Transfer Experience and Advising Mentors (TEAM)
In 2007, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with the support of funding from Lumina Foundation for Education, worked toward recruiting larger transfer student cohorts and enhancing the academic experience of students upon transferring from community colleges. The Transfer Experience and Advising Mentors (TEAM) Project aimed to help community college students transfer to Illinois and succeed academically. Former College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Ruth Watkins was Lumina grant principal investigator and TEAM lead.
Goals
The project spanned the following:
- Research into the transfer experience, including an innovative survey of four transfer cohorts.
- The creation of a dual admission/dual enrollment program with Parkland College in Champaign: Parkland Pathway to Illinois.
- TEAM Leaders, peer recruiters and new transfer student mentors, are available for new and prospective transfer students.
- Illinois faculty and staff members in consultation with community college partners have developed transfer bridge courses to support new transfers through critical gateway courses that have been identified as barriers to transfer students’ success.
- The university has revised institutional policies that were determined to impede access and opportunity for transfer students, such as the number of academic hours required for transfer and the availability of financial aid.
- Dissemination:
- University of Illinois hosted a regional conference on the transfer experience — “From Community College to Research University: Effective Strategies for Selective University Recruitment and Graduation of Transfer Students“– bringing together key personnel working at selective research universities April 3-4, 2011.
- Presentations have been made and are planned for meetings of National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, Counsel for the Study of Community Colleges and other organizations.
Campus Team Committee
- Ruth Watkins, Dean, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- Daniel Cullen, Assistant Director, Undergraduate Admissions & OCCRL
- Keith Marshall, Associate Provost for Enrollment Management, Office of the Provost
- Peter Mortensen, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, Office of the Provost
- Debra Bragg, Professor, College of Education & OCCRL
- Rhonda Kirts, Associate Dean of Students, Office of the Dean of Students
- Stacey Kostell, Director, Undergraduate Admissions
- Dan Mann, Director, Student Financial Aid
- Julian Parrott, Assistant Provost & Director, Campus Center for Advising and Academic Services/Division of General Studies
- Lori Williamson, Associate Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement