The mission of the Butte College Transfer Counseling Center is to support student success and provide programs, services, and information resources that enable students to prepare for their transition to a college, university or the workplace. These programs, services and resources will ensure the inclusion of low-income, disabled, first generation college students, and members of other underrepresented student groups. These mission goals will be met by the following priorities: 1. Through Transfer Counseling communication and participation with the Counseling Department, EOPS, DSPS, Inspiring Scholars, Ascending Scholars, Veterans, and Student-Athlete Counseling. All programs that support transfer students will obtain accurate and timely counseling, transfer information, and services. 2. In coordination with all-Counseling Services, potential transfer students will be provided with counseling and academic planning. This includes the selection of courses required for university admission, general education options, and major preparation. These activities will include encouraging participation in transfer programs that support academic planning such as Transfer Admission Agreements, Cross Enrollment at universities, and the utilization of course articulation information to ensure course transferability. 3. Collaboration with the University of California (UC), California State University (CSU), Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU), Association of Independent California Colleges & Universities (AICCU), and out-of-state schools (especially those affiliated with the Western Undergraduate Exchange a.k.a. WUE). Coordination with university representatives from these various systems, ideally to offer services to Butte students via one-on-one appointments, transfer workshops & university campus visits. 4. Creation and maintenance responsibilities of sequential semester-by-semester major pathway plans for the top 31 majors at Chico State, the CSU where 80% of Butte students transfer to. These maps are especially important for first generation college students. Continued collaboration with Curriculum and the Office of Instruction regarding the sequential semester-by-semester program maps for 30 Butte ADT transfer degrees. 5. Continued partnership with Butte College Reg-to-Go, which collaborates with local K-12 service area students to provide access and support to all local high school students. 6. Continued partnership with Butte College Roadrunner Rush, which collaborates Student Orientation for all new students. 7. Collaboration with the Director of the Career and Academic Assessment Center and the Counseling Articulation Officer in providing accurate and timely exam credit information regarding Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), College Level Examination Program (CLEP), in an effort to ensure consistency with transfer institutions guidelines. This information shall be published online and in the Butte college catalog. 8. Working with Admissions & Records, Evaluation and Graduation Officers and Counseling to streamline ADT petitioning and tracking ADTs, especially identifying E-verify students who have applied to the CSU system but have yet to formally apply for their degrees. 9. Periodic review and revision of campus policies and procedures as needed to strengthen and clarify the transfer process for the campus and community. 10. Increasing the transfer percentage rate of all students, especially keeping in mind those from population groups who have identified transfer as an educational goal and are experiencing disproportionate transfer impact outcomes. 11. Monitoring transfer-related information in college documentation, such as the catalog and websites to ensure currency. 12. Dissemination of transfer information to appropriate offices and programs, such as providing regular UC TAG and admission updates to all-Counselors (includes presentations and emails). 13. Providing transfer-related workshops that inform the transfer application process. 14. Continued maintenance of a virtual calendar of Transfer Center Events accessible to all students on the Transfer Counseling website and the Butte College community calendar. 15. Ensuring that Butte College is represented at regional and statewide transfer meetings and conferences (e.g. UC Ensuring Transfer Success (ETS), CSU conferences, Regional TCD/Articulation meetings, CCC Transfer Summit, etc.). 16. Collaboration with Butte Public Relations and Marketing to employ a multi-faceted approach to disseminate and market transfer information to students and staff. 17. Collect data regarding number of students accessing services at the Transfer Counseling Center (using SARS scheduler); and collaborate with Institutional Research to aggregate student data and determine the numbers of low-income and underrepresented students utilizing the Transfer Counseling Center. 18. Establish a Transfer Center Advisory Committee that meets annually and may include representation from Student services, faculty, administration, students, university personnel and other staff as deemed appropriate. 19. Maintain a departmental presence on the newer �BC Connect� Butte College website platform.
The Transfer Counseling Center provides counseling and transitional services to all students wishing to attend a four-year college or university. Emphasis is placed on making Butte students the highest priority for admission by focusing services and programs on major selection and four-year university specific requirements. The Transfer Counseling Center also strives to educate the campus community through presentations, public events, and outreach on strategies and opportunities at four-year colleges.
