Transfer troubles arise

By Jocelyn Wright     12/3/09 6:00pm

Though the transfer process to Duncan College and McMurtry College is not yet complete, both new colleges have reached a "critical mass" of transfers, Assistant Dean of Undergraduates Matt Taylor said. After two rounds of invitations for transfers, approximately 120 students are transferring to McMurtry and just under 100 are moving to Duncan. As this is still well below the original goal of between 130 and 150 transfers for both colleges, there will be a third round of invitations in the near future. However, due to some disparities between the number of students transferring at each college, Taylor said there is still some debate about how to fill these remaining gaps.

Jones College, Lovett College, Martel College, Sid Richardson College and Will Rice College all have over 25 students transferring, while Baker College, Brown College, Hanszen College and Wiess College all have fewer than 20 students transferring, Taylor said. Taylor did not specify the number of people who were transferring from each college.

Jones is the only college to exceed the cap of 35 transfers to Duncan and McMurtry; a total of 39 Jones students, including guests, have elected to transfer. More troubling for the college, however, is that a disproportionate number of sophomores - 31 out of the 39 - are transferring.

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According to an e-mail sent Nov. 22 on the Jones listserv by Jones Masters Rudy and Nancy Guerra, this total amounts to more than one-third of the college's sophomore class. In the e-mail, Guerra requested that 10 sophomores volunteer by Nov. 30 to remain at Jones to maintain a strong sophomore presence at the college.

After the deadline passed, though, one-third of the sophomore class was still intending to transfer. Although Guerra's original e-mail said 10 sophomores would be selected randomly to remain at Jones if an insufficient amount volunteered, a subsequent e-mail sent Nov. 30 said they would work with the dean's office to consider alternate solutions to this problem.

Taylor said his office was in conversation with the Guerras about how to address this problem, but they had not yet reached a solution. Taylor said, though, that at the very least, the cap of 35 transfers per college would be enforced.

"Throughout the process we made public the rules for the cap," Taylor said. "At the very least we will enforce the cap, should it not be solved voluntarily. We're trying as best we can to let it take its own course, but we

want to be fair to all the colleges."

While Sid Rich and Will Rice are similarly unbalanced, Taylor said neither have exceeded the cap of 35 transfers. He added, though, that the remaining six colleges are fairly evenly split between sophomore and junior transfers.

Since some colleges still boast transfer numbers in the teens, Taylor said the transfer process would continue with another round of invitations.

"I wouldn't say it's done - we still have a significant number of empty spaces," Taylor said. "We will go about trying to get some more students, but the question is up in the air about how."

Taylor estimated his office had invited about one-third of the eligible 1,362 rising juniors and seniors to transfer, but that many more students were invited as guests. Taylor said his office is mulling over several possibilities to alleviate the issue, such as widening the pool to include freshmen and fifth-year seniors or targeting the four colleges with fewer than 20 students transferring. According to the e-mail sent out by Guerra Nov. 22, Jones sophomores will not be part of any additional invitations to transfer.

Hanszen President Erol Bakkalbasi said although his college had a smaller number of transfers, he thought it was logical that more students from the north colleges would want to transfer.

"If you're from a north college, you still see old friends and old roommates and everything," Bakkalbasi, a Hanszen senior, said.

Taylor said that while he understands why some students would be reluctant to transfer, he hopes those who want to transfer feel free to do so.

"I hope it was and continues to be that students see this as a campus-wide initiative," Taylor said. "By and large that's happened."

Taylor said his office does not have a set final deadline for transfers but that each college currently has enough of a transfer population to begin building an identity.

"Even if we do not get many more transfers, both colleges will have populations that feel like full colleges once they get their freshmen," Taylor said.

Regardless of how the transfer process plays out, Taylor said both colleges are well on their way to planning for next year. Both colleges have begun their search for new masters and are also figuring out the process for selecting Orientation Week Coordinators, which must be completed by Feb. 1.

"They have been in contact with the critical mass of folks who have agreed to transfer and are actively including them in things colleges need to be doing to plan for the future," Taylor said.

Although his office is still waiting on the projected freshman class size, Taylor said the plan for next year was to give the new colleges the largest freshman classes on campus, comprising about 100 students. The remaining freshmen, which Taylor estimated would number between 700 and 730, will be divided between the remaining nine colleges.

"That number divided amongst the [other] nine is where we were four or five years ago, so we'll be back to assigning freshman classes that won't feel burdensome to the colleges," he said.

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