Winter session is back. Well, kind of.

While last year’s winter session had more than 150 sections, this year’s winter session was reduced to 75 sections.

“Finally, the administration did what all the students, the faculty at EC and the faculty at Compton College said had to be done and that was to offer a winter program,” Lance Widman, political science professor, said.

The reinstatement came after a new budget deal was approved from the legislature and the governor, which freed up money for the community colleges, Widman said.

“The administration determined that we would be allotted more students,” Christina Gold, Academic Senate president, said. “We would be getting more money from the state next year than we thought. So they were able to rebuild some of the classes.”

Jeanie Nishime, vice president of Student and Community Advancement, said that there were three different budget scenarios and depending on what happened, it would determine how many students EC can serve; she added that the budget was not as bad as was expected.

However, Nishime also said that the latest reports indicate that another budget cut is possible and that things are tenuous.

Even though some of winter has been reinstated, Widman said he is still not pleased with the amount of sections in winter session.

“I’m not pleased with the magnitude of the offering,” Widman said. “For my money, I don’t think offering 75 sections is viable.”

However, Joe Holliday, Honors Transfer Coordinator, said that his honors students are ecstatic about winter session coming back.

“Winter classes have the highest success rate and the highest retention rate,” Holliday said. “That’s our mission statement. That’s what we’re all about, which is to get students through classes. And by having them shorter, it is a really good way for students to get through.”

According to the overall success and retention rates of 2010, which was put together by Institutional Research, winter session has a success rate of 83.8 percent and a retention rate of 91.6 percent.

With still a lot of unknowns with the current economy and the budget, Holliday said that a vast majority of the students want winter and that their needs should come first.

“Decisions on campus are always in a state of flux,” Holliday said. “And this is the biggest of them all.”