A bit of news from my old school:
Like so many community colleges in California, all reeling from $825 million in state budget cuts, American River simply does not have enough classroom space to accommodate all of its students. Last month, for example, estimates noted that almost 250,000 students statewide would be kept from community colleges due to dwindling space.
The crunch has been especially noticeable in general education courses required for graduation or transfer to a four-year institution, such as introductory English composition and college mathematics. Students nearing graduation who have put off these courses now jockey for position against an influx of first-time students who fear that if they do not take them now they will never get the chance to finish on time and within their budget.
As a result of unprecedented student demand and a dwindling state budget, small classes have become a thing of the past. Sections at American River with fewer than 22 students have been eliminated, and professors are expected to pack as many students into their classes as the building’s fire code will allow.
“On the first day of Algebra, I started out with about 56 students in one class,” said Tony Barcellos, mathematics professor at American River, of one of his summer courses. “About half dozen or so of those are walk-ins. It can get quite dramatic. As some of my colleagues and I have told students, if they’re not on the waitlist, then there’s really nothing I can do. We try to have about 42 desks in each class, and we generally enroll 36 students originally, so I can add 6 more from the list on the first day. After we run out of desks, we’ve resorted to using folding chairs until we reach capacity.”
Full Story.I found this particularly disturbing:
This summer’s cross-pollination of four-year students taking major-related courses at nearby community colleges comes following an announcement from California State that its campuses will not be accepting transfers for the spring semester of 2010. University of California campuses are also expected to significantly reduce transfer opportunities for the upcoming academic year.
Here in Florida, my CC caps student enrollment at 25 students per class. Once we reach that number, the class is full. If we don't have enough professors/adjuncts, we don't offer the course. That's probably going to change at some point, but our budget issues are no where near as challenging as California's.