ASSOCIATE (PART-TIME) COUNSELORS
Because of budget cuts, we were not able to retain the same hourly commitment for the three previously funded Associate Counseling positions in the TCC. Fortuitously, one of our senior Associate Counselors retired at the end of May 2020. Therefore, for the 20-21 Academic year, we were able to keep our more junior Associates with comparable hours and have had a few hours a week to fund some support from two Counselors from the General Counseling Department (9 hours a week in Fall 20, and 8 hours a week in Spring 21). Because of this, we were fundamentally able to maintain our prior services.
In addition to seeing students in appointments, assisting with application workshops, and developing SEPs and scheduling classes, our secondary (seeing students in one-on-one appointments is primary) Associate faculty duties in Transfer Counseling Center are specific to the department: Cross Registration and application workshops. Our social media marketing/outreach is handled piecemeal. Before, this latter responsibility was assigned to a specific person, but that person, as outlined above, no longer exists.
TRANSFER DAY AND TRANSFER ACADEMY
Transfer Day
Last year’s Transfer Day was held on September 11, 2019. 40 representatives from 30 different colleges attended.
The 2020-21 funds for expenses for food, tent rental and set-up, busing high school students, advertising and miscellaneous expenses for this year’s Transfer Day went unused because of the pandemic. These costs usually amount to around $8,000. So, this year we did not use any funds for Transfer Day.
Although this year’s Transfer Day originally scheduled for September 15, 2020 was cancelled, the Butte Transfer Counseling Center promoted (via Grad Guru, the Campus Events calendar, Colleague “Re-group,” and inter-campus communication) 4 different remote Transfer Day related activities in the Fall 2020 semester:
TRANSFER WEEKS VIRTUAL FAIRS. For California Public and Private schools.
1) UC Week: Sept 14-17
2) AICCU Week: Sept 21-24
3) CSU Week: October 5-9
These three activities were organized in cooperation with admission directors from all 9 UCs, 23 CSUs and many California private universities (AICCUs).
4) For out-of-state public and private schools, the TCC organized a Butte College Transfer informational page that is spotlighted on our website http://tkmr.gregorybgallagher.com/transfer/ Out-of-state schools and some California private schools that traditionally were represented at our Transfer Day were asked to send us any web links for information or recruiting videos aimed specifically at community college transfer student populations, and Butte students in particular. Information was posted on our website in mid-September and remains there for reference: http://tkmr.gregorybgallagher.com/services/transfercenter/OOSPRI5.pdfAlso, the Butte TCC Director established an out-of-state reference for all-Counselors on the TCW and trained Butte College Counselors accordingly: http://ccctransfer.org/oos/. Students can also access this resource.
Transfer Academy
The Transfer Academy is having another successful year. Our Lead Counselor retained and recruited Academy students interested in transferring to a UC to be part of a support program. Most of the outreach and interaction with students is done via e mail, one-on-one and group meetings on Zoom and phone.
The Transfer Academy provides assistance with the UC application process and personal insight essays, workshops on the initiatives available to transfer students, classroom presentations, virtual and in-person counseling appointments with UC representatives, and field trips/visits to UC campuses. This funding is also used to create posters, marketing materials and promotional items. Because of the savings for catering and promotional items, much of the funding for the Transfer Academy this year has gone unused. Even so, as we enter the spring 2021 semester, the Academy boasts over 150 members. In the fall term, we hosted 8 virtual lunch & Learn workshops on the Transfer Admission Guarantee and the application process, including How to Write Good Personal Insight Essays. Our students submitted 40 Transfer Admission Guarantees (TAGs) which guarantees them admission. We hosted representatives from UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UCSB and virtual appointments with UCLA.
This year, we only anticipate using a small amount of funding to support the Transfer Academy
Transfer Opportunity Program (TOP) with UC Davis (UCD)
UCD is the most popular UC of choice for Butte students. The TOP program provided a UCD outreach staff member (Sarah Fales) to be available for Counselors and Students twice monthly. The TOP representative provided informational workshops, met with students in one-on-one and group meetings on Zoom and was available for all Counselors on the Butte Campus. She had periodic meetings with the Butte Transfer Coordinator discussing topics like the UC Transfer Admission Planner (TAP), Transfer Admission Agreements (TAG), and UCD major-specific course and GE selection. She also performed campus outreach to the Butte campus community offering UCD specific information on admission and virtual events, as well as UC System-wide information including Counselor trainings, UCOP webinars, and other Resources.
