Bakersfield College will be offering several new Associate Degrees for Transfer in fall 2014.
According to Billie Jo Rice, co-chair of the curriculum committee, 22 ADT programs have already been put into the new class catalog and will be effective for the fall 2014 semester.
“[The ADT] allows the students to obtain a degree that transfers directly to the CSU system and a student has to be accepted as a junior and they can’t require any more units,” said John Carpenter, co-chair of the curriculum committee.
He explained that some CSUs or UCs can nitpick which classes they accept in a certain degree, which can cause students to need additional classes or to take additional lower-level courses before even beginning the upper-level coursework. He was excited to say that with the implementation of the ADTs, that would all stop.
The ADT requires students to complete 60 degree-applicable units with a minimum GPA of 2.0, which would guarantee acceptance into a non-impacted CSU. Although the ADTs are in accordance with CSUs, there are some UCs that consider the same standards, according to Sue Granger-Dickson, interim dean of student success and development.
The establishment of the ADTs have been in accordance with a state mandate by Senate Bill 1440, which was created by Sen. Alex Padilla. Dickson said that in accordance with this bill, there was an implementation and oversight committee, which she was a part of, that was charged with actualizing the bill.
SB 1440 gave community college faculty the power to determine which classes were lower-division coursework for freshman and sophomore levels and CSU faculty the power to determine which classes were upper-division coursework for junior and senior levels. They made up academic senates in which the faculties worked together to make Transfer Model Curriculum, which make up the templates that dictate the qualifications of each degree, according to Granger-Dickson.
“It takes a lot of the confusion for students out of the whole transfer process, which can be confusing with the different schools requiring different requirements for the same major,” she said. “So, this is just kind of leveling the playing field.
“It’s saying that all the freshman/sophomore level classes are going to be the same.”
Another benefit of the ADT is that as long as students have already been taking the appropriate classes, they do qualify to obtain the transfer degree. Although the ADTs are virtually replacing Associate of Art or Science Degrees, students who have maintained at least one unit per each calendar year will still be eligible to obtain the AA or AS, in accordance with catalog rights.
“I think the goal of Padilla is to provide an easy pathway roadmap for every student in California to earn a bachelor’s degree,” Granger-Dickson said. “I think they want to simplify the process, I think they want it clearly communicated to students so we can encourage more students in these pathways so we have a vital educated, skill-based population.”
Granger-Dickson said although there have been flaws that have needed to be ironed out, she thinks the degrees are a wonderful idea.
“While I think these degrees are so important for BC for a variety of reasons, probably the most important reason is that it simplifies the transfer process and students can find exactly what courses they need to take and what grades they need to earn in order to apply to any of the 24 CSUs up and down the state,” she said. “That, I think is absolutely best reason.
“I do encourage students to earn their bachelor’s degree, and not so much to build the educational attainment of Kern County, but because I think it’s going to individually benefit them.”
She said she always encourages her students to pursue a bachelor’s degree, or even higher, because jobs have started requiring a higher level of education and the goal is to have her students to be able to earn a good living and be able to support their families. She also insists that students know the difference between having a job and a career.
“A career is something you choose, something you enjoy, something you’re passionate about,” she said. “We really spend so much time working, it should be something we love.”