Priority switched

Starting in the fall of 2014, the state will implement a new priority registration policy in hopes of shifting community college focus from matriculation (the process of enrolling) to increased completion and transfer rates.

This is great news seeing as how Contra Costa College no longer has a Transfer/Career Center.

But regardless of what the college may or may not have, the educational system here is set up in a certain way so that it operates a certain way.

Part of that system is priority registration. Priority registration is the order students are allowed to register for classes. There is a hierarchy to the list.

Some receive their registration date before others for various reasons. As of right now EOPS students, Disabled Students Programs and Services students, veterans and foster youth students receive the earliest registration dates. Following them are athletes, note takers (disabled student assistants) and early graduation petitioners.

All other students receive their dates based on the number of units they have completed. The new policy will change this order around a bit.  
Veterans will still have first spot alongside current and former foster youth who are fully matriculated.

Students in EOPS and DSPS will come after them, followed by continuing students in good standing and new, fully matriculated, students.

The district is charged with setting the order in which other student groups will receive registration priority.

The new hierarchy of how registration dates are chosen will not be the only change with this policy.

Students must be fully matriculated with 100 or fewer units. To be fully matriculated a student must have taken an assessment test, been through an orientation, met with a counselor and completed an educational plan.

If a student has not fully completed the matriculation process or has more than 100 units he or she will not be able to register for classes.

The new priority registration policy and rules that come along with it have been put in place to encourage students to transfer to a four-year university.

It is the mission of community colleges to aid students in transferring.

But without a transfer center here it would seem the state gets it and our administration does not.

For awhile now it would seem the college’s focus has been on enrollment. With enrollment down, college officials wish to boost numbers and grab as many students as possible.

But getting students out via transfer is just as important as getting them in.

It is time to remember exactly what CCC is supposed to do for its students.