The program is making a difference in Butte students applying and enrolling in UCs in general and UCD specifically. Here are the numbers of Butte students who enrolled at UCD in given years: 2017 (16), 2018 (18), 2019 (27), 2020 (14). Although 2020 had lower students enrolled, the applicant/admit numbers were high (51/33). Also, of the 33 admitted, 10 (30 %) were Latinx students. For Fall 2021, applicant numbers have gone up again (61). It is uncertain what admission and enrollment yield will result.
STUDENT ASSISTANTS
Because we are a small program with one full-time administrative assistant, our student assistants were very important to our program while in-person activities were demanded. Although, in the past, we were dependent on student assistants to provide coverage and run the front desk, this past year we have operated completely without them. Therefore, we have saved the entirety of this funding for the college. This is not a sustainable practice, but one in place currently out of necessity.
In the past, Administrative Assistant Kathy Shaw hired and trained all Student Assistants. We had 3 assistants who provided consistent coverage on the Main Campus and supported the Transfer Academy. We want to maintain this presence upon return to in-person services.
OPERATING EXPENSES
Resources needed for the publication of Transfer Talk newsletter each semester, renewal of the on-line advising program, printing posters off-campus, office supplies, and promotional items. We used some of this funding this past year, but not all of it because of pandemic-related reasons already addressed.
In developing Student Learning Outcomes, the TCC recognizes that each counseling session is an integral part of the student's educational process. Those outcomes achieved in an individual session depend upon the expressed and discovered needs of the individual student and could be heavily dependent on the environmental context (i.e. remote or in-person) in which the appointment was conducted.
Because the Fall term is so hectic with November 30 application deadlines for UC and CSU, we usually conduct surveys in the Spring term. Therefore, Spring 2019 was our last opportunity to solicit feedback from students regarding in-person appointments. (Note, this particular timing was directly post-Camp Fire). Here are the results of our Spring 2019 survey (54 students).
Agree or Strongly Agree
I) I understand transfer requirements to a four-year institution 100%
II) I understand the differences between Admission, GE, and major 100%
requirements
III) I have a clear understanding of competitive and impacted majors and 96%
the requirements for admission to that major
IV) I am now aware of special admissions programs to colleges/universities 84%
that I may be eligible for
At this point, we are in a holding pattern waiting to hear if we will return to in-person status in the Fall 21 semester. We will conduct our next survey based on the direction the campus goes Fall 21. In other words, if services are determined to be remote for Fall 21 by early enough in Spring 21, we will survey students regarding their remote experience. If it is determined we will return in the Fall 21 term in-person, then we will conduct a new in-person survey in Fall 21 or Spring 22.
Here are California Community College Vision for Success Achievement goals directly relevant to the work being done at the Transfer Counseling Center.
1) Increase the percent of CCC students who acquire associate’s degrees
2) Increase the number of students who transfer
3) Decrease number of accumulated units to earn degree
4) Reduce equity gaps
Here are California Community College Vision for Success Achievement goals and responses directly relevant to the work being done at the Transfer Counseling Center.
1) Increase the percent of CCC students who acquire associate’s degrees
Because this is a Unit Plan for a Transfer Center, we will mainly focus on the attainment of general Associate degrees and Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADT) by looking at transfer enrolled Butte students at the California State University (CSU) system. Associate degrees have little to no relevance at the University of California and most other in-state and out-of-state transfer equations. There are some exceptions, but most of those exist regarding transferring to some Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU).
For the sake of comparison, we will contrast two years: 2014 and 2019. In 2014, for the CSU system, of our enrolled transfers, 277 students of 438 (63%) transferred with no degree. In 2019, only 250 of 507 (49%) transferred without a degree. In 2014, there were 62 students who transferred to a CSU with an ADT. In 2019 there were 181 ADT transfers to the CSU system. Clearly, we are making progress in increasing the numbers and rate of students who transfer with an associate’s degree.
2) Increase the number of students who transfer
2A) TRANSFER STATISTICS
Because our institution is one experiencing an enrollment decline, this section will be addressed in regards to transfers and transfer rate in regards to CSU and UC transfers.
6-Year STATS OF BUTTE STUDENTS TRANSFERRING TO OTHER INSTITUTIONS (admits/*enrollees)
Year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
CSU 691/504 600/438 726/533 661/490 637/471 549/385 686/507
CSUC 547/415 486/354 578/430 522/396 507/380 446/317 545/418
*UC 45 46 47 40 44 52 57
UCD. 20 28 24 16 16 18 27
CA Priv. 25 36 23 13 17 17 N/A
OOS 112 74 84 64 91 62 N/A
CSU/CSUC transfer rates were higher in 2019 than 2013.
