Abstract
The purpose of this research is to acknowledge what California Community Colleges are/are not doing in regards to poor transfer outcomes to bolster bachelor's degree attainment, especially for underrepresented minorities (URM) and Black indigenous people of color (BIPOC) students. The California Community College system entices students with low cost tuition and open access. As a result, 54% of California's post-secondary population are enrolled in one of California's 116 community colleges (Public Policy Institute [PPIC], 2019). The system has many barriers that hinder transfer outcomes equating to only 28% of students transferring to 4-year colleges/universities in 6 years (PPIC, 2019). Compounding these statistics, by 2025 41% of all jobs will require a bachelor's degree in California. Simultaneously, only 35% of the state's population will meet this requirement creating an excess of 2 million people short of educational credentials to obtain a job (PPIC, 2019). This study draws attention to California Coastal College, a top institution for transfer in California, and how its transfer regimen aligns with Levin's (2010) 4"C" Framework of cohesion, cooperation, connection and consistency. In correlation to this study, critical race theory under the tenet of Whiteness as Property, processes the paradigm that the community college suppresses URM/BIPOC students from the attainment of a bachelor's degree. Both concepts will impart what practices equate to reinforcements to transfer and barriers/hindrances to transfer. The results of this study will reveal that transfer efforts for URM/BIPOC students are results of many impacts of suppression rather than outcomes of success. In conclusion to this study potential solutions and recommendations will be made in order to instigate intentional practice to help California community college transfer in particular for URM/BIPOC student populations. Ten California Coastal College transfer intentional students and five California Coastal College campus agents associated with transfer were interviewed to gain transparency on transfer experiences from both a student and campus agent perspective.