Neil McClintick

Vallco evokes fond memories for Cupertino residents as a go-to social hotspot. Its future, however, has provoked decades of community conflict and uncertainty—a future held hostage by an anti-development faction keen on closing Cupertino to new neighbors. We watched the death of proposed projects and specific plans, dueling ballot measures, multiple referenda, and numerous lawsuits.

In fall 2018, over 30 percent of new students were transfer students, breaking the record for the highest number of transfer admissions. As the UC system moves toward its goal of having a ratio of two California resident freshmen students to one transfer student, the number of transfer students on our campus will only increase. Transfer students, however, often feel like they’re pushed outside the campus climate, fostering pervasive imposter syndrome among those from the community college system.

If you aren’t living under a rock, you’ve seen at least one meme on some outlets ranking UCLA as the No. 1 public university. These rankings are largely arbitrary, but it’s hard to ignore one area where UCLA seems to be far ahead of the curve — the inclusivity and promotion of transfer students. More than 19,000 of us UC Berkeley transfers were admitted for the 2018-19 school year.