The Mississippi State University Student Association created a new transfer student affairs program within its cabinet to assist in providing academic, social and leadership opportunities to transfer students.
With transfer students comprising 50 percent of MSU graduates, and an increase in transfer student enrollment, SA President Shelby Balius said she recognized the necessity for a transition program.
In an email interview, Balius said the new program will connect transfer students to MSU and help the students transition to campus involvement.
“This will be an organization to promote networking and friendships among transfer students and provide assistance with their arrival at MSU,” Balius said. “It is not only an organization that will help in opportunities for connections between current MSU students, but also in networking with past transfer student MSU graduates and involvement to boost a student’s resume.”
Taylor King, co-director of transfer student affairs, said the main purpose of the organization is to help transfer students to connect socially, academically and professionally.
“Socially, we want to help them meet each other. We want to create programs to have them come together, even if it’s just a meeting,” King said. “We want to kind of make this a sorority or fraternity for them so they will be able to be with each other. Also, within the meetings, we can have the Career Center come over and speak about co-ops, resumes, grades or anything like that.”
King also said the program aims to get students involved with leadership organizations some may not know are available.
“It’s still not too late to rush, it’s still not too late to try out for an SA position, orientation leader, road runner or anything like that,” she said. “(Students) might have done that at their previous college, so they can get involved with things here that they were involved in beforehand.”
Balius said the inspiration for creating the new position came from her experience as an orientation leader in 2011.
“Since I am from Georgia where we do not have a community college system, I was taken aback by the apparent stigma that is placed on transfer students. I have never really understood why – even our own university president is a transfer student. I noticed the need to reach out to transfer students during my time as an orientation leader in summer 2011,” she said. “Many of the questions I would receive during the Dawg Talk session from transfer students centered on how to get plugged in and meet people, versus freshman students who would mostly ask questions about classes. Transfer students are already in the swing of college classes so the culture shock of a new school is different for them.”
Balius also said she stayed in touch with some transfer students in her orientation group to generate ideas as to how to improve the transition to MSU.
When she decided to run for SA president, she included the creation of the cabinet position as part of her platform.
In addition to the cabinet position, a new website has been created to connect potential students to the university.
“The Bulldog Bound website will be launched later this semester with information that is compiled according to recommendations from the existing Transfer Student Affairs committee and the new Transfer Student Association,” Balius said.  “In the future, we hope to partner with the Office of Admissions with their new ‘TAG’ (Tuition Admission Guarantee) program for transfer admitted students.”
The first transfer student affairs meeting will be held Jan. 24 in the Union Dawg House. Speakers will include Balius, representatives from the Career Center and Academic Advising Center and MSU baseball player Luis Pollorena, who is also a transfer student.
For more information on the transfer student affairs programs and events, students can follow @MSU_Transfer on Twitter.