For more than two decades, the National Transfer Student Institute has bridged two worlds: the researchers who study transfer students and the campus staff who work with them. NISTS, based at the University of North Georgia, brings these groups together for annual meetings, disseminates resources and research results, and awards awards for groundbreaking work.
Now, university leaders say they can no longer afford NISTS. At the end of October, NISTS (at least in its current form) will shut down.
University officials said in a statement that the institute “has had a lasting impact in improving transfer policy and practice nationwide” and that “its research informs how colleges and universities support the success of transfer students.”
But “unfortunately, due to ongoing budget constraints and realignment of institutional priorities, the university is no longer able to financially support the institute,” the statement read. “We are proud of the legacy of the college and the many partnerships it has established, and we remain committed to serving transfer students through our academic programs and student success initiatives.”
Janet Marling, executive director of NISTS, said that over the past year, institute staff have tried but ultimately been unable to find a new permanent home for their work — at least for now. She hopes other organizations will continue some of the institute’s work, including its conferences and programs, and house its research and resources so transfer professionals can continue to benefit from them.
“We hear time and time again that no one else provides the resources, the community, the network, the translation of research into practice in the transfer field like NISTS,” Marling said.
‘A terrible loss’
NISTS prides itself on a unique approach that connects staff members who cover the transfer student experience—from admissions professionals to advisors to faculty—in an effort to improve transfer student success across the board. Transfer practitioners and researchers worry that NISTS’ closure will have ripple effects throughout the field.
Alexandra Logue, professor emeritus at the CUNY Graduate Center, said the transfer process inherently involves the collaboration of multiple institutions, including across state lines in some cases; about a quarter of transfer students choose to attend a four-year college or university in another state.
Rogge appreciated that the NISTS conference provides a unique opportunity for “people from different states across the country to come together” to coordinate and exchange best practices. Such programs also allow transfer student researchers like her to share their findings with staff on campus who work directly with transfer students.
“The research we do is meaningless if it’s not put into practice,” Logue said.
Stephen Handel, a member of the NISTS advisory board, said that while other organizations are working to improve transfer student outcomes, NISTS has played an important role in providing new visibility to the needs of transfer students by making them a singular focus.
Handel said the college “adds legitimacy to an often forgotten group of students.” “NISTS is completely focused on this constituency, and that’s what makes it unique.”
Eileen Strempel, also a member of the advisory board, said she became involved with NISTS when she was an administrator at Syracuse University and sought to develop a strategic plan to improve transfer outcomes — an area in which she had not done much work before.
“I felt like, oh, wow, there’s already a think tank out there for me as a newbie, a learner who doesn’t know much about transfer,” she said. She called the closure a “terrible loss.”
NISTS leaders often ask conference attendees how many have never attended a conference for transfer students before; every year, most hands go up, she said.
“What was always clear to me in that moment was the important role NISTS plays in helping practitioners figure out how they can learn from other colleagues without reinventing the wheel,” Strempel said.
These courses have downstream effects on students.
Each cadet is better equipped to “help hundreds or even thousands of students,” Strompel said.
Marin said one of the most exciting parts of this work is seeing the impact it has on students across the country. For example, she has seen graduates of NISTS’s post-master’s certificate program in Transfer Leadership and Practice go on to make meaningful changes on campus, such as establishing new transfer partnerships with other institutions or revamping advisor training to improve the transfer student experience.
She said she is “deeply sad” that NISTS is closing the University of North Georgia, but she also believes NISTS will continue to exist in some form because of the “outpouring of support and attention” it received after the closure was announced.
“I very much hope that the spirit of NISTS continues,” both as other institutions and “among the many transfer champions working in higher education across the country. I’m really excited to see how individuals and institutions use what they learn from NISTS to continue to increase their focus on transfer students and continue to provide equitable opportunities for these students.”
