Summer school at the Chula Vista campus will return with 360 sections, a marked change from last year’s skeletal offerings. College officials said they expect seats to fill up fast.
Academic Senate President Randy Beach said there will also be sections offered at the satellite centers in San Ysidro, National City and Otay Mesa.
Last summer almost all summer classes were held at the satellites in an effort to help them gain “center status” and a $1 million funding bump from the state. Chula Vista hosted very few classes.
Dr. Mark Meadows, dean of the School of Social Sciences, Business and Humanities, said that there is a need for classes during the summer and the distribution of classes, whether they are in the fall, spring or summer, is all a matter of enrollment management. Summer classes are expected to fill quickly, he said.
“I think there is always an advantage of attending summer school,” he said, “depending on where you are at in your degree plan and what kind of student you are.”
Meadows said a majority of summer students come back to SWC for summer courses from the UC and CSU systems.
Not everyone agrees that summer classes are a good use of funding during this period of financial distress at SWC. Professor of Learning Skills Corina Soto said funds should have been used to add fast track classes to the spring semester.
“We should close all Southwestern College campuses for four weeks, except for all legally mandated programs like nursing,” she said. “This campus should be open when classroom doors are open with some leeway to run needed data programs to set up for fall and spring semesters.”
Students are awarded the largest amounts of financial aid in the fall and spring semesters, Soto said, therefore the number of classes offered during those times should be increased. She said this would be a greater benefit to students.
“Southwestern cannot do more with less,” she said. “We have less, so we should do less, but let’s do what it is we are able to do very well.”