PCC may adopt controversial three-semester system

Pasadena City College students arriving for the start of classes on Monday can expect fewer course offerings this year and possible cancellation of the school’s winter session as campus leaders grapple with a $10.5-million budget shortfall.

College officials plan to offer 4,777 classes this academic year — about 90 more than are funded by the state, but 578 fewer than last year, according to school documents. The number of classes offered by PCC peaked at 6,006 in 2008-09, the first year of ongoing state budget cuts to community colleges.

School employees are feeling the squeeze, with PCC’s spending for part-time teachers dropping $3.1 million and other part-time workers losing a third of their hours in order to save the school $900,000.

Robert Miller, PCC’s vice president of educational services, said the college spent $22.6 million over the past five years paying for class loads not funded by state coffers and now must reconcile the books.

“The money came out of reserves and other operating efficiencies. We’ve stretched ourselves very thin to provide as many classes as possible, but we can no longer do so,” said Miller, who became acting head of administrative services after predecessor Rick van Pelt was fired in the wake of a bribery investigation.

PCC has about $17.9 million in reserves, which Miller said are needed to help weather cash-flow shortages from deferred state payments and to stave off more cuts if Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax increase proposal fails at the ballot box in November.

Officials also hope to save more than $750,000 by switching to a three-semester academic calendar, which would replace the current schedule of two semesters and two shorter inter-sessions in winter and summer.

PCC budget documents currently project no classes for winter, a scenario that essentially cancels the term if officials don’t adopt the three-semester schedule.

The proposed schedule switch faces strong opposition, with members of PCC’s faculty union and a number of students claiming the change will permanently downscale class offerings.

The college’s Academic Senate and other advisory bodies have withheld support for the plan.

Winter-session backers say students benefit from the abbreviated term by quickly earning units required for graduation or transfer to a university.

Miller said the college would instead offer similar eight- to 10-week courses concurrent with the spring semester, which would also start earlier.

“In three terms we can be as flexible as we need to be and allocate resources as efficiently as possible,” Miller said. The college loses money with the more frequent starts and stops of the current schedule, he explained.

Students who attended a campus welcome day on Friday reported vastly different experiences trying to obtain classes.

Hunter Bolding, who graduated from La Cañada High School in June, said he was waitlisted for all four of the classes he hopes to take this fall.

Alexis Knight, a recent Pasadena High School graduate, said she obtained a full schedule through the college’s Pathways program, which offers guaranteed enrollment for local students.

Fellow Pasadena High grad Yesenia Dominguez is waitlisted for just one class.

“I’m disappointed,” Dominguez said. “At this pace, it’s going to be a long time before I finish.”