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In this issue:
We have a Newsletter!
In an ongoing effort to improve communication about the Arizona transfer system within our community, the Academic Program
Articulation Steering Committee is launching this quarterly newsletter.
Like most first tries, this edition lacks some of the exciting features that we might want in a newsletter - but with your
assistance, we can make it a great tool for sharing information about new developments in transfer, and about all the work we do
to support Arizona's transfer students.
Some of the exciting features in the works for future issues are:
- A quarterly feature focusing on a transfer student within our system - provided by the transfer specialists at our schools
- Regular updates from the state universities about transfer issues at their schools - provided by the university representatives to the Academic Program Articulation Steering Committee
- Periodic updates from community members about issues or news of note to us all
- Improvements to the graphics and layout of the newsletter
We hope that you'll find this first edition to be useful, and that you'll contact us with ideas, thoughts and comments. There will
always be 'Contact Us' links at the bottom of the newsletter - please use them to give us your feedback. And welcome to the first
edition of Arizona Transfer News. -
For students transferring among the state universities in Arizona, information about acceptability of transfer coursework
has been hard to find on our Arizona Course Applicability System (AzCAS) website. The course equivalencies that were available
in the system had to be accessed by using the query feature of the course equivalency guide - or by logging into CAS to create
a Planning Guide.
An Arizona Board of Regents initiative has changed that. Now students using AzCAS will find the universities listed right
on the index page of the Course Equivalency Guide. The universities have cooperated in order to produce the data needed for this
enhancement, and will be continuing to work to keep the information up-to-date and accurate.
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A subcommittee of the Academic Program Articulation Steering Committee is focusing on an evaluation of the transfer model. The evaluation process was
begun as a result of the Committee's development of their Strategic Plan last year.
This subcommittee has been reviewing both qualitative and quantitative data about the effectiveness of the system, and has benefitted from the
support and involvement of the Arizona State System for Information on Student Transfer. The subcommittee hopes to have preliminary data available for the
community during the Fall semester of 2005.
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If you have ever had a question about what the state policies on transfer are, or where you
can get your hands on them, you will be pleased to know that finding these answers is becoming easier. The General
Education Articulation Task force, and the Academic Program Steering Committee, have been working to make
these policies more readily accessible from our website.
The result of their efforts is a new Transfer Policy Page. This page
contains direct links to a growing number of policy citations, as well as standardized AP and CLEP scores that have been decided by the
faculty committees in our state for those disciplines that use these tests. The content on this page will continue to grow,
please be sure to let us know about additional policy statements that you would like to see included in this handbook.
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Two new Articulation Task Forces have been established, starting with the 2005-2006 academic year. The Admissions and Records Articulation Task Force whose members will represent admissions, registrar and records offices
at each of the public post-secondary institutions in Arizona, has been created by
the Academic Program Articulation Steering Committee, the administrative group that oversees our
transfer system. Faculty from several schools proposed establishing an Articulation Task Force for
Womens Studies as well. ASU, NAU and UA each have programs in Womens studies, and the new Task Force will
address issues students may be facing as they transfer to those university programs.
The new Admissions and Records committee will take on issues relating to the implementation of the transfer model relating to transcripts, credentials evaluation, and other related business processes that have arisen
in various statewide discussions. The Academic Program Articulation Steering Committee cochairs, Dr. Ron Pitt (Northern Arizona University) and Dr. Richard Drum (Arizona Western College)
have requested names of participants in each of these ATFs from each of the schools, and all will work to
establish a first meeting of the new ATFs as soon as membership has been established, during the upcoming academic year.
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Pima Community College has been working Interface Management Systems (IMS) to provide Pima's students
with an easy way to load their courses directly from Pima's Banner student information system into their
Course Applicability System (CAS) course portfolios.
The project will soon go live, and when it does students who log into the system and add courses from Pima
will have an option for a 'course import'. The course import allows the student to enter a Pima student
Personal Identification Number, and get their courses imported from Pima's databases.
The Pima project was authorized by the Academic Program Articulation Steering Committee as a pilot project for a possible statewide license
of these interfaces. The company provides two types of interfaces - the auto course import, and an external
degree audit interface that would allow schools using degree audit systems such as Banner's
or PeopleSoft's degree audits to make those audits accessible as planning guides.
Representatives of our statewide staff will be working to contact institutional IT units at our schools
to discover whether other schools may be interested in implimenting this interface as well. If there is sufficient
interest and readiness, the Academic Program Articulation Steering Committee will consider the possibility of funding
a statewide license for the interface software.
Upcoming Academic Program Articulation Steering Committee Meetings
See the statewide meeting calendar for information on upcoming meetings Back to the top of the page
2005 Arizona Advising Conference a Success
The 2005 Arizona Advising Conference was hosted by the Maricopa Community Colleges, at Rio Salado College
on February 10 and 11. Pre-conference registration included approximately 150 participants, representing
all of Arizona's community colleges and universities.
The Arizona CAS Team sponsored presentation was lead by Rose Rojas of Maricopa, and was titled "New Advising Resource - Blended Guides".
