Mission possible: A unified approach to transfer in a decentralized environment

by Brandy Reeves, Utah State University

When key university officials who had been at the institution in some cases decades began to retire, and new hires without institutional biases were brought on, Campbell University took the unique opportunity to review and revamp its transfer articulation processes.

In a Sunday afternoon session of the AACRAO Technology & Transfer Conference, presenters Jamie Kipfer and Jason Harris from Campbell University discussed their unique approach to reevaluating their decentralized transfer articulation environment. Jamie and Jason shared their experiences working within an institutional environment consisting of four separate campuses, plus a separate online component, each with their own traditional practices of transfer evaluation. Their goal was to bring the online and all four campuses together to create a cohesive and consistent transfer process even though evaluation would still be done separately in each location. 

In order to be successful in consolidation process they began with a few pivotal first steps. In addition to new leadership bringing fresh perspectives, they began an extensive review processes that looked at all existing practices at each location. Coming from an institution without a centralized articulation center, it was imperative that they all be on the same page in order to ensure consistency in course evaluations. During this process they were able to identify inconsistencies within the campuses as well as areas where practices did not match up to policy. In these incidents they asked themselves if the policy still made sense for their current students, or if it was no longer valid.  

Taking a closer look at their institution’s communication practices among the different campuses also played a key role. They acknowledged past lack of communication and set up practices that increased communication, including monthly conference calls among the different campuses.

Having to make significant changes on a small or limited budget is common in higher education, and in this process, Campbell University was no different. Because of this, they became creative in leveraging and maximizing their existing technologies and built key relationships that resulted in a collaborative success. They created a SharePoint site for all of their individual evaluators where files could be shared, and links could be created to external resources. 

Jamie also talked about the importance of networking and becoming more engaged in the profession. She specifically mentioned attending AACRAO conferences to learn more about best practices and what her colleagues were doing at other Universities. Jamie also emphasized volunteering and becoming more involved in different AACRAO committees. Being involved with AACRAO committees gives members a chance to learn, give back, and also help shape future directions.

In the end, not only did Campbell University come up with a more cohesive and consistent transfer articulation process, they were also able to formalize an approval process, and make their evaluation decisions more accessible and transparent to students. The entire process gave them all shared ownership in the evaluation process and reminded them why they do what they do which further fostered a “student first” mindset. Finally, creating their unified approach also resulted in a few “fringe benefits” such as stronger working relationships with their colleagues, and increases in collaborations, efficiencies, and overall knowledge. 

Because the collaborative approach worked so well with the updating of the transfer articulation process, Jamie and Jason plan to use this same model for reevaluating other areas that may be in need of review. 
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