In Texas, as in other states, fewer than a quarter of the students earning associate degrees end up applying to universities. The eventual result is widespread underemployment and a stagnating work force that doesn't keep up with population growth. However, Texas educators are trying to change that with two ambitious programs--one aimed at college employees and the other at students and their families. Last week more than 1,000 educators and administrators, from more than 80 colleges and universities across Texas, held video conferences in eight cities. The brainstorming event was sponsored by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and held by the university's National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students and its Center for Higher Education. States that are concerned about their economic future are finding ways to promote incentives, and in some cases pressure, public colleges and universities to increase the numbers of students who make successful transfers from two-year to four-year higher education. Those pressures are more intense than ever. While the University of North Texas initiative is aimed at training campus employees to help transfer students succeed, another effort in the state is focused on getting more information directly to students and their families. Transfer 101 is a joint program of the University of Texas and Texas A&M University, as well as the Texas Association of Community Colleges, which represents the state's 50 public community-college districts. To help remedy the problem of many community-college students who just don't know how to transfer, beginning this fall, the Web sites of each of the state's community colleges will include a logo for the Transfer 101 program. Clicking on it will take a student to instructions on how to choose a four-year college, apply for financial aid, and determine which course credits will transfer. If a minimum grade-point average is required, students will be told that. At Lee College, a community college in Baytown that serves large numbers of minority, first-generation, and low-income students, tours of local universities for students who have never set foot on a four-year campus are offered.