This toolkit is designed for faculty and departmental staff to explore important topics for transfer student success. Topics can be explored in any order. Each section has a general format of an overview of the topic, including readings for a deeper understanding and tools for implementing action.
We hope these topics will support you in learning more about what you can do to create a Transfer Receptive Culture and support your journey for awareness, action, and advocacy for transfer student success.
Key Terms
Transfer Student: A student who transfers from one institution to another, transferring credits from the previous institution. Most students transfer to UCSC from California Community Colleges, most commonly with junior standing for Fall admissions. However, sophomore transfer, dual admissions, and winter admissions are all programs at UCSC.
Transfer Receptive Culture: A Transfer Receptive Culture (TRC) framework urges the receiving 4-year institution, to share the responsibility of transferring students of color with the
community college.
Transfer Receptivity Ratings: Transfer receptivity refers to the level of intentional support people (e.g., faculty, advisors, etc.) or places (e.g., academic departments, student services, programs, etc.) have for students of color transferring from community colleges.
The three transfer receptive ratings are:
- Transfer hotspots are places that support transfer students from diverse backgrounds and experiences. They advocate for transfer students; support them in ways they can thrive; center transfers in their mission; and actively do outreach and develop programming for transfer students.
- Transfer-neutral are places that provide support to all students without specifically addressing the various needs of transfer students from diverse backgrounds and experiences. They may or may not be deliberate with their outreach or programming for transfer students.
- Transfer must-be are places that do not support transfer students. Their services are unknown or inaccessible to transfer students but are essential to transfer student success, and they do not provide outreach and programming for transfer students.
Resources
Transfer Equity Mindsets – The attitudes and beliefs behind strategies
Orientation to the readings: These readings were selected for their focus on equity in educational settings. Chase et al. (2014) show how state transfer policies are “color blind” and pose challenges for monitoring progress toward transfer of racially minoritized students. Zamani-Gallaher et.al (2009) highlight actionable avenues to advance equity in education, with a particularly strong orientation to theoretical frameworks. This chapter may be useful if you want to learn more key terms for equity in education. Last, Yosso’s (2005) paper is a foundational text for understanding the role of culture in students’ success and how educators can recognize the wealth that historically marginalized students carry with them.
- Chase, M. M., Dowd, A. C., Pazich, L. B., & Bensimon, E. M. (2014). Transfer equity for “minoritized” students: A critical policy analysis of seven states. Educational Policy, 28(5), 669–717. doi:10.1177/0895904812468227
- Zamani-Gallaher, E. M., Green, D. O., Brown, M. C., III, & Stovall, D. O. (2009). Affirming Acts for Increasing Access in The case for affirmative action on campus: Concepts of equity, considerations for practice. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
- Yosso, T.J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8:1, 69-91, DOI: 10.1080/1361332052000341006
User’s Guide: The following instruments may be used to reflect on your practices in creating equitable classroom settings for transfer students of color. The examples listed include additional information as conceptualized in other scholarly sources and can be used to reflect on your beliefs about and attitudes toward transfer students.
Tools:
- Inclusive teaching checklist
- Checklist for culturally responsive strategies
- Tools for Document/website/program space review
Examples (pdf):
- Chart: deficit, diversity, and equity minded frameworks.
- Spectrum of Equity Mindsets (Nadelson et.al., 2022)
- Actions Aligned with an Education Equity Mindset (Nadelson et.al., 2022)
Transfer Experiences – Where do students transfer from and what strengths and skills do they bring?
Orientation to the readings: Taylor & Jain (2017) introduce key concepts in transfer pathways and policy, challenging the dominant discourse of vertical transfer. Bragg (2017) unpacks how local policy impacts transfer articulation and implementation, advocating for community college and university partnerships. Del Real Viramontes (2021) explores the post-transfer experience for transfer students of color, honing in on Latinx transfer students’ cultural wealth.
