The Intersegmental Major Preparation Articulated Curriculum (IMPAC) project is a unique intersegmental, faculty-designed and faculty-run project to ensure that students transferring from the community colleges to UC and CSU are prepared for work in their chosen major and can avoid having to repeat coursework. The project is funded by a five year, $2.75 million grant that enables faculty from the three higher education systems to meet regionally to discuss issues, concerns, and academic procedures that impinge upon the transfer of students in those majors. Specifically, the grant funds regional and state-wide faculty disciplinary and interdisciplinary discussions to address prerequisite and lower division courses students must complete prior to transfer to either CSU or UC. For more information about the project, please click here.

IMPAC Project is an initiative of the Intersegmental Committee of Academic Senates (ICAS) representing the faculty of the University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges, through their respective Academic Senates. The project is coordinated through a Steering Committee that includes faculty and staff appointed by the three Academic Senates, representatives from California Articulation Number (CAN) System, ASSIST (the statewide articulation repository) staff, and representatives of the California Intersegmental Articulation Council.

IMPAC has as its goal the improvement of student transfer through increased awareness and involvement of faculty and seeks to ensure that all students are well prepared for upper division work. Students should be able to avoid unnecessary course work prior to transfer, assure that all required courses are taken before transfer, and not have to repeat courses taken at the community college in preparation for the major.

The two specific objectives of IMPAC are:

• the creation of a common understanding of the major preparation including key components of the lower division curriculum; and
• the establishment of a system of state and regional intersegmental faculty dialogues, by discipline and among related disciplines, to address curriculum issues related to articulation and transfer.

IMPAC seeks to achieve the general objectives of increasing intersegmental faculty collaboration, strengthening the alignment of curriculum and the rigor of its delivery, building trust among faculty of the three segments, and serving students whose education is a shared mission of both the sending and receiving institutions.

The project is designed to make use of the existing extensive and effective articulation mechanisms in California higher education. It is the intent of ICAS that the IMPAC curricula will serve as templates for campus-to-campus major preparation agreements approved through current processes.

IMPAC begins with state Discipline Meetings in clusters of related subjects, such as science. Faculty from all segments and regions of the state meet to review existing lower division major requirements, identify the expected preparation for the major. These meetings will be facilitated by faculty with assistance from articulation officers and CAN staff. As part of the creation of the expected preparation of the major, model course descriptions and outlines may be proposed. Discussions between faculty who teach required courses in related disciplines, such as calculus required for the physics major, are facilitated by having these related Discipline Meetings at the same time and place. The product of these meetings is a list of courses comprising the expected preparation for the major, CAN descriptions of those courses, and a list of issues that should be addressed in assisting faculty to move toward wider acceptance of a common understanding of lower division major preparation.

The state Discipline Meetings are followed by Regional Meetings in which representatives of departmental faculty from all colleges in the region are invited to meet. Regional meetings are facilitated by local articulation officers identified by CIAC, by CAN staff, and by Steering Committee members. The major purposes of these meetings are:
1) to suggest any revisions to the core curriculum course listings or CAN descriptions,
2) to seek a basis for adjustments in campus-to-campus major preparation agreements which would move them toward the core, and
3) to form the basis for articulation of any core courses on which agreement has not yet been reached.

Outcomes of the meetings are as follows:
1) Revisions to the IMPAC core are considered by a follow up state Discipline Meeting which reaches consensus and then distributes the result to all parties.
2) Suggested changes to CAN course descriptions are considered at the state follow up meeting, consensus is reached, and then the proposed changes are transmitted to CAN for approval following existing practices. Once approved, the changes are disseminated through the existing CAN process.
3) Proposals for revised major preparation agreements and for new or revised course-to-course articulation are handled by UC and CSU articulation officers following their existing practices. Agreements are not final until all approvals have been obtained.
4) IMPAC staff will follow the progress of the suggested articulation changes and provide assistance upon request.