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UC/Vista Partnership
Expands Educational Opportunities
By
Lora Lee, Community Relations
Thanks to a long-term space sharing arrangement with the
University of California, downtown Berkeley's Vista
Community College is able to offer its students the unique
opportunity to attend community college classes on a
world-class university campus.
For the past 26 years, the university has provided
classroom space at no cost to Vista for courses held at
night and on Saturdays. About 40 percent of all Vista
courses (about 170 a year) are held on the Berkeley campus.
The remainder meet at leased facilities downtown and in
other parts of the city. Vista plans to move to a permanent
downtown location by the year 2003 but will continue holding
classes on the UC campus as well.
"This is one of the few university-community college
collaborations of its kind in California," said Maureen
Knightly, an assistant dean at Vista. "It serves as a model
for (schools in) other parts of the state."
Thousands of Vista students -- some of them UC employees
-- have taken advantage of this partnership. Vista students
are able to sample university life while enjoying the
benefits of the community college's lower fees, extra
services, relatively small class sizes, and
work-schedule-fitting class times. Many Vista students have
transferred to four-year universities, earning their
undergraduate degrees after completing lower division
requirements at the downtown community college.
"I felt like I belonged there [at UC]. You had a
taste of what it was like to go to school on a university
campus," says Ana Lopez, a Spanish major and recent Vista
graduate.
As applications to UC Berkeley increase each year,
Vista's long-standing relationship with the campus has not
gone unnoticed. "There has been a marked increase during the
past year-and-a-half in inquiries from students from all
across the state and from international students about
transfer opportunities to Cal," says Knightly.
"Nonresidents are usually interested in establishing
California residency while attending Vista before they try
to transfer to Berkeley or another four-year university."
Perhaps the most gratifying aspect of the UC-Vista
partnership is the growing self-esteem and confidence that
comes from taking community college classes in a university
setting.
"Some of these students who end up transferring to UC
Berkeley or other four-year institutions are people who just
two or three years ago were scared to death of going to
college," says Knightly. "It's amazing to see how far
they've come from taking a couple classes to going on to
earn their degrees at a university."
Katherine Jones-West, who graduated from Vista with an
associate degree in computer information systems in May,
began with the intention of taking only a few computer
classes. "The more I learned in those classes the more I
wanted to take other classes and set my sights higher," says
Jones-West, who is transferring to UC Berkeley's School of
Social Welfare.
Like many other Vista students, Jones-West is thankful
for the opportunity she had to take classes on the Berkeley
campus. "At first I was a bit overwhelmed. I'd walk through
the campus and think to myself that I was walking the path
that all the great minds before me had also walked," says
Jones-West. "Then I thought, why not me?"
For enrollment information, class schedules, or other
questions, call Vista at (510) 841-8431 or 841-8860, Ext.
267. 
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