UC Berkeley, in collaboration with the UC Office of the President, recently hosted an intersegmental conference entitled "Reinventing Transfer."

More than 250 UC and community college faculty and administrators, including several community college presidents and deans, attended the one-day event held in December. Two of these conferences had previously been held in the Los Angeles area; this was the first to take place in Northern California.

One of the primary purposes of Reinventing Transfer was to create strategies to facilitate the transfer process for community college students. UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl and UC Vice President for Educational Outreach Alex Saragoza addressed the participants and set the stage for the conference agenda that focused on recruitment, academic development and how to create a "transfer-ready" environment at the community colleges and UC campuses. Participants had an opportunity to meet in small groups to discuss enlarging and diversifying a viable pool of transfer applicants, understanding and reducing/eliminating barriers to transfer and addressing community college-to-UC transition issues. Recommendations were made with an eye toward how the community colleges and UC campuses could mutually forge beneficial partnerships to achieve these goals.

As a result of the successful meeting, follow-up sessions have been planned to develop and implement an action plan based on the conference participants' ideas. This plan should result in greater numbers of students transferring from the community colleges and eventually earning a degree at a UC campus.

For more information, contact Margaret Heisel at (510) 987-9572; margaret.heisel@ucop.edu.