UW to limit 2-year transfers from community colleges === 從 Seattle Times 的新聞 === In a move that will further restrict access to the state’s flagship public university, top community college graduates will no longer be guaranteed admission to the University of Washington. The change was announced yesterday by UW and community-college officials, who cited over-enrollment and state budget cuts as the reason for the new policy. It will take effect next summer and affects only the UW’s Seattle campus, not its branches in Bothell and Tacoma. The limits on admission come at a time when community colleges are seeing record enrollment, with many students planning to transfer to four-year colleges once they earn their Associate of Arts or Science degrees. “It is going to change the game a bit. There is no question that a lot of students want to transfer to the UW,” said Earl Hale, executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. “A lot of students’ plans are at stake here.” Since 1988, state residents who completed a community-college degree with at least a 2.75 grade-point average were guaranteed a direct transfer to the UW’s Seattle campus. But UW administrators said the number of students who qualify for admission under that agreement has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of new enrollment spaces funded by the state. For thousands of students, the community-college route is a second chance, a way to get into the UW if their high-school grades weren’t good enough. And many students can afford college only by attending community college or a technical school for the first two years. “It worries me terribly that we will have students who won’t get in,” said state Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, D-Seattle, chairwoman of the House Higher Education Committee. Although she blamed the Legislature for underfunding universities, Kenney fears the UW’s decision leaves the impression that the university is elitist. Already, it takes the equivalent of about a 3.7 grade-point average and a 1,200 SAT score for a high-school student to be automatically accepted at the UW. Only 18 percent of Washington students who took the SAT in 2002 met or exceeded that standard. And in 2001, the UW began restricting transfers of students with only one year of community college, even with GPAs of 3.5 or better. Previously, such transfers were almost always accepted. UW officials said this latest decision to ration access to community-college transfers isn’t a political move to protest state cuts, but rather a last resort to handle overcrowding. For autumn quarter this year, they said, applications were received from 1,938 community-college transfer-agreement applicants, and there is room for only 1,100 to enroll. Admission for 838 students has been delayed to either winter or spring quarter 2004. “It is a growing and emerging problem since the late 1990s,” said Tim Washburn, the UW’s assistant vice president for enrollment services. “It was like the perfect storm. The economy is bad. More students are graduating from high schools. Less state funding is available. And we have more students here at school staying on and completing their degrees because the work opportunities aren’t good. All those things combined have exaggerated the problem.” The UW has promised to continue to honor an agreement with the state’s community colleges that specifies at least 30 percent of its new undergraduates annually will come from Washington community and technical colleges. Still, hundreds of community-college students each year likely will not be admitted to the UW, even with GPAs above 3.0, many community-college administrators predict. College administrators estimate that many students will try to beat the deadline and complete their associate degrees in order to enroll at the UW next fall. UW admissions officials anticipate the rush and plan to tell 500 to 800 would-be transfers that they will not be admitted until winter or spring quarter in 2005. And the autumn-quarter application deadline has been moved from April 15 to Feb. 15 to allow UW officials more time for an extensive admissions review. The news of the change in policy will have a big impact at Seattle Central, North Seattle and South Seattle community colleges, where more than 1,200 students transfer to the UW each year. One fallout may be that many students will remain at community colleges longer, which would create further overcrowding in the community-college system, said Seattle Community Colleges Chancellor Charles Mitchell, who oversees the three Seattle colleges. The policy revision will not only make transfer admissions more competitive, but the popularity of students’ academic fields could also decide their success at getting into the UW. Transfer students will have a tougher time gaining entrance to high-demand programs such as the Business School or College of Engineering, while transfers who seek enrollment in the College of Forest Resources or College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences may stand a better chance because those programs are underenrolled. How far along a student is in meeting all the prerequisite classes may also affect their admissions standing. “If you say you are a business major, but you haven’t taken econ, you will get less priority than someone who did take econ,” said Jan Yoshiwara, director of education services for the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. “It won’t be uniform,” Washburn said of the new admissions-review policy. Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or [email protected]