El Camino has canceled its winter session this year to create two six-week summer sessions.
Another reason EC canceled winter was because the long break between fall and spring hindered faculty who don’t teach classes during the winter.
“There was too much of a break between the fall and the spring where not all faculty was on campus, so committee meetings were being suspended because faculty wasn’t around,” Chris Jeffries, athletic counselor, said.
The back-to-back six-week summer sessions would help the Full Time Equivalent Students (FTES) numbers go up which helps funding, Jeffries said.
According to data from Ann Garten, director of community relations, the total student enrollment for Fall 2013 is 23,671, and the part-time or full-time faculty is 881.
“That makes no sense,” Devyn Rochelle, 19, music major, said. “Why would they cancel winter because some faculty aren’t able to meet up for some meetings?”
According to calstate.edu, students who intend on applying to CSU’s for Fall 2014 are required to have completed all transfer required coursework by Spring 2013.
“I think it negatively affects students who are trying to transfer in an efficient amount of time, with classes already being hard to get it and needing to complete classes by the end of spring it detrementally affects students from transfering on time,” Kelsey Iino, counselor, said.
The cancelation of winter session will change winter break, from last year’s two-month gap between fall and spring, to this year’s one-month gap.
Having a shorter winter vacation could be the one benefit for those who don’t usually take winter because they won’t be out of the school enviroment for so long, Jeffries said.
“Some students that need to work could use that time to save money to pay for spring, but I mean I’m sure people have mixed feelings about the long break,” Iino said.
In the past, in order to remain full-time students, athletes would take classes in the winter to be eligible to play spring sports. Now, they won’t have this option anymore. Jeffries said.
“Well, I was very opposed to it as a counselor, mostly because I work with student athletes, and many of them utilize the winter to be eligible for spring sports,” Jeffries said. “Also because I think students tend to do better in winter, because it’s shorter and they meet daily so they can just focus on those classes.”
Students who want to take winter will look for alternatives, which may deter students away from EC.
“I could see students are going to take the winter class somewhere else and stay there,” Jeffries said. “The main reason will be because their winter will extend over when our spring starts, and they can’t be in two places at once.”
