Transfer bills signed by governor


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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two bills today which will make it easier for junior college students in California to transfer to University of California and California State universities.

The CSU law will make it so students who have completed all required transfer work and obtained a associate in arts degree in a specific major will be guaranteed admission. The UC law will make it so that those schools will examine creating a similar policy.

Although many Californians attend community colleges, a small portion of them end up transferring to four-year universities.

Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), who authored the bills, said he wanted to make it easier for students to get bachelor’s degrees by making it easier for community college students to take all the classes they need to transfer and to “streamline” the system.

The North Bay Business Journal reported that $160 million is projected to be saved, with $75 million saved annually by community colleges and $85 million saved annually for the CSU system.