November 22, 2004

To: Peter Gilkey and Karen Sprague

From: Richard Freund, Lane Community College

Subject: Some concerns about the proposed GE Transfer Module

Counselors and advisors at Lane Community College have been meeting to discuss the proposed GE Transfer Module. Although there is strong support for the concept of improving the transfer of general education courses, there is a great deal of concern about the specific proposal as drafted. I will summarize these concerns below.

1) Emphasis on General Education

Many students self-advise at community colleges. The GE Transfer Module may lead such students to focus exclusively on satisfying general education requirements. Students who do not begin required coursework for their majors may be negatively impacted by this emphasis on general education coursework in the first year.

2) Different General Education requirements at each institution

a) A major problem with the current proposal is that each receiving institution may add a unique set of additional general education requirements for students who have earned the GE Transfer Module elsewhere, even for students transferring from one community college to another. The potential for error for self-advising students who must become aware of these different "add-ons" at various OUS institutions or community colleges seems likely to result in many self-advising errors that are costly to students and may increase the total time to graduation. Facing such information "overload," students may not make effective choices and may increase total time to graduation.

b) The same course may fall into different general education categories at different OUS institutions or community colleges. This perpetuates the same problem that currently exists for students who transfer without the AAOT degree.

c) Students may be deterred from pursuing the GE Transfer Module if receiving institutions add their own general education requirements to it.

3) Effective academic advising becomes more difficult

a) Many students wish to fulfill all of the lower division general education requirements before they transfer. A student earning the GE Transfer Module, but not the AAOT, would need a list of each of the sets of "additional courses" that would be required to fulfill all of the general education requirements. Understanding the additional courses necessary to "make up the difference between the Transfer Module and the total General Education requirements" of the different institutions is difficult at best, creating a major advising challenge.

b) The complexity of choices available to transfer students is increased by the addition of the GE Transfer Module. A student who is uncertain about whether to pursue the GE Transfer Module, or the AAOT, or neither, would need to refer to separate lists of approved courses that could fulfill the general education requirements.