Finding out you're units short too late

By Ashley Lowe
The Collegian

Fresno State graduate Wendy Alexander was in tears when she found out she was one unit shy of getting a bachelor’s degree.

Alexander, who transferred to Fresno State after three years at Fresno City College, met with her academic adviser several times throughout the year to make sure she fulfilled the requirements for graduation.

But she had no way of knowing officially whether she did, as her Degree Audit Report, which lists transfer units, didn’t come through until her fourth semester at Fresno State.

“We (transfer students) need extra assistance and need to be able to count on DARS,” Alexander said.

“It may seem stupid that we can’t keep track of units ourselves, but I’m not alone.”

Alexander is one of about 1,000 students who file for graduation in the spring and start out with some kind of deficiency, or missing requirements said Beverly Kirkland, coordinator of the evaluations office at Fresno State. The department gets a total of about 2,000 applications in the spring. About one quarter of those don’t graduate.

“Lately it’s been taking approximately [a semester or two] for the report to get to the student and no one finds that acceptable,” Kirkland said. “So what we are working on right now is rearranging staff and functions to where we can get the DARS report done prior to them registering the first semester.”

The best things students can do to avoid the problem, Kirkland said, is to make an appointment with their academic adviser. Advisers can access the DARS as soon as the transfer evaluation is done.

But for Alexander, a mass communication and journalism major, meeting with an academic adviser didn’t help her case.

“My adviser had no idea what would transfer over because he didn’t have the DARS,” Alexander said.

“He could only give me a ballpark.”

Alexander is not the only student at Fresno State running into problems at the evaluations office.

Michael Karbassi, Associated Students Senator of Student Affairs, said he heard complaints about how slow the evaluations office is, but said that blame can’t be placed solely on the office.

“With all the students applying it’s going to take time,” Karbassi said. “Yes, there needs to be a quick turnaround in the evaluations office, but you can’t expect them to do it in a day.”

For Alexander, the situation became worse when her advisor left the university and she was assigned a new one.

“At this point I was paranoid,” she said. “I called the evaluations office and checked to make sure the classes I was taking would count. They told me twice they would.”

Karbassi said one of the unfortunate things at Fresno State is that students don’t always have the same adviser throughout their academic career.

“We don’t have consistency with that at Fresno State,” Karbassi said. “But you can’t blame the university. Some of the responsibility has to go to the student.”

Alexander’s new adviser went over her DARS and determined she needed 17 more units to graduate.

After completing the units in the spring and summer, Alexander got another letter that said the internship class she took didn’t count.

“I saw a paper somewhere that said you could earn up to 12 units for an internship,” Alexander said. “And I checked with evaluations twice and my adviser before paying $695 for summer classes and they said it would be okay.

“They said I needed one unit and would have to pay $900 to take another class. “I said, ‘forget it, I’m not going to get a degree.’”

But Alexander, with the help of one of the advisers in her department, was able to get the department chair and dean to approve the class.

“It wasn’t like I was trying to cheat the system. I had over 140 units and you only need 120 to graduate,” Alexander said.

Other transfer students at Fresno State have had similar problems accessing their DARS reports.
“I have been at Fresno State since fall 2004 and I just got my DARS report two weeks ago,” said Timothy Whitfield, who intends to major in business. “I think the office needs to get their act together.”

Whitfield said the university needs to work harder to make sure transfer students get the information they need to graduate.

“I had such a horrible experience transferring,” Whitfield said. “I will advise my children against it. It is just not worth all the trouble.”

Whitfield said he will have to spend a longer time in school than he expected to obtain a bachelor’s degree.

Kirkland said it is rare for a student to graduate in four years.

“I’d say five years is the average,” Kirkland said. “I know the intent is to have things to where students can get in, take the classes and get out. But sometimes circumstances, whether on their end or our end, set a little bit of a roadblock.”

Another problem, Whitfield said, is the DARS report is complicated and difficult to understand.

But Kirkland said while at first it can look a little overwhelming, the DARS is a useful tool.

“The DARS report gives anyone who is looking at it more information than they ever thought they needed to know,” Kirkland said. “If you take the time to read it, it’s very explicit about what it is you have to do.”

The best thing students can do, Kirkland said, is to never assume everything has been done before leaving the university.

“I have had students who assumed their degree was posted and have gone as long as two years before figuring out that they didn’t graduate,” Kirkland said. “Students need to be conscientious.”

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