Gavilan College’s schedule will more closely resemble
those of other local colleges
Gilroy – Gavilan College students have a lot to look forward to come September. Not only will school start much later this year, but semesters also will be shorter.
This fall, school will start Sept. 5, rather than Aug. 21, giving students two extra weeks of summer and longer classes. The change from an 18-week to 16-week calendar, was born after two years of meetings, surveys and discussions.
“The new schedule will give students more control and more flexibility,” said John Pruitt, vice president of student services, in a statement. “More and more schools are converting to this model. Both public and private schools have seen students gravitating towards shorter-term options.”
The longer summer break will give the community college students more time to earn money and a wider variety of classes to choose from. The modification also will affect winter intersession, since the college will tack on a couple extra weeks to the current three-week session that falls during Christmas vacation.
That’s one of the elements Ken Wagman is particularly pumped about. The Gavilan math instructor, who helped the college find a schedule that would mesh well with the community, said the 15 (teaching) days of winter session didn’t provide enough time to thoroughly cover all the lessons required.
Also, Wagman is happy that classes will be slightly longer, giving instructors more time to cover the required lessons.
“The more material, the less time for items to percolate,” he said.
Discussions about changing the schedule began in the late 1990s but the majority of college officials decided against the change, the longtime Gavilan instructor said. It wasn’t until the fall of 2004, that the topic was brought up again and seriously debated.
The start date of the new calendar will mirror that of other Silicon Valley colleges such as San Jose City and Evergreen, while West Valley and Cabrillo colleges begin one week earlier. Many students who attend universities out of the area, like to take classes at Gavilan when they come home for the summer, said Chargin.
With the current schedule, students attending schools on the quarter system arrived in town too late to begin taking classes. The public school schedule also was an issue.
Since such a large sum of Gavilan students work and have children, it was difficult for them to begin school at the same time as their children.
“This way we serve our students better,” Wagman said.
When fall rolls around, it’s likely instructors, particularly those who’ve been around for some time, will be scrambling to work around the change. For Wagman, who has taught at Gavilan for 16 years, it will be hectic but exciting and he figures by next year all the kinks will be smoothed out.
On the cash front, everything looks good. While Chargin said the college won’t save money, the extra classes offered will generate more funding for Gavilan.
