Cal States Consider Transfer-Only System

JOSEPH NEY-JUN
Staff Writer

According to the Los Angeles Times, the California State University (CSU) system could be expecting a large number of students transferring into their schools, more than their funding can handle in the next few years. The number of potential transfers resulted in the CSUs considering a transfer-only system.

After a meeting on Sept. 9, the CSU Board of Trustees, who are responsible for overseeing the affairs of the CSU, noted that they had received a record 761,000 student applications for the fall of 2014. Transfer students make up a large number of these applicants to the CSU system this year. In September 2010, former California governor Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger signed the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act, also known as SB 1440, which grants students, who have earned associate degrees, a guaranteed transfer into the CSU system. If the Board of Trustees decides to convert to a transfer only system, it will mean that they will accept only upperclassmen transfers and no freshmen.

“I think it would be unfair for freshman applicants not to have the opportunity to apply to any CSU that they want right away,” senior Dang Hua said.

In 2013, 56,565 students transferred to Cal States from community colleges, and the trustees only expect the number to increase in the next few years. The board will meet again in November to discuss possible changes to the manner in which funding is managed, and to discuss the possibility of a transfer-only system.