College transfer process not yet flawless

By Staff Editorial     11/5/09 6:00pm

As Duncan College and McMurtry College begin filling up with sophomores and juniors from across the nine other colleges, we tip our hats to the Dean of Undergraduates office, specifically Assistant Dean Matt Taylor, for making the process both smooth and transparent (see story, page 1). Through the entire process, Taylor has kept students informed of the ins and outs of transfer plans. Many projects across campus are either shrouded or clouded, but this system was a fresh change.That being said, we feel this process was not as seamless as it could have been, for two main reasons. First, we feel the selection process should have been limited only to rising juniors, not both rising juniors and rising seniors. We wonder what well-adjusted rising seniors, those not disenchanted with their current situations, would abandon their college for new pastures in their final year at Rice. Unlike the rising juniors, whose two remaining years provide enough time to create lasting improvements to the colleges, seniors will be one-and-done, flitting and flipping through the system in extraordinarily little time.

Examine the seniors' psyche. You have those who will be so wrapped up in worrying about their post-college career that they will be ghosts at their college. You have those who are so enraptured with living their final year to the fullest that they will be of little service outside of keeping St. Arnold's in business. You have those who are interested in transferring only for a power-grab, those who would otherwise be unable to attain a certain position at their own college and who instead have found a vacuum at another. Seniors simply do not merit enough of a difference in experience from juniors to warrant their inclusion in the process.

Second, we worry about the blank slate given to advisers and Orientation Week affiliates. Just because they were selected by the coordinators to welcome the freshmen does not make them a proper cross-section of the university. Yes, they are inextricably tied to the new colleges, but there is no guarantee they will be transferring for the right reasons or in the correct demographics.

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The system is years beyond the growing pains Martel College went through earlier this decade, and the improvements are clear and efficient. But the process is not quite perfect, and changes are still needed.

Oh, and we would like to point out that we are hardly surprised that Lovett College boasts the largest number of transfers. The rooms at the new colleges may be bleak, but at least those moving won't be in a toaster anymore. As Duncan College and McMurtry College begin filling up with sophomores and juniors from across the nine other colleges, we tip our hats to the Dean of Undergraduates office, specifically Assistant Dean Matt Taylor, for making the process both smooth and transparent (see story, page 1). Through the entire process, Taylor has kept students informed of the ins and outs of transfer plans. Many projects across campus are either shrouded or clouded, but this system was a fresh change.

That being said, we feel this process was not as seamless as it could have been, for two main reasons. First, we feel the selection process should have been limited only to rising juniors, not both rising juniors and rising seniors. We wonder what well-adjusted rising seniors, those not disenchanted with their current situations, would abandon their college for new pastures in their final year at Rice. Unlike the rising juniors, whose two remaining years provide enough time to create lasting improvements to the colleges, seniors will be one-and-done, flitting and flipping through the system in extraordinarily little time.

Examine the seniors' psyche. You have those who will be so wrapped up in worrying about their post-college career that they will be ghosts at their college. You have those who are so enraptured with living their final year to the fullest that they will be of little service outside of keeping St. Arnold's in business. You have those who are interested in transferring only for a power-grab, those who would otherwise be unable to attain a certain position at their own college and who instead have found a vacuum at another. Seniors simply do not merit enough of a difference in experience from juniors to warrant their inclusion in the process.

Second, we worry about the blank slate given to advisers and Orientation Week affiliates. Just because they were selected by the coordinators to welcome the freshmen does not make them a proper cross-section of the university. Yes, they are inextricably tied to the new colleges, but there is no guarantee they will be transferring for the right reasons or in the correct demographics.

The system is years beyond the growing pains Martel College went through earlier this decade, and the improvements are clear and efficient. But the process is not quite perfect, and changes are still needed.

Oh, and we would like to point out that we are hardly surprised that Lovett College boasts the largest number of transfers. The rooms at the new colleges may be bleak, but at least those moving won't be in a toaster anymore.

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