- Taylor, J. L., & Jain, D. (2017). The multiple dimensions of transfer: Examining the transfer function in American higher education. Community College Review, 45(4), 273–293. doi:10.1177/0091552117725177
- Bragg, D. D. (2017). Transfer matters: Forward to the special issue on transfer. Community College Review, 45(4), 267–272.
- Del Real Viramontes, J. R. (2021). Latina/o Transfer students and community cultural wealth: Expanding the transfer receptive culture framework. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 45(12), 855-870. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2020.1824828
User’s Guide: These materials offer opportunities to recognize transfer students’ funds of knowledge. We have also included a brief summary of Yosso’s (2005) paper on Community Cultural Wealth. The examples include a research poster on recognizing funds of knowledge in an engineering department and an interview with transfer students who attended a CSU. This interview highlights transfer students’ experiences and some institutional barriers they navigate.
Tools:
Examples (pdf):
- Poster on funds of knowledge in engineering
- Reflections on transferring to a CSU – short interview including reflections on experiences with financial aid, course load, challenges, and what they’re excited about
Services for Transfer, Re-entry, and Resilient Scholars (STARRS) and Transfer Success (Kresge 25)
Orientation to the resources: The STARRS mission is to advance social mobility for transfer, re-entry and independent students by providing transformative higher education experiences. STARRS staff and programs guide students who disproportionately enter higher education through community colleges including those who have experiences with: transfering, returning to school at an older age, military, being parents, foster care, homelessness, incarceration, or family trauma.
STARRS partners with Kresge College and the Division of Undergraduate Education to offer Kresge 25: Successful Transfer to the Research University. This two credit course is designed to cultivate a sense of belonging and support the retention and academic success of transfer students.
User’s Guide: The tool below provides Transfer Engagement Tips to be a Transfer and STARRS faculty champion by encouraging student’s connection to the STARRS programs and community.
Tool (Google Doc):
Example (pdf):
Critical Race Theory in Transfer Receptive Culture – The impact of race and racism
Orientation to the readings: The readings in this module were selected for their focus on equity in educational settings. Chase et al. (2014) show how state transfer policies are “color blind” and pose challenges for monitoring progress toward transfer of racially minoritized students. Zamani-Gallaher et.al (2009) highlight actionable avenues to advance equity in education, with a particularly strong orientation to theoretical frameworks. This chapter may be useful if you want to learn more key terms for equity in education. Last, Yosso’s (2005) paper is a foundational text for understanding the role of culture in students’ success and how educators can recognize the wealth that historically marginalized students carry with them.
- Museus, S. D., Ledesma, M. C., & Parker, T. L. (2015). Racism and racial equity in higher education. Special issue, ASHE Higher Education Report, 42(1), 1–112. doi:10.1002/ aehe.20067
- Jain, D., Herrera, A., Bernal, S., & Solórzano, D. (2011). Critical race theory and the transfer function: Introducing a transfer receptive culture. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 35(2), 252–266. doi:10.1080/10668926.2011.526525
- Jain, D., Lucero, I., Bernal, S., Herrera A., & Solórzano D. (2016). Toward a critical race perspective of transfer: An exploration of a transfer receptive culture. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 40(12), 1013–1024. doi:10.1080/10668926.2 016.1213674
- Casanova, S., Blanco, V. A., Radoff, S., & Silva, F. C. (2024). Cultivating the transfer landscape: Using a CRT framework to examine transfer receptivity at a Hispanic Serving Research Institution. Journal of Social Issues, 80(2), 699-739. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12615
User’s Guide: The tools in this module may be used to reflect on your anti-racist teaching practices and interrogate how white supremacy culture may be showing up in your classroom and/or department. You may also opt to learn and share about racial bias and microaggressions. The attached infographic, created by UCSC’s MIEL, can be used to think through the work we strive to continue doing as transfer agents and champions. Finally, we have included a brief article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that exemplifies the challenges that students face and may be used as a conversation starter with colleagues.
Tools (Google Doc or pdf):
- UCB Advancing Inclusion and Anti-racism in the college classroom resources for instructors
- How racial bias works TED talk
- About microaggressions
- Characteristics of white supremacy culture
Examples (pdf):