The powerpoint for this presentation can be found on the Advisors Tab of CAS. The presentation
was well-attended by both new and veteran advisors, and elicited valuable discussion.
Kudos to the Maricopa team that organized the conference, and to all the advisors who attended! Upcoming Academic Articulation Task Force Meetings
See the statewide meeting calendar for information on upcoming meetings Back to the top of the page
Applied Degrees Workgroup, Allied Health Articulation Task Forces Developing New Web Resources
Over the last several years, the Allied Health Articulation Task Force has been working to develop web resources that would
answer the needs of students who complete Associate's degree and certificate programs in the health related
professions, and who need information about transfer to University allied health programs
The new web resources would provide students with ways of identifying their associate's degree programs, and the
university programs with which they articulate. This is different than the current web resources, which focus
on the three transfer associate's degrees only (the Associate of Arts, Associate of Business and Associate of Science).
Many associate's degree programs in Allied Health are Associate of Applied Science programs, or certificates which
do not fit the pathways identified for the transfer associate's degrees.
This year, another group has joined into this project. An applied degrees workgroup that consists of
representatives from Associate of Applied Science and Bachelor of Applied Science programs across the state, is also working to develop resources that are
targeted to students who have or are in the process of earning Associate of Applied Sciences degrees. Focusing
on the university Bachelor of Applied Sciences degrees, these resources will help meet the needs of transfer
students who do not fit into the standard transfer pathways.
Keep your eyes open for the appearance of new web resources for Allied Health and Applied degree programs
on our website! -
At their Fall 2004 and Spring 2005 meetings, the Early Childhood Education and the Education committees have
shared afternoon sessions, and are working together to create better options for transfer students in Education.
The Education ATF, which spearheaded the drive for the new
Associate of Arts in Elementary Education (AAEE) degree, is sharing their experience with their Early Childhood
Education ATF colleagues. The Early Childhood Education ATF is working to identify best lower-division preparation, and
an appropriate associate's degree pathway, for Early Childhood majors as well. Like Elementary Education curricula,
Early Childhood Education training is driven by state and federal certification requirements.
Over the last year, several new Early Childhood baccalaureate programs have been developed, at UA South and ASU.
The collaboration between these two ATFs will surely continue the state's progress towards meeting the growing
need for teacher prep programs in Arizona.
Articulation Task Force Decisions
See the APASC Meeting notes for a review of ATF issues and actions over the past year Upcoming Articulation Task Force Meetings
See the Articulation Task Force meeting calendar for information on upcoming meetings of the Articulation Task Forces Back to the top of the page
Community Colleges Supporting new Arizona General Education Curriculum (AGEC) database project - a step towards "Blended Guides"
The Arizona Transfer Articulation Committee (ATAC) has been working with a number of groups, and the state
Technical staff, to develop a new student and advisor resource that blends community college general education requirement information,
statewide data about transfer pathways, and university baccalaureate degree requirement data into a single display. This project,
called the "Blended Guides" project has resulted in a number of important new initiatives.
One of the most important of these is the statewide Arizona General Education Curriculum database project. Each of Arizona's community college districts
has committed to maintaining a current and accurate database of their general education courses, and the requirements each fulfills,
inside of the statewide databases. The database is being maintained using software available to all schools under
our statewide CAS license.
A new web application that would allow users to access the database is currently under development as well.
The web page allows users to pull up a list of all general education courses at any community college, or to query for specific
courses within the general education curriculum of one or more community colleges.
As we move forward towards the Blended Guides, this application will be put to use in providing students
with a way to view the courses they could take at their community college that would apply to their community college general education completion,
and to learn whether there may be specific courses that might also fulfill requirements outside of general education at the university.
The new application will be rolled out soon on the Advisors Tab of the AzCAS website.
Upcoming Arizona Transfer Articulation Committee Meetings
See the statewide meeting calendar for information on upcoming meetings of ATAC Back to the top of the page
Rollover to new Academic Year's data, May 15 & June 1
Our AzCAS production schedule will involve a rollover to academic data for 2005-2006 on May 15, 2005. Until
then, the Course Equivalency Guide will continue
to display information for the 2004-2005 school year.
In addition to the CEG rollover, the Arizona Transfer Pathway Guides,
Common Course Matrices, Degrees
and Pathways query engine, and ATF Member and Programs lists for 2005-2006 will be
targeted for publication on June 1. The community college and university representative to the Arizona Transfer Articulation Committee
are charged with reviewing prefix and baccalaureate degree data each year to support this rollover of reports for the upcoming year. Technical Upgrades Scheduled
Several upgrades and changes to our AzCAS technical environment are in the queue, and while most should be
invisible to AzCAS users, some of our technical users will need to upgrade software in order to continue to access the
CAS databases.
AGEC database encoders will need to install new database drivers and virtual private network software. The CAS
Technical Analysts, Andy Beier and Rebecca McKay
are available to you in order to facilitate this transition. Back to the top of the page
Questions, suggestions or comments? Contact us! CAS Transfer Analyst or Articulation Facilitator
Back to the index of ATASS newsletters.
Back to Arizona CAS homepage.
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