GILROY
– Gavilan College officials want to offer more classes but are
unable to because of state budget cuts. This fall, more than 500
students were unable to register for classes. The college hopes to
avoid a repeat next semester.
State cuts caused Gavilan to offer 100 fewer class sections this
semester compared to last fall, so classes filled quickly.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Gavilan College officials want to offer more classes but are unable to because of state budget cuts. This fall, more than 500 students were unable to register for classes. The college hopes to avoid a repeat next semester.
State cuts caused Gavilan to offer 100 fewer class sections this semester compared to last fall, so classes filled quickly. After registration ended, 523 students who had submitted applications did not register for classes because the classes they wanted were full. President Steve Kinsella said it is “very rare” to turn away so many students.
“On a base of about 6,000 students, (523 students) is almost 10 percent more … than we can accommodate,” Kinsella said. “And that’s a big number.”
Usually, a student registers for open classes soon after submitting an application. Rarely do classes fill between the time a student applies and the time he or she registers.
“I don’t know if anybody’s even tracked what the normal number would be,” he said. “It’s normally a handful.”
Budget cuts have discouraged college officials because Gavilan is expected to grow by 5 percent this school year but will only be funded by the state for about half that. Officials expected to see higher enrollment numbers this year – and would have, if funding for more classes was available.
“It’s happening simply because there’s only so many classes we can offer,” Kinsella said. “And there’s more students who want to take those classes than we can accommodate.”
Meanwhile, Gavilan will reinstate 70 class sections next semester to, at the very least, meet minimum demand and serve those 500 students that were turned away this fall.
“I’m hoping that we’ll be able to take care of those students interested in coming here,” Kinsella said.
Demand has dropped for the police academy through South Bay Public Safety Training Consortium, so the college will reallocate funds from the program to open more general education classes.
As community colleges become more impacted, they may find it more difficult to get the funding needed to serve more students because the state funding system creates a sort of Catch-22, said Aiden Ely, interim public information officer for the California community colleges chancellor’s office.
Each year’s funding is based on enrollment projections taken from the prior year’s enrollment numbers.
“If your enrollment goes down, you’ll potentially lose money,” Ely said.
Gavilan is already seeing enrollment decrease because there are too few funds for the needed number of classes. There are 4,600 full-time students this fall, compared with 4,800 last fall. There are about 6,000 total full- and part-time students total.
“If your enrollment continues to drop, a year later your budget could continue to drop,” Ely said.
So, enrollment and funding will level out until Gavilan can offer more classes to serve more students.
Kinsella said that, as the economy begins to turn around, the college will get more money to grow, although it will be another two years before the effects of that turnaround are felt at the state level.
“The vast majority of the colleges that I am aware of are cutting classes, and they’re doing it because of the budget,” Kinsella said.
While all community colleges are dealing with the same dilemma, Gavilan is also facing another challenge – the fifth highest growth rate for districts in the state. That growth rate is based on population growth in Gilroy and the South Bay.
Statewide enrollment figures for this semester are not yet available, but officials are watching them closely because several conflicting factors will work to both increase and decrease community college enrollment.
One contributing factor to the growth at community colleges is a 30 percent increase in California State University and University of California fees, Ely said.
On the other hand, community colleges saw an increase of their own. The increase in fees this summer from $11 to $18 per unit is also expected to drive down the number of enrolled students. Last spring, an estimated 90,000 students lost access to community colleges, Ely said. About 40,000 were forced out because class sections were cut and another 50,000 that were expected based on enrollment projections “didn’t show up at all.” Enrollment increased by between 1 and 3 percent for each of the 15 semesters prior to last spring, and growth was expected this semester, Ely said.
Officials are not expecting a turnaround by next semester.
“We’re anticipating that that trend may continue,” Ely said. “Our best guess right now is that it’s probably going to be down from what it was a year ago.”
Gavilan has not yet been fully affected by enrollment limitations at California State University and University of California campuses.
Budget cutbacks forced 11 of CSU’s 23 campuses to close mid-year admissions. CSU Monterey Bay is one campus that will be feeling the crunch, but not as severely as some campuses.
“Next year, we would have expected to enroll 400 or so new students on top of what we have now,” said Holly White, public information officer. “We’ll be able to replace the students who graduate or drop out, but we won’t be able to add new numbers.”
Monterey Bay is one of nine campuses in the 23-campus CSU system that is still open for spring undergraduate registration.
“We’re very lucky to be a new campus and to be growing,” White said.
Gavilan will open more classes as more money becomes available, but not at the cost of student services, such as access to libraries, counseling or tutorial services.
“We’re not interested in trading quality services for broader access,” Kinsella said. “When we look at the balancing and managing of the enrollment, one really important aspect that we’re trying to preserve is, if our level is 4,600 (students), that we spend enough to generate access to that high level of instruction.”
