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Sarkis Ekmekian is a junior at USC, majoring in communication. He\u2019s taking four classes, is the show-runner for Speakers\u2019 Committee, public relations chair at Trojan Pride, and is a campus centre consultant at the Ronald Tutor Campus Centre.<\/p>\n
He also is a transfer student.<\/p>\n
Ekmekian, one of 1,430<\/a> transfer students who enrolled in USC in fall 2013, transferred from Santa Monica College, a top feeder<\/a> school for USC and University of California. Community college transfer students have a strong presence at USC: 58% of the fall 2013 transfer class were community college students (up from 50% from fall 2012).<\/p>\n Community colleges have many purposes, from allowing students to save money on tuition, to allowing non-traditional students a place to pursue a different career path. The California Community College system is the largest system of not only community colleges but higher education in the nation, with more than 2.1 million students and 112 campuses. According to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office<\/a>, \u201c70% of state nurses and 80% of firefighters, law enforcement personnel, and emergency medical technicians\u201d are educated at California community colleges.\u201d Furthermore, most California community colleges have agreements with the UC and CSU system in regards to transfer students: 29% of UC and 51% of CSU graduates started at a California community college.<\/p>\n However over the last few years, California Community Colleges, along with the UC and CSU system, have suffered severe funding cuts due to the Great Recession. Funding for California Community Colleges was \u201ccut $1.5 billion between the 2007-08 and 2011-12 academic years<\/a>\u201d, resulting in about 25% of college courses to be cut.<\/p>\n As a result, there has been a significant decline in both the number of transfer applicants to four-year colleges and enrolment at community colleges in California. UCs received 1,653<\/a> fewer transfer applications from community colleges in the fall 2013 year, compared to fall 2011. California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office<\/a> also reported that \u201cenrolment [in California community colleges] decreased by more than 585,000 students to 2.3 million in four academic years (from 2008-09 to 2012-13) due to severe budget cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n Budget cuts have also caused the success rate of community colleges slip in recent years. According to an article in the Oakland Tribune<\/a>, \u201cAs unemployment swelled, the system simultaneously saw soaring demand and $1.5 billion in state funding cuts, forcing its colleges to cut back on student services and classes. State universities also accepted fewer transfers during that time, another factor working against students.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, with the economy showing faint signs of improvement, the question becomes whether the economic benefits that community colleges provide is significant enough for the state to reinvest money into the system. The passing of Proposition 30<\/a> in 2012 meant that the education sector dodged $6 billion worth of budget cuts. Community colleges were granted $210 million for 2012-13, allowing for the addition of 3300 classes for the Spring 2013 semester, 40000 additional students, and a temporary halt in the increasing tuition rate.<\/p>\n Recently, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a budget which would increase funding to community colleges by $1 billion<\/a>. The funding would freeze tuition rates at the current rate of $46 per unit and \u201callow colleges to increase enrolment by 3 percent. Enrolment has been cut by up to 15 percent since 2010.\u201d According to Brown, the additional funding would allow students to transfer faster by increasing the amount of classes, counsellors and academic resources available to students.<\/p>\n The state certainly believes that there is community colleges provide significant economic benefit to the economy. According to a report conducted by the American Association of Community Colleges<\/a>, \u201cin 2012 alone, the net total impact of community colleges on the U.S. economy was $809 billion in added income, equal to 5.4 percent of GDP.\u201d Furthermore, \u201ccommunity-college graduates receive nearly $5 in benefits for every dollar they spend on their education.\u201d The average income also steadily increases with the education level, with those with associate degrees earning an average of $10700 more than someone with a high-school diploma.<\/p>\n The proposal for additional funding has been met with approval from community colleges, professors and students who have long suffered from severe underfunding. \u201cWe have been underfunded for a really long time compared to K-12 and the UC system,\u201d explained Mary Mazzocco, who is the journalism department chair and advisor for school newspaper \u2018The Inquirer\u2019 at Diablo Valley College. \u201cGiven how many students we serve, given that we are the gateway for non-traditional college students, and given our role in helping retrain people who lose their jobs\u2026 I do feel like that they should at least give us the money to allow us to do the job that they have given us to do. And I feel like they haven\u2019t done that in a really long time.\u201d<\/p>\n Students who manage to transfer to four-year institutions are statistically successful. According to the University of California\u2019s Accountability Report<\/a>, \u201ctransfer students entering UC since 2004 have a 50 to 53 percent two-year graduation rate and an 85 to 86 percent four-year graduation rate.\u201d By comparison, freshmen from the same cohort who enter the UC system have a four-year graduation rate of 60% and a six-year graduation rate of 84%.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rachel Ann Reyes is a student at Diablo Valley College majoring in communication. She has been accepted to UC Davis for fall 2014, and is awaiting responses from UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara. When she transfers, she will be the first in her family to attend an American university. \u201cI\u2019ve personally really enjoyed being at a community college,\u201d said Reyes. \u201cI think that sometimes community colleges get a bad rep for being almost being a continuation of high school, but I think it\u2019s a great opportunity for people who want to save money. If they are determined enough to go to community college to get their AA degree or transfer, I think it can be a really helpful tool at a great cost.\u201d<\/p>\n However, there are also concerns about the efficiency of community colleges \u2013 particularly regarding the students who either take too long or don\u2019t manage to graduate or transfer to a four-year college. In 2009, the average graduation rate<\/a> from California community colleges was only 25.08% while the transfer rate was an even lower 14.36%. An op-ed in the LA Times<\/a> also criticized the ineffiency of community colleges and the burden that it places on the economy: \u201cCommunity colleges are subsidized through direct state and local government appropriations and through student grant programs. Every student who drops out represents an investment loss by the taxpayers in that student’s uncompleted education.\u201d Through further investigation, they found that \u201cof the full-time, degree-seeking students who entered California community colleges in 2007, more than 35,000 had not earned their degrees three years later, and most of them were no longer enrolled in any postsecondary institution.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/megancorbett.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/budgetcutsgraph.gif\")
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