GILROY
– Forty-four classes across eight disciplines – covering
subjects from bowling and fencing to English composition and
biology – have been cut from the Gavilan College course offerings
for spring semester, saving the school $120,000.
GILROY – Forty-four classes across eight disciplines – covering subjects from bowling and fencing to English composition and biology – have been cut from the Gavilan College course offerings for spring semester, saving the school $120,000.
The move impacts roughly 250 to 300 students who already signed up for the now-cancelled course sections during spring registration, which began Dec. 9. Affected students will be receiving letters in the mail informing them of the change and advising them of their options in registering for alternative classes.
Students who choose not to register for an alternative class will be able to receive refunds, the college said.
Incoming President Steve Kinsella said the cuts will only impact part-time teachers, who will be laid off or not rehired for the spring semester. The school is estimating 25 part-time teachers will lose work due to the cuts.
Kinsella said that full-time instructors won’t be let go because they are, by contract, required to teach a certain amount of units each semester.
“There’s no cost savings if the school cuts classes taught by full-time teachers,” Kinsella said.
The recent cuts are a cost savings measure done in light of Gov. Gray Davis’ proposal earlier this month to slash $215 million from the state’s community college budget. The class cuts save Gavilan roughly $120,000 in these budget lean times that will see the school spend nearly $1 million of its reserve funds this year to offset the revenue shortfall.
“I’ve never heard this level of doom and gloom before,” social science department head Mark Levine said. “It’s unprecedented, in my 31 years in education, to have an increase in enrollment and a decrease in classes.”
Levine, who as a department head was charged with recommending which classes should be cut, said he suggested removing only those class sections that had low enrollment numbers and alternative sections available.
Gavilan offers about 500 class sections – a regularly scheduled meeting time for a course – each semester.
“I don’t think any (cut) was suggested that didn’t have another (class) section available,” Levine said of the social science department’s cuts.
The list of no-longer-offered sections is posted on the Gavilan College Web site (www.gavilan.cc.ca.us/current/cancel.html), and at the registration desks in Gilroy, Morgan Hill and Hollister.
Students with questions should call the Admissions office at 848-4735.
