Camarillo, Calif., Nov. 20, 2014 – Two new grants totaling more than $4.3 million from the U.S. Department of Education will help CSU Channel Islands (CI) and regional community colleges collaborate to increase the readiness and success of transfer students.
CI will receive approximately $3.25 million over five years through the Strengthening Hispanic Serving Institutions Title V grant program to launch Project ALAS (Aligning Learning and Academic Success). Project ALAS enables a partnership between CI, Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura Colleges to increase student enrollment, transfer and graduation rates in the county – particularly among underserved students.
In partnership with Santa Barbara City College, CI also will receive approximately $1.1 million over five years to launch Project iPath: Pathways to Transfer Program. Project iPath will focus on structured general education pathways and strategies to improve transfer rates, articulation, student success outcomes, and time-to-degree completion for transfer students.
“We’re excited about this opportunity to expand our partnerships with the Ventura County Community College District and Santa Barbara City College to focus our efforts on aligning to one degree and building a culture of transfer success in our region,” said Amanda Quintero, CI’s Director of Hispanic Serving Initiatives and the Director of Project ALAS.
Project ALAS will support a faculty development program allowing faculty in all four institutions to share and align class experiences and high impact teaching practices to prepare better students for transfer and graduation. It also will expand capacity for transfer student services, including targeted outreach, advising and peer mentoring, and improve and streamline articulation and records systems.
Ventura County has one of the state’s highest community-college-going rates – with nearly 51 percent of high school graduates enrolling in community college. However, transfer and graduation rates for those students are significantly lower. Within three years, only 7 percent of Oxnard College students, 13 percent of Ventura College students, and 16 percent of Moorpark College students transfer to four-year universities. Part of the problem starts long before their entry into college. Entrance exams reveal that many students are not prepared for introductory college-level courses, making their path to a college degree longer and more expensive.
“Most CI students come to us through the community college system, and the coursework they bring goes into their university degree,” said Marie Francois, Interim Director of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of History, who serves as Student Success Activity Director for Project ALAS. “With Title V grants, we have opportunities to better align learning in the first two years with what they’ll do in the next few years, and to develop robust institutional resources to support students’ intellectual and personal growth.”
Project ALAS seeks to boost transfer and graduation rates for all students through a combination of faculty development, institutional collaboration and student outreach and support. A faculty fellowship program will involve both tenure and non-tenure track faculty, including full and part-time lecturers, in becoming “transfer champions.” These faculty members will meet regularly and work together to address challenges, align course content, and track and promote student retention and success. Project ALAS also creates outreach programs that help community college and transfer students better navigate financial aid, enrollment and academic advising; receive support from peer mentors and learning communities; and have encouraging experiences in summer bridge and transfer-readiness programs at CI.
Similarly, Project iPath aims to create a more seamless pipeline between Santa Barbara City College and a four-year degree. Faculty from CI and SBCC will work together to align curriculum and student learning outcomes and to expand transfer student services, including a virtual orientation for working students and commuters, proactive advising and peer mentoring, outreach programming, and major exploration.
“It is critical that we provide transfer students a clear pathway to graduation and beyond,” said Geoffrey Buhl, Associate Professor of Mathematics, who serves as lead faculty for Project iPath’s Faculty Learning Communities. “These pathways must also help transfer students succeed in their major and welcome them into the CI community.”
In fall 2015, the efforts of Project ALAS and Project iPath will converge as CI hosts a Transfer Success Summit and Transfer Success Student Academy. The Academy will examine transfer student success on a regional level and present innovative ideas and solutions with the aim of serving as a statewide model for transfer success.
For more information, contact Amanda Quintero, Director of Hispanic Serving Institution Initiatives, at 805-437-3285 or amanda.quintero@csuci.edu.
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About California State University Channel Islands
CSU Channel Islands(CI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CI's Social Media.