Many object to the new calendar adopted by the Board of Trustees that eliminated winter session. With the massive amounts of budget cuts across the state and the questionable future of Proposition 30, changes need to be made now to ensure a future for PCC.
Due to the state budget reduction, the college is in a tough place. The board’s decision to adopt this new three-semester system was the only way to offer classes during January and February.
According to Vice President of Instruction Robert Bell and Interim Dean of Instruction Crystal Kollross, sections offered during the winter intersession dropped dramatically over the past few years. Numbers fell from 597 sections in 2008-09, to 271 sections during the 2011-12 intersession allowing just over 6,600 students to take classes.
The new calendar will open up January and February so that over 4700 sections will be available to students the entire student body during the spring semester.
“Immediate benefit is obviously that we will be offer classes during that six week period…that would have been a six week period [when] we would not be able to offer any classes at all,†said Bell.
“It would have been a six week dead period…basically [we] would have had no instruction from mid December till mid February.â€
The new calendar “will help students get through faster and more efficientlyâ€, Bell said
Bell also said that the new calendar will allow students to create easier educational plans.
“Based on my experience of nearly 20 years in higher education along with the data I reviewed…[a] Fall-Spring-Summer calendar is much better for student learning and achievement,†said Board of Trustees President Geoffrey Baum.
“I, and the majority of the Board, agreed with administration’s recommendation to return to the calendar that worked effectively for nearly 80 years in PCC’s history,†Baum said.
Other schools like, Santa Monica College, have cancelled winter session as well. The state community college system is in a serious budget crisis and steps need to be taken to make sure classes can be offered in the future.
Community colleges throughout the state are crossing their fingers that the tac ballot measure Proposition 30 will pass, but decisions are being made now that will ensure a future for school if it does not.
The new sessions will broken into terms, including six week, eight week, 12Â week, and the full 16Â weeks. Each term will offer classes that students need including math and English, and this will enable students more options and less overlap of classes according to Bell.
Opponents to the calendar argue that eliminating winter session was not the correct choice because people will not be able to take their classes in the winter. Without the new calendar there would be no classes to take at all.
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