he state of Illinois is currently implementing the Course Applicability System (CAS) on a statewide basis. CAS, a web-based product developed by Miami University (Ohio), provides direct access to information about course equivalencies, academic programs, degree offerings, and, most importantly, details about how a student's transfer credits apply toward a specific degree at a targeted institution.

CAS users-students, advisors, parents, recruiters, or anyone with access to the Internet-can create what are called Planning Guides. These unofficial documents are similar to the degree audits native students can create and show precisely how courses at one institution will apply toward a specific degree at another institution. This allows for the selection of courses at source institutions to meet post-transfer goals and, ideally, to reduce time to degree.

CAS is currently available for planning transfer from any one of dozens of Illinois community colleges to either the University of Illinois at Chicago or Northern Illinois University. More universities are implementing the system rapidly-the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois State University, and Chicago State University are each nearly ready to make CAS fully available to students planning to transfer to those schools from a range of Illinois two-year and four-year institutions.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) has purchased the CAS license for all Illinois public universities, so more are likely to implement the program in the near future. The state has also indicated that funding will follow to bring CAS to non-public colleges and universities, as well as community colleges. (CAS can now be used to plan transfer from many Illinois community colleges, but not to them. As noted in the accompanying article, many students transfer to community colleges, so CAS would be a useful tool as those students plan their college careers.)

Funding for this statewide initiative has come through the IBHE's Higher Education Cooperative Act (HECA) grant program under the Access and Diversity category of grants. Because so many students who are members of underrepresented groups begin college at two-year institutions, creating a statewide system that gives students easy access to transfer-related information can potentially make the baccalaureate degree more available to first-generation college students, students of color, and other members of groups not proportionally represented in the state's four-year public institutions. This commitment to working toward more efficient transfer, including reduced time to degree, during the current budgetary climate demonstrates the IBHE interest in supporting inter-institutional mobility and increased diversity in Illinois higher education.

Further information about the Illinois CAS program can be found on the IBHE web page at: http://www.ibhe.org/CAS/. Questions about the statewide program can be directed to Sheri Kallembach skallembach@niu.edu or Marilyn Marshall at mmmurphy@uillinois.edu.