UC reference:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/california-community-college-enrollments-uc
CA Private/Out-of-State reference:
http://datamart.cccco.edu/Outcomes/Student_Transfer_Volume.aspx
Note, the Butte Unduplicated Headcount 2013 was ~17,700. The Unduplicated Headcount for 2019 was ~15,900
For Butte UC admitted transfers who enrolled, our numbers show a slight increase and leveling out over 4 years:
2016 40
2017 44
2018 52
2019 57
2020 45
Butte 2019 Demographics % compared to Butte transfer UC system-wide enrollment
Butte Pop % UC Enrollment 2019 UC Enrollment 2020
African American 2.5 10.5 *0
American Indian 1.3 0 0
Hispanic Latino 25.9 29.8 22.2
Asian 6.1 8.7 11.1
White 56.8 43.8 46.6
2 or More Races 4.6 N/A N/A
International** 0 13.3
Unknown 2.5 7 6.6
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school
Butte 2019 Demographics: http://scorecard.cccco.edu/scorecardrates.aspx?CollegeID=111
*3 African American students have applied to UC Davis thus far for Fall 2021, compared to 1 in 2020.
**in any given term, there are approximately 100 international students enrolled at Butte, or <1% FTES
2B) TRANSFER SUPPORT – CSU APPLICATION WORKSHOPSThe Transfer Counseling Center puts on CSU Apply application workshops to assist students who plan to transfer to a CSU. For the Spring 2020 application cycle, the Transfer Counseling Center assisted 78 Butte College students in these workshops. Of these 78 students, 41 responded (53%) to a phone survey regarding their outcomes related to transferring. Of the 41 students followed up with, 33 were accepted and enrolled in the CSU they applied to (80%; 32 to Chico State, 1 to Humboldt State), 3 were offered admissions but did not enroll (.07%), 3 were denied admission (.07%), and 2 were granted a conditional admission but did not meet criteria necessary to attend (.05%). Looking forward, the Transfer Counseling Center assisted 115 students with their Cal State Apply application for the Fall 2020 application cycle through application workshops.
Throughout August 2020, the Transfer Counseling Center offered 8 application finishing workshops for the Spring 2021 Cal State Apply application cycle, with 40 students attending the virtual workshop conducted via Zoom due to COVID-19. Between October-December 2020, the Transfer Counseling Center offered 6 more virtual application finishing workshops via Zoom for the Fall 2021 Cal State Apply application cycle, with 32 students attending. Additionally, Associate Faculty member Doug Minton completed a step-by-step video tutorial guide on completing the Cal State Apply application that has been posted on YouTube and has obtained approximately 9,800 views since its upload in November 2020.
2C) TRANSFER SUPPORT – CROSS ENROLLMENT WITH CHICO STATE
The goal of the Butte College Cross Enrollment Program is to provide community college students with a university experience to allow for a smooth transition to Chico State. The Cross Enrollment Program is administered by the Butte College Transfer Counseling Center. The Cross Enrollment Program offers dual admission for current Butte College students planning to transfer to Chico State at no charge- no application fee, and no unit fees. This program is available to all Butte College students who have completed English 2 or 3, have a G.P.A. of 2.5 or higher, and completed a minimum of 30 transferable units. Students are eligible to participate in the program for up to two years or four semesters. At this time, students cannot use the units taken through the Cross Enrollment Program for financial aid purposes at Butte College. If a student hopes to receive the full financial aid package, then they would need to enroll in 12 units at Butte College on top of their Cross Enrollment course at Chico State. We hope to work closely with the financial aid office in the future to possibly allow students to use their Cross Enrollment class towards financial aid at Butte College. We understand that this is a barrier for many Cross Enrollment students.
Once enrolled in the Cross Enrollment program, Butte College students can enroll in a lower or upper division course in their major or an upper division pathway course at Chico State. Butte College students are recognizing this program as a way to complete their education more quickly by taking major courses or graduation requirements via the Cross Enrollment Program. The Transfer Center has worked with Chico State faculty (e.g. Engineering and Social Work) to include Cross Enrollment recommendations in the Butte/Chico State semester-by-semester Major Pathway Plans http://tkmr.gregorybgallagher.com/services/transfercenter/csucmaps.html
During the fall 2014 recruitment period, all 57 Cross Enrollment applicants were approved by Chico State to be eligible. This was the first semester in the history of the program at Butte College, that 100% of all applicants were eligible. This was due to a better screening process by Butte College Counselors and a better understanding by students of the necessary eligibility requirements. The vetted process established at that time continues in 2021.
