The University of California should accept two-year associate degrees as credit toward a bachelor's degree rather than grant transfer credit on a course-by-course basis, according to some community college leaders who attended a symposium here last week. Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef told the conference he was open to the idea, at least on a pilot basis, if programs can meet UC standards for preparing students to succeed in upper-division courses. California community college officials said their students face a bewildering array of course requirements for transferring to different four-year colleges and universities, despite efforts in recent years to streamline the process. And while some campuses such as UC Davis provide yearly updates on their transfer requirements, others do not, said Marta Kanter, president of De Anza College in Cupertino, which has one of the highest transfer rates among California community colleges. Kanter, one of the speakers at last Friday's symposium, suggested that UC campuses certify entire community college academic programs as transferable. Under the current system, transfer credit is awarded on a course-by-course basis. "I have a request for UC-move to program-to-program articulation," Kanter said. "The course-to-course articulation is very tedious." Vanderhoef said the idea could work as long as programs prove to prepare transfer students well for their studies here. "I can't imagine why we wouldn't be ready to experiment with that," he said. Under the current system, transfer students graduate at about the same rate as students who enter right out of high school. Community college officials said many transfer-minded students opt out of finishing associate degrees that could help their careers, whether or not they ultimately complete a bachelor's degree. More than 100 people attended the symposium at Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. About three-quarters of the participants were community college administrators and academic counselors from throughout the state. The other fourth came from UC Davis, other UC campuses and the UC Office of the President. UC Davis hosts the symposium every other year. This year's conference focused on "best practices" for increasing community college transfers to UC campuses. Vanderhoef said community colleges are critical to UC's ability to handle the Tidal Wave II enrollment boom, which will add another 60,000 students to the nine general UC campuses and push UC Davis enrollment to an estimated 30,000 to 31,000 students over the next decade. An agreement reached between the UC and the state community college systems three years ago calls for increasing the number of transfer students systemwide from 10,900 to 14,500 by the year 2005. However, university and community college officials expressed concern over slight declines in transfer rates and a drop in proportions of underrepresented minorities. "If we come to a meeting like this and leave thinking we've got this transfer thing figured out, I think we'd be kidding ourselves," said Brice Harris, chancellor of Sacramento's Los Rios Community College District, where transfer rates have seen a recent dip. More than one-third of UC Davis students enter as transfer students, most of them from community colleges. However, last year's enrollment of 1,785 transfer students, or 33 percent of new students, continued a four-year decline from an all-time high of 2,281, or 42 percent, in 1994-95. This fall, UC Davis plans to enroll 1,775 transfer students. Since 1996-97, when a ban on consideration of race, ethnicity or gender in admissions took effect, transfers of African American, Hispanic and Native American students to UC Davis has dropped from a total of 227 to 217. The number of Asian-American students transferring also declined, from 703 to 471, while whites and those who declined to state their ethnicity rose from 997 to 1,097. Francisco Rodriguez, president of Woodland Community College and former director of UC Davis' Cross-Cultural Center, called the numbers "very abysmal." Rodriguez said community colleges, as well as working on transfer rates, need to place more attention on educating inmates in California's jails and prisons, where minorities are represented in disproportionately high numbers. Community college leaders said they are expanding academic counseling and other services aimed at increasing transfers to four-year colleges and universities. However, Kanter and others renewed calls for UC campuses to provide more options for part-time students, since a large majority of community college students also work. A number of community college administrators praised UC Davis for its leadership in increasing transfers. UC Davis pioneered in 1986 "transfer admission agreements" that guarantee admission to students who finish required lower-division course work at 56 of the state's 106 community colleges. UC Davis is working to develop agreements with 15 more campuses, 13 of them in Southern California, said Leslie Campbell, senior associate director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach Services. UC Davis is also expanding services for prospective transfer students-placing advisers at five more community colleges, offering admissions advice via videoconferencing to remote campuses and providing community college students access to an interactive Web site that enables them to check their progress toward transferring and a bachelor's degree. Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni, D-San Rafael, who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, told conference participants that smoothing students' path from public schools to community colleges and the state's universities is a top challenge facing an Assembly-Senate committee reviewing the state master plan for higher education. "What we want to do is ... ensure, across the board, that there is quality and access for all children in California," Mazzoni said in a luncheon address