Transfer students from Des Moines Area Community College who want to come to Iowa State will now be awarded new perks as they become brother and sister students at Iowa State under a new program.

Marc Harding, director of enrollment services of admissions, said the Admissions Partnership Program will provide a smoother transition for DMACC students wishing to transfer to Iowa State, with the ability to be “plugged into” the ISU family while still attending the community college.

“Strategically, it makes sense. They are right down the road from us,” Harding said.

Fall 2005 enrollment included 1,388 transfer students, with 835 coming from Iowa community colleges, Harding said, 36 percent of which came from DMACC.

And the number of graduating high school students attending the state’s community colleges has increased significantly since the 1998-99 school year – around the time state appropriations to Iowa’s regent universities began to decline and students saw back-to-back and double-digit tuition increases.

The number of students enrolled in Iowa community colleges jumped 46 percent from 44,014 in 1998 to 82,499 in 2005. The percentage of students receiving their postsecondary education in the state from community colleges rose, as well, from 32 percent in 1998 to 44 percent in 2005. This is compared to a decline of those receiving their education from Iowa’s regent universities – 38 percent in 1998 and 22 percent in 2005 – according to Iowa College Student Aid Commission reports.

Yet numbers of community college transfers attending Iowa State declined during 1998 and 2003, the most up-to-date year for numbers of new community college transfers, according to the ISU Factbook. The number of new transfers dropped each year during that time, from 932 in 1998 to 883 in 2003. 2005 figures were not available.

“This [partnership] is to make Iowa State more their institution of choice by making the transfer as seamless as possible,” said ISU President Gregory Geoffroy.

The program, which is scheduled to begin this fall, includes access by DMACC students to Iowa State’s academic advising programs, as well as access to on-campus housing. DMACC students would pay the same rate for campus housing as ISU students, and would pay the same fees and charges for any services they use on campus, including academic support services. They will also be given the opportunity to pay the same ticket prices as ISU students to sporting events and other ISU entertainment.

Harding said access to housing and advising on campus ensures that DMACC students are taking the right courses in order to make the transfer easier.

“From a student perspective it is a win-win situation,” he said. “This way, these students are signed on to be Cyclones, and we’re going to treat them as such right from the very beginning.”

In response to voiced concern from residence hall students regarding the amount of space needed to house DMACC students on campus, Harding said appropriate space does exist within the Department of Residence. Robert Denson, DMACC president, said the start of the program harkened back to a talk between ISU President Gregory Geoffroy and himself.

“We were looking at ways that could benefit students that we knew were going to transfer from DMACC to Iowa State,” Denson said. He said this program has an early buzz about it. On Monday, an ISU adviser visited DMACC’s Ankeny campus and received a lot of inquiry from students about the program, he said.

The next step in the process, which Denson said he will be involved in, is an update given by the two staffs to both presidents in a month’s time. Denson said there are still a few kinks to work out, but feels everything is coming along smoothly. Denson also said he agreed that the primary benefit of the program is the resources that will be provided by ISU advisers.

“DMACC advisers always work with students and we understand the ISU rules very well, but it is always good for students to hear it right from the source,” he said.