The perfect [education] storm

Gathered loosely around a nondescript door, students stood silently on the grass, leaned against the building and sat on benches clutching new notebooks and unopened textbooks as they waited for class to begin the first day of spring semester at Golden West College on Monday.

Across campus, students packed themselves inside an Introduction to Biology class about noon as mother Pam Beckham waited outside.

“That class is absolutely packed out,” she said. “There is standing room only.”

Her daughter, a high school junior, was lucky enough to get into the class, Beckham said. It might have more to do with knowing how the system works than luck. The wife of a community college professor, Beckham knows all about the situation in education and how schools have had to cut classes and services. Her husband and daughter got up in the middle of the night during registration to try to get into classes — the system dropped students who hadn’t paid sometime in the night.

Golden West has cut 10% of its offerings from spring 2008 to spring 2010, said Vice President of Instruction Lois Miller.

Students, she said, are getting “bombarded by the perfect storm.”

More students are coming to community colleges because Cal State and UC schools are taking in fewer students and students are losing their jobs, but community colleges are offering fewer classes.

Miller said students are “crying to get into classes, but we can’t take them in.”

A rush to enroll

Students flooded back to the school Monday, many trying to find enough classes to fill their schedules. While some students had no problem getting the classes they need, others are having to petition just to fill their schedules.

Peter La returned to Golden West after earning a degree from UCLA to finish up a few prerequisite classes for graduate school.

La said he has seen classes get more crowded and fill faster because students are putting off transferring.

But Miller said students aren’t putting off transferring so much as they can’t transfer, because Cal State campuses closed their transfers for spring.

Either way, La said, it is unfortunate that politicians aren’t “setting out enough money and [have] to cut education.”

La enrolled in 10 units and was trying to petition into five more Monday. He only needs three more classes for graduate school.

Officials have seen an increase in petitioners, but it isn’t as bad as in the fall, Miller said.

In the fall, teachers saw 50 or 60 petitioners for a class of 30, and so far, Miller has only heard of one similar situation.

Still, for La, the cuts are frustrating when he is so close to being done. This is the second semester he has been unsuccessful in getting a class he needs.

“Now I have to wait for fall to maybe get into classes,” he said.

La said he never thought it would be so hard to get classes and is surprised by how much is dependent on luck. La would write his name on a piece of paper along with dozens of other students hoping to get the class, and the teacher would draw out only two names — neither of which were his.

The budget cuts are “crappy” for students, but it’s the teachers who really have it tough, student Cori Dunn said.

“I feel really bad for the teachers whose classes were cut,” she said.

The district has a no-layoff plan for full-time instructors, but some part-time instructors have lost their jobs when their classes were canceled.

Planning to march

As the summer begins, students may have to wait out the budget crisis that is affecting all of education. Golden West is expected to cut what it offered last summer — a 50% reduction from the summer of 2008 — in half again, said spokeswoman Margie Bunten. The college is just going to retain the core classes.

“We’re really scaling it down because we don’t have any choice,” Bunten said.

Beyond summer, though, Miller said administrators aren’t looking at any further cuts, but it all depends on what happens at the Capitol.

“Right now, we’re trying to hold steady, but it all depends on what comes down from Sacramento,” Miller said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a budget that would give community colleges money for increased enrollment and expected revenue losses, but would call for the elimination of the Cal Grant program, which gives students grants for textbooks, transportation and supplies.

If passed, as is, the budget would also maintain cuts to categorical services, which hurt students, Miller said.

“We’ll have students we can get in our doors, but not enough money to give them the services they deserve,” she said.

Students can stop further budget cuts by contacting their legislators, Miller said. The student council, along with the Coast Community College District, is planning a “March in March.” Students will be bused up to Sacramento to march on the Capitol to fight for services, financial aid, classes and class sizes, said Paul Chalfant, public relations officer for the associated students of Golden West College.

“This is something that affects every single student on campus,” he said.