2010 Winter enrollment decrease

With Pierce offering 75 percent fewer classes, 2010 winter enrollment has been severely cut.  In 2009, numbers were at 6,848, but this winter session only has 1,729 students enrolled in classes.

During a telephone interview, Marcos De Le Garza, dean of Student Services, said winter session for next year would depend on the budget.

“Last year, we were working with no budget,” said Garza, explaining that the California State Budget was not finalized in time for the start of last fall.

The budget should be released by mid-January for the 2010-2011 semesters, with revisions coming in May, according to Garza.

Joy McCaslin, Pierce College interim president, confirmed that class offerings depend completely on the state budget¾calling the situation “really unpredictable.”

“Our main concern is putting as much of our budget as possible to classes,” said McCaslin.

However, Garza is optimistic about the situation, pointing out that Pierce remains one of the few community colleges in the district that even offer winter classes.

Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh, vice-president of Academic Affairs, said full-size classes would be the ideal for next year’s session, but he is not optimistic about winter 2011.

“It is never good, when we can’t offer the full amount of classes to students,” said Abu-Ghazaleh. “Before [previous winter sessions], there was a broad selection of courses. Now English, Math and Speech are the only classes offered,” said Abu-Ghazaleh.

He explained that those core classes “are the classes that will help students succeed in critical life situations.”

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