Sunday, August 16, 2009

Considering Mesopotamia



As I prep to teach my one remaining college course, an Ancient Art History Survey (aka “Caves to Cathedrals”), I got this note from my former department chair, who was very sorry to have to cancel my life-drawing class a few weeks ago:
Teacher meetings start Monday, and due to the state Budget crisis - we will be canceling all classes that have less then 20 students enrolled by the close of business Monday night. To complicate matters - the college district dropped all students who had not paid their fees last Thursday - changing classes that were once filled to now under-enrolled sections.
Academic Armageddon is coming next week....

This is particularly crazy because many community college students are not used to registering until the last minute, and classes are still a week away from beginning. For those who did register, some may not realize they need to pay the extra $6 per unit fee increase.
Are the community college districts web sites screaming, enroll now? Pay your fees? Classes are being canceled? They are not. Wait and see what happens when all the out-of-work Californians and returning GIs try to go back to school this fall…
(image from The Citadel, an outlet mall off the 5 Freeway in Commerce)

1 comment:

emily ohhhsweetturkey said...

How awful! It sounds like the whole system is out of control! It is such a shame. I just wrote a column for my paper about how fortunate Americans are to have community colleges not just the one test placement system of turkey! But I am out of the loop and haven't realized just how bad it has gotten...