchange questions and concerns with a perspective
that seems to be absent, that of the transfer student/transfer out
advisor. Rather than stay with email or
Facebook posts, I thought I’d listen to Steve and give myself a bit more room
to expound. So, blame Steve. In any event, I’m not sure how secret it
would be if I mysteriously vanished from the Exchange except to post links to
the Transfer Guy’s Blog. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As the title would indicate, the primary lens that I look at things
through is that of the transfer student, really, the community college transfer
student. The reason for that is luck,
mainly. After teaching for a few years
in high school, I realized (with the help of not getting tenure, twice), that
it was not the career for me. I was a
working at the time as a college football coach, which, for whatever it lacked
in free time or sleep, it also lacked in pay, so I sought and got a job in the
admissions office. I walked in, and the
transition was essentially – “Great, a new guy!
New guy, you’re on transfers.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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What did I know about transfers? Sadly, about as much as most people,
including many people in and around higher education, the students who will
have to go through it, and the parents hoping to shepherd their students
through college to success (and out of their houses) – that is to say, not
much. I got to learn by immersion. That first job was about recruiting and
enrolling transfer students, as were subsequent jobs and educational processes,
and now I’m on the other side of the coin, helping students prepare for
transfer from the community college.
Certain things have become clear to me over that time. <o:p></o:p></div>
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First, there were some core questions that students have, regardless of
background, ability, or academic interest: Which credits will transfer? When will I be done? How much will this cost? There is no one more practical than a
transfer student. Conversely, some of
their assumptions are so founded in the myths of higher education that I call
it the Hogwarts Approach – they think that credits will magically transfer, or
financial aid will magically appear, or that the name of the institution will
invoke such immediate job market responses that any loan amount is worth
it. They’re practical, but often in a
very naïve way. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Second, there are three primary ideas/philosophies that I rely on in thinking
about, addressing, and talking about community colleges and transfer. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>You do not take a person who, for
years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the
starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all
the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. </i><i>Thus it is not enough just to
open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk
through those gates. </i></div>
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<i>- President Lyndon B. Johnson<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Commencement Address at Howard
University <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>June 4, 1965<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>If you know the enemy and know
yourself, you need not fear…If you know yourself, but not the enemy, for every
victory gained, there will be a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every
battle.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>- Sun Tzu<br />
The Art of War<br />
5<sup>th</sup> century BCE<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Higher Education is arbitrary,
exclusionary, inherently contrary to common sense and logic, and largely
unknowable for most of our students as they enter the community college.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>-Me. Probably like two years ago. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i><br />
</i>Nearly half of the nation’s undergraduates are enrolled at community
colleges, and it’s far more normal at this point to have credits from multiple
institutions than not. In CUNY, the <i>majority </i>of students are transfer
students. And yet, it’s often very
overlooked in admissions, credit review, financial aid, and any and every
practical aspect of the degree seeking process. In fact, while there is
exhaustive research on community colleges and community college students as
contributors to the success and failing of those students in transfer, the
receiving institution gets an almost complete pass – it’s the variable least
often discussed. Unfortunately, the
students most harmed are also frequently the most lacking in the social and
cultural capital needed to challenge the status quo. And as that first quote indicates, I think
there are some substantial impacts beyond simple educational issues. As to the
second quote, transfer is often a war between student and/or sending
institution and the receiving institution, so Sun Tzu struck me as
appropriate. More importantly, however,
if students do not understand why they are in what they are in, if they do not
understand the schools at which they enroll, then their chances of graduating
drop precipitously. They need to
understand both in order to be successful.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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And the last quote is the driving philosophy of my office and staff’s
interactions with students. We (higher
ed) make this stuff up as we go – there’s no reason our students should get
it. Our job is to help them. <o:p></o:p></div>
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All of this is to say, transfer students, and those who work with them
the most, need a voice in this process.
There are thousands of great people doing great work in this area, and
there are a lot of ways to approach it. I’ll
throw in my two cents on a number of issues (I have a compulsive need to give
my opinion), but the goal will be to contribute to closing the gap in this
area. Fingers crossed. <o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01011600105388418259noreply@blogger.com0