The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 5, 2006 - 3 'U' hopes Conference with state community college presidents discusses barriers for transfers By Mariem Qamruzzaman Daily Staff Reporter Standing before community college presi- dents from across Michigan, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Lester Monts reiterated the reason for their gathering - to confront issues hindering low to moderate income community college students from transferring to the University. The effort is supported by a million-dollar grant the University received from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a nationwide scholar- 1 ship foundation. The meeting last Tuesday was the first in a series on the topic. No definite solutions are finalized - attendees only articulated their concerns and asked how the University plans to address them. Washtenaw Community College President Larry Whitworth said the University needs to find ways to make itself more accessible to stu- to increase transfer students dents who are 24 years or older and have fami- lion to help community college transfer stu- lies and bills to pay. dents, Monts said. LSA senior Phillip Rutherford, a transfer stu- Rutherford said that he did not have many dent from Washtenaw, said that he has noticed reservations about applying to the Univer- that University professors sity because he knew the are unlikely to make dead- options available to him line or workload excep- through financial aid. tions for students who have "The 'U' says that if "The reason why I other obligations. wasn't so hesitant about "At Michigan, everyone students take a college transferring was because (here) is relatively the same the (Michigan Transfer age and school is supposed course and they need Initative for Emerging to be your life," Ruther- Itforhg s 1 Scholars) program brought ford said. "It doesn't mat- high scaooa a financial aid advisor who ter if you have a job or if raduation th spoke to us about ways to you have children - your ga'ue pay tuition," he said. workload is not going to cannot double dip." M-TIES is a joint pro- change based on that." gram between WCC and Art and Design junior - Senior Associate Director the University that aids Betsy Jo, a 58-year-old Sally Lindsley underrepresented minor- transfer student from ity students transferring WCC, said the number of to the University. older students there far Many community college exceeded the amount at the University. presidents also voiced their concern that the Uni- Securing financial aid is a central concern for versity does not accept dual-enrollment credits. many transfer students. But Senior Associate Director of Admissions The University recently committed $4.5 mil- Sally Lindsley said the University accepts the credits in most cases. "The University says that if students take a college course and they need it for high school graduation, they cannot double dip," she said. If the University does not offer a comparable course to the one taken at a community college, no credit will be given, Lindsley said. The University is currently working on updat- ing course guides for each community college so it is clear which courses are equivalent. The course guides for each community college have not been updated since the late 90s, said Lindsley, who is managing the update. Rutherford said that because the course guides were old, it was not clear to him that his English class at Washtenaw would not meet the first-year writing requirement. He has yet to fulfill the requirement even though he is a senior English major. Dilip Das, project manager for the Cooke Foundation grant, said other projects include creating an LSA advising staff specifically for transfer students and a team of University staff, who will travel to Michigan's 31 commu- nity colleges over four years to "build relation- ships and get a feel for the student body and potential transfer students." IMMIGRATION Continued from Page 2 soon re-emerge to harvest pickling cucumbers and strawberries. With a population of about 100,000 workers at any given time during the year, peaking during mid-June and July for the growing season, Michi- gan is one of the top five receiving states for migrant workers. sT hroughout the summer, partici- pants in the University's Migrant Outreach Program make bi-weekly trips to the workers' camps where they serve as interpreters and teach ESL and pesticide training classes. The University's English Language Institute and Residential College co- founded the program in 2002, which also includes a University class dur- ing the spring semester. A shortage of migrant workers is predicted this year because of ICE "sweeping away (the workers) in buses," ELI coordinator John McLaughlin said. ICE's crackdown has had a huge impact on families, making peo- ple afraid to leave their homes, McLaughlin said. Immigration reform has been on the political ticket for months. Two weeks ago, the United States Senate passed a bill that would allow 200,000 new guest worker visas each year. Immigrants will also be grouped into one of three tiers. Individu- als who have been in the U.S. for at least five years may remain and apply for citizenship. Those who have been in the U.S. for two to five years would have to leave the United States and return to their country of origin. Therethey can apply for a green * card and most likely gain admittance back into the United States The third tier con- sists of those who have only been in the U.S. for two years - about two million immigrants. This cohort of individuals would be deported immediately. A joint House and Senate commit- tee hearing is expected to signifi- cantly mark-up the bill. 1u Free LSAT Crash Course June 4th, 4:00-7:00pm Location:TBA All you need to know to ace the LSAT Call800-2EV EW to enrol IW To play: Complete the grid so that every row, column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1to 9. There is no guessing or math involved, just use logic to solve. Good Luck and enjoy! Difficulty: Medium 3 8 5 7 5 1 7 6 U of M CREDIT UNION - Membership open to U of M - Consumer and real estate loans, students, staff, the U of M Hospital, savings and checking accounts alumni and other groups For more information- umcu.or call: 734-662-8200 or successful 800-96-m628 or membe rs visit www.amcm.org overywhero en 9 8 I 5 7 9 4 3 6 4 6 8 8 6 7 3 1 5 8 7 3 5 1 911,11, r 86 3 7 1 468 I Mm 6 8 9 2 31 6 4 5 P- Puzzle by sudokusyrndicatioruo PIu-10ozcohr