With winter session not even being an option anymore, members of the Calendar Committee met last week to discuss a proposed revision to the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years.
During their emergency meeting the committee brought up a proposal to have spring semester start earlier and end prior to June.
This means that spring semester would begin on January 21 instead of February 11, and end on May 18 instead of June 8.
However the calendar presented last week is still not official. As petitioned to Thomas Fallo, superintendent, there will be a second meeting with the Calendar Committee to discuss and vote on any changes.
“This is still a process for moving the spring session forward, some people might think it’s for the winter intersession but it’s not, winter intersession is pretty much gone,” Fallo said.
Fall would remain the same under this proposal, starting on August 27 and ending on December 16, leaving students with only a two week break.
“There has been a lot of discussion about it and they seem to be completely inflexible, but to shift the start date of spring will basically eliminate the possibility of ever even having a winter session again,” Jeffrey Cohen, math instructor, said.
Cohen is a full time instructor on campus and strongly opposes the cut of winter session but says that if it is cut it would be best to keep the winter session gap and keep the start of spring as it is.
“If we have no winter classes but we leave the calendar the same, then our students can go to other colleges, take winter classes and come back in the spring,” Cohen said. “Otherwise students who choose to take winter classes will not be able to come back because we would have already started.”
The decision to eliminate winter session was taken as the result of future budget cuts coming to community colleges.
The campus could now be facing a possible $11 million budget cut, Francisco Arce, Vice President of academic affairs, said during the meeting.
Although the shift in the start date for spring semester would have no impact in the amount of savings for the college, cutting winter will.
“Part of the rationale for the winter was to cut the associated cost with it such as library services, and maintaining buildings, we’ve estimated those costs in $100 thousand,” Jeanie Nishime, vice president of student and community advancement, said.
Despite this, faculty and students both disagree with the idea of further adjusting the calendar.
“Everyone acknowledges that there are cuts and there are going to have to be sacrifices, but we could keep winter intact and make a neat percent cut in fall,” Christina Gold, academic senate president, said.
Meanwhile Edwin Arredondo, 20, communications major, said that the spring semester “should stay the same because students are accustomed to it and like this students can take classes at another college.”
Despite the strong opposition the restoration of winter session is no longer an option.
The new proposed calendar comes only a few months after Nishime promised their wouldn’t be any changes to the school year calendar for at least two more years, during a forum last October, Cohen said.
The decision was apparently made prior to the meeting and caused irritation amongst those present.
But even with their discontent instructors and faculty members will continue to serve the school.
“I’ve been here many years, I love my job and I’m not going anywhere,” Cohen said.
