Bleary-eyed students dragged themselves to class every day during the winter session 2004, but the effort was well worth it to stay “one step ahead of the game,” EC student Mel Brian Patron said.

Winter session enrollment doubled since the last session offered in 2003 and included more than 30 different class sections.

“It was definitely very successful,” Acting Dean of Humanities Division Bobbi Villalobos said. “The students liked it and professors liked it, too.”

English professor Cynthia Silverman, who taught English 2R during the session, said she had to turn students away because the classes were in such high demand.

“In terms of enrollment, we had an excellent success in the winter session,” Acting Dean of Fine Arts Thomas Lew said.

“Our students have always been eager for winter session; almost all the class schedules filled,” he said.

While the extra weeks allow students to make a few much-needed credits, the shortened semester also means that information will be more condensed and pushed at students at a faster pace.

“The students I had contact with this past winter session seemed to know what they were going to experience and the intensity of the courses,” Villalobos said.

“And if they weren’t ready for that, then they didn’t sign up.”

Patron took contemporary health over the break and said he found the class “pretty easy.”

The only complaint he had was that attending the same class every day became “monotonous.”

“I didn’t have a problem coming every day,” Patron said.

“I made friends in my classes which made it durable; but after a while, class started getting dull.”

Silverman had the opposite reaction to the schedule.

She found that “students and professors bonded faster” when they were meeting on a daily basis.

The winter session lasted for five weeks and is estimated by Lew to last the same number of weeks and contain the same amount of courses this year.

Although some students would rather rest during the break, Patron isn’t one of them.

“I like keeping busy,” Patron said.

“With two months off, I’d be bored out of my mind.”