Although our current Cross Enrollment numbers are down, as a point of comparison, the program is still on solid footing. For example, during the first semester of the Cross Enrollment program in 2008, 28 students participated in the program. In our most recent semester (FA 2020), 44 participated. In Fall 2020, 46 students applied and 44 were admitted. In Spring 2021, 31 students applied and 29 were admitted. We believe the decrease in participation in the Cross Enrollment program is largely due to the coronavirus pandemic. Enrollment at both institutions has significantly decreased and the switch to remote learning has not been ideal for many students. We are hopeful that when courses return to in person learning that we will be able to recruit more students to participate in the program. The Cross Enrollment Program is such a valuable resource for our students and can significantly improve their experience at Chico State.
3)Decrease number of accumulated units to earn degree
While students who transfer to CSU are generally very likely to graduate, the three-year state-wide graduation rate for Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADT) transfers students are 10 percentage points higher than the rate for all transfer students (79% vs. 69%). But about half of students enrolling In an ADT pathway graduate in just two years, which is 16 percentage points better than the overall average for transfers (35%). On a local level, our goal is to promote ADTs (when appropriate), but also ensure that students who choose this path are doing so in an efficient way.
Traditionally, The Transfer Counseling Center had not tracked students seeking to earn an ADT degree In Last year, we retroactively tracked students who came to see a Transfer Counselor to discuss and/or apply for an ADT degree for the 2018-19 academic year. We reviewed the transcripts of students who met with a Transfer Counselor and then eventually attained their degree. Our sample size was 96. The total units completed for these students was 7,737.92. The average units earned equated to a single degree was 80.60 units. For Spring 2020 ADT graduates, we sampled 100 student ID#'s for a sum of 8,096.54 units divided by 100 = 80.97. It looks like we are holding steady at approximately 80 units average. We will track a similar sample size each year from here on out, but hope to get Institutional Research on board to help us with this in the future. Our current research on this involves retrieving information from Admissions and Records and then manually computing these averages.
As a point of reference, the Fall 2019 CCC systemwide Vision for Success goal is to decrease the average number of units accumulated by CCC students earning associate degrees, from approximately 87 total units to 79 total units—a decrease of 10 percent. For ADT degrees, Butte has almost already reached this goal. In a post- AB 705 world in which remedial sequences are getting chronologically further and further in the rear-view mirror, this 79-unit average should be attainable.
4)reduce equity gaps
Here is a demographic profile percentage breakdown for CSU transfer enrolled :
Butte Student % Demographics (2019) CSU enrolled 2019 *Admitted 2020
White 56.8 52 52
Hispanic 25.9 27.6 25.4
Asian 6.1 5.1 4.7
Black 2.5 1.9 1.4
2 or more races 4.6 4.7 5.2
Native American 1.3 0 0
Non Resident Alien 2.7 3.9
Unknown 2.5 4.9 6.5
*enrollment not available at this date
Butte Demographics: http://scorecard.cccco.edu/scorecardrates.aspx?CollegeID=111
CSU Enrollment Demographics: http://tableau.calstate.edu/views/FirstTimeFreshmanandCollegeTransfers/SummaryView?iframeSizedToWindow=true&:embed=y&:render=true&:showAppBanner=false&:display_count=no&:showVizHome=no
We will keep an eye on this in the coming years and continue to look at equity disparities relative to our general population. For the 2020-2021 academic year, The Transfer Counselor Center is committed to outreach consistent with the recommendations of its campus Advisory Board.
The Transfer Counseling Center (TCC) supports a Culture of Completion and Goal Achievement in many areas, namely by working with students designing SEPS so as to best sequence their coursework towards degree completion or transfer. We work with departments on-campus, local high schools, and Californian/American colleges and universities to make sure our students and staff understand their pathway choices. We manually design student educational plans for students, taking advantage of and incorporating online resources (assist.org, program maps, the Transfer Counselor Website) to best help our students. We will start to work with the virtual Starfish Educational Planning system Spring 2021.
