Survey Finds Transfer Students Disengaged, but Some Colleges Are Working to Change That
By SARA LIPKA
Attending more than one college is increasingly common, and transfer students tend to be disconnected from and overlooked on their new campuses, says this year's National Survey of Student Engagement.
More than 40 percent of seniors who responded to the survey had started at different institutions, according to the report. Compared with "native" seniors, transfer students lagged behind on four of the survey's five measures of engagement, or the extent to which they are immersed in academics and campus activities.
Transfer students reported less interaction with faculty, a less-supportive campus environment, less "active and collaborative learning," and fewer "enriching educational experiences." Only in one category, level of academic challenge, were transfer students indistinguishable from their peers.
More specifically, transfer students were less likely to work with classmates outside of class — 54 percent did, compared with 64 percent of their peers — and to talk with faculty members about career plans — 40 percent compared with 49 percent. Half as many transfer students participated in campus activities.
The report, which is known as "Nessie," has highlighted the challenges of transfer students in the past, but this year's call to action comes as more students are responding to tuition increases by starting at less-costly community colleges and transferring to four-year universities.
"Institutions of all types need to consider early and ongoing programs to engage their transfer students," the report says.
More and more are. This year the University of Maryland at College Park added two advisers to reach out to prospective transfer students. Miami University of Ohio and Minnesota State University at Mankato are working to develop courses for newly enrolled transfer students. And many other institutions, including the State University of New York College at Oswego and Texas Tech University, recently started peer-mentor programs for new upperclassmen.
"Transfer students are going to become the norm, and if we don't start paying attention to that, we're going to be behind the eight ball," says Christopher Hockey, transfer-services coordinator at Oswego. "If you don't really focus on the needs of that type of student," he says, "you're going to lose them."
'This Is Your Campus'
Many institutions offer an orientation for transfer students, but that may not be enough to connect them to a new campus. Nor do freshman programs suit students who, according to Nessie, are generally older and more likely to have dependents, as well as to live and work off campus.
At Oswego, Mr. Hockey has figured out one way to attract more transfer students to the peer-mentor program he started last year. This semester he marketed the program not during orientation, when students tend to feel confident, but during the first two weeks of classes, when they can get overwhelmed. About 50 transfer students, of the 700 who enrolled at the university this fall, signed up for the program. That's up from 10 last year.
Oswego also promotes the mentor program at local community colleges, trying to assure students that if they transfer, the university will help them.
The University of California at Santa Barbara is reaching out to transfer students in similar ways. Last year Britt Andreatta, assistant dean for first-year programs and leadership education, set up a suite of transfer-student services, including a "transfer success" course that about 200 of 1,500 transfer students opted to take this quarter.
The course requires students to venture out onto the campus, participating in, for example, study-skills workshops in the university's learning center, stress-management sessions in the counseling center, and various activities with student organizations. The course meets once a week for a large lecture, then breaks into smaller sections led by staff members and transfer-student mentors.
Last year Jackie Bruno took the course after transferring to UCSB from Santa Barbara City College. It helped her shed what she says had become a familiar mind-set of "go to class and go home."
"They promoted the idea that this is your campus — hang out here," says Ms. Bruno, a senior communications major who now leads a section of the course. "It gets you excited," she says, "about wanting to use the resources that are there."
According to Ms. Andreatta, author of Navigating the Research University (Wadsworth, 2005), connecting transfer students with those resources is key. "Freshmen have a lot of time to make mistakes," she says. "The first term or two of the transfer-student experience is so vitally important to their success ... that it absolutely deserves dedicated staff and resources."
Texas Tech University made that decision this year. Candice N. Laster, a graduate student, had conducted focus groups with transfer students there. After she shared her findings with the Center for Campus Life, she was hired to work with transfer students, 2,200 of whom enrolled at the university this fall.
For the first time, they have the opportunity to serve on the university's Transfer Council, which, through the Student Government Association, allows transfer students to voice their concerns to administrators. They can also join the newly minted Transfer Techsans, a club Ms. Laster hopes will encourage students to get involved in other campus groups.
Ms. Laster is eagerly awaiting Texas Tech's Nessie results for transfer students. "I want to see," she says, "what exactly students are looking for."
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http://chronicle.com Section: Students Volume 55, Issue 12, Page A31
