Reductions challenge progress

State budget deficits have left Contra Costa College without a Transfer Center since the fall 2011 semester, and its elimination has many students struggling for information.

“(The Transfer Center) was really helpful. It made it easier to understand how the procedures go, what essays to write, showing the proper steps to transfer,” biological sciences major Martell McCraw said.

“Not having a Transfer Center is going to put a hole in the speed for students since they don’t have anyone to go to, to learn about transferring.”

Prior to its elimination, the college had a full-time employee organizing and operating a campus Transfer/Career Center for the past 30 years.

In an attempt to inform students about the transferring process, a Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) workshop was held in the Assessment Center on Thursday, sponsored by the counseling department.

“(Speakers) mainly talked about UC transfers,” psychology major Zack Meahan said. “I wasn’t planning to transfer to a UC but after attending (the workshop), it made me re-think things. But you should have one place to go to instead of trying to talk to a counselor in a small amount of time.”

Despite transfer workshops being offered at CCC, students agree having a Transfer Center with information on hundreds of four-year colleges would be best.

“I’ve seen students have a hard time transferring,” administration of justice major Dennis McCollins said. “It’s like having someone ask you to build a roof without a ladder. More kids are going into college blindly. They won’t know what they’re doing.”

McCraw remembers visiting the  Career/Transfer Center when it was still open on campus.

The California Community College Chancellor’s Office website states, as part of its mission statement, community colleges are to provide preparation for transfer to four-year institutions.

Students, however, say the college hasn’t been appropriately guiding them on how to transfer.

“(Students) want to go to the college to transfer and if the college doesn’t have the knowledge, students might not want to go there because they don’t have the proper guidance,” McCraw said.

Since the cut, the counseling department has been in charge of informing students about transferring. Given the responsibility to inform individuals about how to transfer to a four-year university, counselors have difficulties trying to serve each person individually.

With the Transfer Center gone, an additional burden has been placed on counselors, EOPS counselor Dionne Perez said.

Meahan, who tried dropping into counseling for an appointment, had to wait an hour and a half to get in to see a counselor.

“It’s hard trying to get a hold of one,” he said. “The college is pushing all these things on the counselors. We’re spending more time waiting for one than with one.”

Counselor Andrea Phillips is in charge of the TAG workshops and organizing Transfer Day, in addition to her counseling duties.

“Transfer is truly a year-long process and a huge undertaking that has been put on the back burner,” Phillips said. “When the college says we don’t have a Transfer Center anymore, it leaves the students in a limbo.”

Perez agrees students won’t be able to properly progress.

“We don’t have a central hub of information and this affects how our students are informed,” Perez said. “It’s an institutional responsibility. This isn’t just for counseling. We cannot do this without human power.”