Guided Pathways is a foundational theme in the way the TCC operates and presents itself. We plan to pilot the use of Hobson/Starfish in the Spring 2021 semester. Imbedded in the Starfish program are program maps, priorities and course sequences. In addition, as mentioned prior, the TCC has designed course by sequences for the top 31 majors at Chico State. These pathways are targeted for students who know they want to transfer to CSUC and are not prioritizing an ADT. http://tkmr.gregorybgallagher.com/services/transfercenter/csucmaps.html
The TCC Supports student, faculty and Staff Success. We sponsor a Transfer Academy, Cross Registration, application workshops and campus visits for our students. We support professional development in the form of campus visits and attending conferences for our staff. We engage with the faculty on the Butte Campus by giving classroom presentations and inviting instructional faculty to participate in our workshops (e.g. admission essay writing). We have a diverse campus Transfer Advisory Committee that encompasses department and staff across our campus community. We participate in All-Counselor meetings and individual meetings with the General Counseling and EOPS departments. We are actively involved in some General Counseling projects (e.g. Reg to Go, program and meta major mapping).
We currently maximize our resources in Student Learning by supporting an ongoing grant (The Transfer Counselor Website - TCW) and its related annual Transfer Summit. The TCW website is a popular repository of information specifically aimed at Transfer Students and Transfer Counselors. It receives approximately a quarter of a million hits a year. It has been run by Butte College staff for 15 years. The Director of the project and webmaster/manager are both housed in the TCC. We are in the third year of a five-year grant cycle. The Grant is administered by the California Community College Chancellor’s office. The TCW affiliation is important for the students, faculty and staff of Butte College. We are a rural school, but because of this affiliation, have access to the most current information about transfer, especially state-wide. Also, the TCC Coordinator (Director of the TCW) is given one day release/backfill a week for the project, but his backfill time translates to approximately 10 hours a week as semester for an Associate faculty to see students ($25,000). Clearly, this is a win-win for the students, staff, and faculty of Butte College.
Transfer Counseling Center faculty will continue to see students in one-on-one appointments but we will also further our work with group application workshops, Cross Enrollment with Chico State, the Transfer Academy, online chats, and remote communications to students and staff.
The prior Transfer Counseling Program Review Recommendations were as follows:
Marketing/Increasing Campus Awareness of Services. This recommendation has been addressed in the past couple years as a new chapter in the Transfer Counseling Center's collaboration with other departments, especially Counseling and Advising and EOPS. We now share a Front Desk Supervisor with Counseling and Advising, and have also stepped up our efforts to market our programs internally with our colleagues in Counseling and EOPS. Fall 2020 marked the first major presentation by Transfer Counseling at an All-Counselor meeting with Counseling and Advising, EOPS, DSPS, and Career Counseling in many years. We have also refreshed our website, and now use Colleague Re-Group, Grad Guru, and BC Connect to better push-out messages related to programs, services and critical dates through social media.
Getting Specific Information to Students
In addition to the marketing strategies listed above we are providing workshops to promote the UC/CSU on-line Academic Planners that create a portal of communication between the student and the 4-year college or university. As referenced, Colleague Re-Group messaging has yielded noticeable responses.
Continue to Utilize Technology to Be More Effective and Efficient
In Spring 2021, Transfer Counseling will incorporate the Starfish Planner into our appointments.
Our semester-by-semester “Transfer Talk” publication now includes direct links for students to our internal workshops and applications (e.g. CSU applications, Transfer Academy, UCD TOP and other UC, CSU, CA Private links).
We now incorporate phone and Zoom availability to students.
Staffing and Ongoing Collaboration with Sufficient Staff and Support.
Staffing the TCC is always a challenge in that we are a small program with one front office staff and, when in-person, dependent on student assistants to provide program support. We continue to reach out to programs on campus that support students wanting to transfer to a 4-year college.
The TCC Department goals are enveloped in the following six strategies:
Strategy 1 - Meeting Student Demand For Services
Increase the scope of times available for students to make appointments with Counselors
Starting Spring 2020, we expanded the hours available for students to make appointments by spreading out appointment times and methods of delivery. TCC Counselors are now available later for appointments in the afternoon and evenings to be better serve our diverse population. When in person, there was a Counselor available each week at the Chico Center in addition to the Main Campus, and at both locations students could make phone appointments. Since moving remote, even with budget cuts, we have had two evening days available for students in both the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters.
Strategy 2 - Expand scope of Admissions support help to students
Expand modalities available to students including but not limited to application workshops, Transfer Admission Guarantee's (TAG), transferring to CSU/UC/Private schools and competitive majors, Personal Insight statements for UC applicants and direct access to meetings with the UC TOP adviser to support the Transfer Academy.
