Group formed to focus on transfer students
TCU Transfer Ambassadors said they hope to better address the needs of transfer students.
By Joi Harris
Staff Reporter

This year marked the first woman speaker at the Gates of Chai Lectureship and the first Frog Madness event to kick off the 2002 basketball season. It’s also the first year that transfer students have their own formal organization.

Transfer Ambassadors, which members say is dedicated to helping transfer students adjust to academic and social life on a new college campus, is the first of its kind in the school’s 129-year history. Since the beginning of the semester, the founders have hosted a campus tour for community college counselors and have been writing the group’s constitution and by-laws.

“With so many transfers coming into the university, it’s ridiculous that there hasn’t been a group like this until now,” said Ryan Foley, a sophomore business major and vice president of leadership for the group.

Joael McMullen,transfer ambassadors advisor and director of transfer admissions, said the members plan on attending college fairs on the Tarrant County College campuses to make themselves more visible to potential transfer students. However, she said the group will not visit any other community college campuses in the metroplex until the group better establishes itself.

Although about 400 to 500 students transfer in each year, there has not been enough support from transfer students in the past to establish a group like this, McMullen said.

McMullen said because transfer students have already been through the initial transition phase into college, their questions focus on a wider variety of topics including the number of credit hours they can transfer and how that will affect their expected graduation date.

“Transfer students are so complex that you can’t generalize their needs,” she said. “They all need individual and personalized attention.”

After attending a meeting of the TCU Ambassadors, an existing organization for recruitment of new students, the founding members of the transfer ambassadors said they realized that the range of transfer student needs surpasses the needs of most freshmen.

Although there are programs in place for transfers, Janeth Randall, acting transfer ambassador president, said many students do not have access to them because they may live off-campus and have scheduling conflicts.

“We want to be the link that brings transfer students to the resources provided on campus,” said Randall, a junior biology major. “Making them more familiar with the university and comfortable with the surrounding environment can make a big difference.”

Meredith McWilliams, the group’s vice president of special events, said getting socially involved on campus will provide another aspect of transfer integration. She said that even though she felt she was accepted by other students when she transferred she still felt out of place.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t feel welcome, but it was hard to fit in,” said McWilliams, a junior elementary education major.

She said the transfer ambassadors want to be an organization that transfers will feel a sense of belonging to immediately.

The transfer ambassadors said they also plan to partner with other campus organizations to do community service projects.

Foley said that with all of the resources the transfer ambassadors are making available, transfers no longer have an excuse not to get involved.

“If they don’t get involved they’re pretty much making a personal choice to separate themselves,” he said.

Joi Harris