More Adult Ed courses could be at risk

If Sacramento's budget woes aren't fixed soon, it may be adult education's summer session that will be cut, not the undergraduate program.

That's what Jack Friedlander, executive vice president and dean of the college's educational programs, said at the May 5 Academic Senate meeting.

The statement was a clarification on what had been discussed at the previous senate meeting April 28.

At that time, Friedlander informed the group that further cuts should be expected to the number of sessions, or even entire courses, over the next academic year based on teacher loading units, or TLUs.

The number of units for any given class and the number of its TLUs are usually the same.

So, an average class is worth three TLUs, whereas a one unit class is worth only one.

That said, the projected cuts announced by Friedlander at the April 28 meeting were 30 TLUs for the fall semester and 100 next spring.

But Friedlander mentioned the plight of two other junior colleges in the state that were forced by budget cuts to cancel summer sessions entirely.

Both Cuesta College and San Francisco City College were forced to cancel summer programs due to lack of funding.

Friedlander then said that if the budget situation didn't improve, City College might have to cancel next summer's session as well.

Friedlander acknowledged that many topics were being discussed and under such circumstances, things can grow confusing.

But he emphasized the college's "commitment to its summer session," and that there were no plans to cancel this year's or the next.

A finalized list of cuts has not been made public.