With the increase of four-year transfer initiatives, i.e., Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAGS), On-the-Spot Admissions (OTSA), and ADTs there is a greater demand for appointments. Consequently, alternative ways of meeting student demand for appointments are being provided. By providing on-line advising, informational workshops, streaming videos, class presentations and a program newsletter each semester that includes live links, students are informed and directed to the most accommodating option to access services. In all of these different venues, transfer related information is accessible to students who need basic and specific information about transferring.
Strategy 3 - Representatives from 4-year Colleges and Universities
Maintain visitations from 4-year college representatives while remote and increase in-person meetings when possible.
In the past, the TCC solicited four-year colleges to be a greater presence on our campus and to be more accessible to meet with Butte students, both off and on campus. Upon return to in-person functioning, we will strive to return to a normalcy where CSU Chico had been able to send an evaluator to the Butte College Main Campus every other week and to the Chico Center once a month. We are still offering a version of this remotely, but it is not as robust, mainly due to less demand and access to CSU advising. In regards to UC advising, we are still part of the UC Davis Transfer Opportunity Program (TOP), which continues to provide our students access to a Davis adviser twice a month for appointments, workshops, and campus visits. While remote, there are actually more opportunities for students to access information directly from CSUs aimed specifically at transfer students. We offer these options on the TCC website as well as providing remote access to specific, historically of-interest private and out of state institutions who we have reached out to or whom have reached out to us. This information for students is also provided on the front page of our website entitled, “Transfer Weeks Spotlight: Out-of-State and Private College/Universities http://tkmr.gregorybgallagher.com/services/transfercenter/OOSPRI5.pdf
Also, the TCW has a brand-new out-of-state reference that All-Counselors have recently been trained on http://ccctransfer.org/oos/
Strategy 4 - Alternative Service Delivery Methods
By creating and supporting streaming videos, our students on and off campus will be able to access an introduction to the various services we offer. By offering Zoom and phone appointments, our students have more comprehensive access to our services.
To help augment the CSU workshops we offer, one of our Associate faculty (Doug Minton) designed a step-by-step application video for CSU students that has been viewed over 10,000 times by students across the state. The TCW director commissioned a Counselor at SBCC to make a similar video for UC applications. This video is now available for all CCC students and has received over 3,000 hits. Both of these videos are important for students in this remote environment. One-on-one UC TOP adviser appointments are now available to schedule with an on-line link located on the TCC website and Transfer Talk link.
Strategy 5 - 4-year university initiatives
Increase the number of initiatives with 4-year schools.
This year, we increased the remote exposure students had to 4-year schools by widening the range of schools represented on our website and securing specific contact links for many of the schools. When we return in person, we hope to increase access to 4-year college evaluators/outreach representatives. We will attempt to increase the number of UC campuses offering remote appointments with students and hosting CSU Chico at both the main campus and Chico Center once we move to a more in-person environment.
Strategy 6 - Increase outreach at off campus locations.
In Spring 20, we offered counseling appointments at the Chico Center and coordinated the opportunity for 4-year college reps from Chico and Davis to meet with students. This effort was curtailed by the pandemic but we will revisit the practice of using the Chico Center as a venue for Butte and off-campus representatives.
Having said that, the remote capability of our department now allows for students all over our service areas to obtain transfer counseling. For example, we have never been a presence in Glenn County. Now, we are accessible to students in cities like Willows and Biggs and Gridley in ways we have never been accessible before.
We hope to increase the number of student contacts by taking our program and services off the Main campus. We now offer phone appointments to students and offer evening Counseling appointments at the Chico Center. We want to capture students that may not come to the main campus and make them aware of transfer programs and transfer initiatives with 4-year colleges. At both the Main Campus and Chico Center, students will have the opportunity to meet with a transfer counselor and/or university representative. We plan to contnue to provide class presentations and periodically staff a table in the lobby of the Chico Center and at CAS on the Main Campus in order to better market our programs and encourage students to make appointments and take advantage of the programs we offer.
There is a need to have an additional office to house student assistants and university representatives. Upon return to in-person services, we will be using a converted supply room to house one Chico State and three UC reps on different days of the week. The room is not ADA compliant and we have to keep the door open to accommodate two chairs. The office also periodically houses the Student Assistant for the TCW grant.
