Southeast works to ease transition for transfer students

A new program at Southeast Missouri State University will ease the transition for students transferring from two-year institutions, according to a university official.

Brooke Lockhart, assistant director for transfer recruitment admissions at Southeast, said university president Carlos Vargas-Aburto and provost Karl Kunkel visited several community colleges beginning last year as a way to introduce themselves and identify ways to enhance the transfer process.

A transfer-student focus group on Southeast’s campus also was formed, Lockhart said.

“They know firsthand, so we wanted to take their perspective into account,” Lockhart said.

Also, in June 2016, Gov. Jay Nixon signed into law Senate Bill 997, requiring institutions to offer proactive advice, better support and connections between students and resources to motivate success.

In response to that action and information gathered from students, Southeast developed the Transfer Mentor Program.

The program assigns a transfer mentor at Southeast to each student. The mentor provides support and guidance from the first semester of courses at a partner institution, Lockhart said, including coursework selection assistance.

Advisers at the university fall into two categories: professional and faculty advisors, Lockhart said.

Professional advisers are assigned to incoming freshmen who haven’t declared a major, she said, and faculty advisers work with upperclassmen who need assistance with degree courses.

For the Transfers Mentor Program, advisers don’t need additional training other than being alerted to the program’s presence, Lockhart said.

“Collaboration within our institution and among other institutions has been very positive,” Lockhart said. “The faculty and administrators have been super supportive, very open and receptive to our efforts, which is extremely important when working on how we can better serve students.”

Lockhart said she serves as the primary mentor working with transfer students, and she has really enjoyed the opportunity.

Most of the transfer students she sees have completed an associate degree, “coming in with anywhere from 64 to 72 hours,” Lockhart said.

Southeast requires a minimum of 124 credit hours to earn a bachelor’s degree, with stipulations on where those credits are applied that vary by major.

Lockhart said it’s important to recognize the transition from a two-year to a four-year institution can be overwhelming for students.

“Making sure credits come in and transfer in a way that’s beneficial, that can be quite the task to put on a student,” Lockhart said.

She said it’s a lot of work for a student who might not even know who to ask.

“Really, the biggest benefit to this program is we’re giving students access to our online degree audit system, which allows them to begin tracking their process,” Lockhart said.

Students sign an agreement form to enroll in the program and receive a Southeast identification number and a Southeast Key to set up an online student portal.

Partner institutions will provide a transcript at the end of each semester, keeping current the student’s progress.

“They can change their major at any time,” Lockhart said, and the online system will keep track of progress for them.

Students’ undergraduate application fee to Southeast is waived with program participation, according to the program’s website.

The Transfer Mentor Program is a pilot program to help build guided pathways and other routes to student success, Lockhart said, and Southeast will provide updates to the state periodically over the next few years to determine its effectiveness.

Three Rivers College in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, and Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Missouri, are the two official partners.

“We are working on getting more,” Lockhart said.

Cape College Center at 1080 S. Silver Springs Road in Cape Girardeau offers courses compatible with Southeast’s course requirements, Lockhart said. While it isn’t an official partner institution at this time, students typically are technically concurrently enrolled.

Cape College Center offers courses through Mineral Area College in Park Hills, Missouri, Three Rivers College and Southeast.

Senate Bill 997 also required a 42-credit-hour general education matrix, which Southeast achieved by removing three required upper-level University Studies courses, effective fall 2017, Lockhart said.

University Studies is Southeast’s core curriculum program, required of students pursuing a four-year bachelor’s degree.

A student’s graduation requirements align with the course catalog year they begin their studies, and Lockhart said students can change their catalog year for the University Studies portion only.

This potentially would eliminate nine credit hours from their major and reduce the cost and time required, which is a major concern for students, Lockhart said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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