New agreement between Merced College, Stanislaus State aims to boost transfer students
Merced College and Stanislaus State leaders will meet Friday to sign a memorandum of understanding aimed at helping to facilitate more transfer students from the community college to the state university.
“Merced College students already make up a significant number of Stan State’s transfer population,” Stanislaus State President Ellen Junn said in a news release.
“That population is expected to grow and we anticipate further significant growth with this MOU. The ease with which Blue Devils become Warriors represents an important pathway to higher education throughout the region, and this agreement will make that pathway even easier to follow.”
Merced College students intent on attending Stanislaus State are now aided through the four-year’s Warriors on the Way (WOW) program, which partners with Merced College as well as San Joaquin Delta College and Modesto Junior College.
The three community colleges combined make up 79% of transfer students to Stanislaus State.
Merced College sent a total of 286 transfer students to Stanislaus State during the 2018-19 academic year, and it is consistently the community college’s top transfer institution.
Over the next five years, the hope is that transfers from Merced College to Stanislaus state will grow by 10%, Merced College Vice President of Student Services Mike McCandless said.
“Warriors on the Way provides the wraparound services and clear pathways students need to efficiently move through transfer pathways and achieve their academic goal,” Merced College Superintendent and President Chris Vitelli said in the release.
“This partnership is an exciting development for Merced College and its students.”
The forthcoming MOU will add a WOW counselor or advisor to Merced College’s campus for up to 32 hours per week to provide tools and information to Stanislaus State hopefuls, according to the news release.
The agreement also guarantees priority admission for students who complete their associate degree for transfer at Merced College in a major similar to one offered at Stanislaus State and meet all application deadlines.
The MOU requires further investments in staffing and resources that will promote coordination between faculty and students at the two colleges, the release says.
The agreement seeks to strengthen the six-decade relationship between Merced College and Stanislaus State by attracting qualified transfer students, easing the transition for those students and growing the number of community college students who complete an associate degree for transfer.
Vitelli and Junn will formally sign the MOU Friday at 1 p.m. at the Merced College amphitheater adjacent to the administrative building. Parking is available in lot 7.
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 10:36 AM with the headline "New agreement between Merced College, Stanislaus State aims to boost transfer students."