Transfer Counselor Website grant provides a director buy-back of $25,000 that is used to provide part-time counseling. This translates to approximately 10 hours a week for the Fall and Spring terms.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Transfer Counseling Center | Personnel | XXX000XXX000 | 5xxxx | $0.00 | $124,910.00 |
| Associate (Part-time) Counselors | We seek to retain our current staff of associate faculty. In addition to seeing students in appointments, assisting with application workshops, developing SEPs and scheduling classes, our two+ associate faculty in Transfer Counseling are each assigned specific responsibilities for the department: Cross Registration, application workshops, and social media marketing/outreach. The main responsibility of Transfer Counselors remains developing Student Educational Plans(SEPs) in one-on-one appointments. For transfer students, the SEP may indicate varying sub-paths that are contingent on different target transfer institutions admission and preparation. This demands up-to-date knowledge of the always changing rules and regulations of transfer. For transfer students, the SEP may indicate varying sub-paths that are contingent on different target transfer institutions admission and preparation. A lot of these paths currently lay outside the realm of the Starfish planner. Either way, our internal studies have consistently shown that students with CSEPs have higher persistence and retention rates. Associate Faculty in the Transfer Center attend CSU and UC trainings. They also attend all department meetings. In these meetings, there is always a focus on case-study transfer issues. Therefore, professional development is always ongoing for this group. Also, because of the departments close relationship with the state-wide TCDA group and the TCW, members attend the yearly Transfer Summit, which at this point has been cost-free to our department. The Summit is an information conduit for the TCC, especially in regards to topics like retention and equity. Also in Spring 2020 and 2021, TCC Counselors assist the General Counseling faculty in Reg2Go. Reg2Go is a dynamic and consistent orientation program consisting of over 40 participating local high schools. Reg2Go has taken on an even more important role since the Camp Fire and subsequent enrollment decline. Access to campus-wide program maps allow our Transfer Associate Counselors to have access to vocational major and certificate sequencing, which better equips them to work with the general Reg to Go populations. At the same time, it introduces Reg To Go students to the expertise that Transfer Counselors possess in regards to transfer. Most new students, at least initially, indicate an interest in transfer. |
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| 2 | Transfer Counseling Center | Operating Expenses | XXX000XXX000 | 5xxxx | $0.00 | $17,000.00 |
| Resources needed for (1) Transfer Day (2) Transfer Academy (3) TOP program | (1) Transfer Day. Expenses for food, tent rental and set-up, busing high school students, advertising and miscellaneous expenses. Transfer Day was held on September 11, 2019. 40 representatives from 30 different colleges attended. Transfer Day Fall 2020 was scheduled for September 15, but it moved remote (2) The Transfer Academy had another successful year. Our Lead Counselor retained and recruited Academy students interested in transferring to a UC, private or out-of-state college to be part of a support program. Services include Lunch and Learn workshops with faculty, TCC Counselors, and UC representatives. The Academy also provides assistance with the application process and personal insight essays, workshops on the initiatives available to transfer students, classroom presentations, virtual and in-person counseling appointments with UC representatives, and field trips/visits (contingent on our remote status) to UC campuses. This funding is also used to create posters, marketing materials and promotional items. Workshops are especially important for CSU and UC admission requirements. (3) Transfer Opportunity Program (TOP) with UC Davis. The TOP program provides a UC Davis outreach staff member to visit the Butte TCC twice each month (Main Campus and Chico Center). The TOP representative provided informational workshops, will help coordinate campus visits to UC Davis (when we are not remote), and will continue to be available for training for all Counselors on the Butte Campus. She also performs outreach to different on-campus groups. |
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| 3 | Transfer Counseling Center | Operating Expenses | XXX000XXX000 | 5xxxx | $0.00 | $3,200.00 |
| Office Supplies, Travel and Research, Copy Machine | Office operation expenses and supplies. Office Copy Machine. Also, resources needed for Transfer Talk newsletter each semester, renewal of on-line advising program, printing posters off-campus and promotional items. Travel and conferences, especially faculty attendance at ETS, CSU, and other conferences. We added $1200 to what we received last year ($2000) per SEAPAC directive. |
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| 4 | Transfer Counseling Center | Personnel | XXX000XXX000 | 5xxxx | $0.00 | $22,623.00 |
| Student Assistants | We are requesting to maintain our level of 3 student assistants (SA). As a small department with one full time administrative Assistant, we are dependent on SAs to provide most of the direct student contact and to provide coverage in the event the there is an illness. These positions were historically Federal Work study positions, but the lack of flexibility inherent in hires tended to limit the time those students could work. So, we have opened these positions up to the general population. Please note that SAs also work supporting the Transfer Academy. |
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