Science majors could be looking at four years at SRJC, instead of the usual three for this two-year college, if there isn’t room in a class: a more and more common occurrence.

In a soft science, like psychology, not getting into a class because there is no room means a student will have to take a different class and pick up the desired course the next semester.

For an engineer, missing physics 40 or even math 1A will set that student back at least one semester for a whole string of classes. Some courses, like engineering 16, are only available in the spring, so losing a class might mean the student will finish the prerequisites in the spring and have to wait for the next spring semester to take the course.

Nick Perez is an electrical engineering student who couldn’t get into a physics 40 class last semester. “Everything was flooded,” he said. “And that is going to make my last semester really busy.” Perez will take engineering 16, physics 41, math 5 and another engineering class, maybe two, in his last semester at SRJC; a time when most engineering students have one or two classes.

For more than 30 years, Greg Sheldon has counseled science majors through SRJC’s programs and into four-year institutions. “I have never seen [the cuts] affect the students like this,” he said.

SRJC is looking at a $4.8 million reduction, which translates into an 11 percent district-wide cut to classes, if Gov. Jerry Brown’s November ballot measure doesn’t go through. If it does, SRJC will gain extra funding for the spring 2013 semester but is planning for the worst for fall 2012.

Though the science departments have taken smaller across-the-board cuts, they have had dramatic affects on students.

For the spring 2012 semester, all sections of biology 2.1 and chemistry 4.2 closed on the first day of priority 1 registration. Priority 1 is only for students who have 40-90.5 units on file at SRJC and does not include students with more or less who have seen a counselor for Early Bird registration. “We have had the problem since fall 2010,” Sheldon said.

“They’re not looking at the effects the cuts are having on our students,” Sheldon said.
Anthropology majors have one class with another anthropology prerequisite and all others only need eligibility for English 1A. All philosophy classes require eligibility, not completion, for English 1A. All English classes for the English major can be completed after English 1A and a few can be completed before.

Compare those majors to engineering or biology. Biology majors need four sequential semesters of math and physics, plus four semesters of biology and chemistry. If the student places into chemistry 42, the equivalent of math 155, add one semester.

Sheldon said it was common for engineering students to take three years to transfer from SRJC. “[Now] parents need to know if you’re a science major it could cost you four years,” he said.
“Why are sciences being penalized when the liberal arts are not?” Sheldon said. “Any class they cut in the sciences has a rippling affect.”
Another strain on the sciences is SRJC’s state-funded nursing program. Each student in the program must complete physiology 1 and microbiology 5 or 60, both of which require biology 10 and chemistry 60.

“I don’t have a lot of options [to cut] because it is such a complex system,” said Dr. Mary Kay Rudolph, vice president of academic affairs.

The nursing program took a zero percent cut because it is financially inflated by state grants. The state pays for equipment, supplies and faculty, provided the program stays above a 110-student headcount.

“The nursing program is hard to reduce without losing more than we gain,” Rudolph said. For SRJC to be eligible for the nursing grants it had to double its nursing program from 60 to 120. “Basically [the grants] covered the costs of the increases and many of the costs covered, like equipment, mannequins, that we purchased are used by all health sciences and benefits all of the students,” Rudolph said.

The Columbus Dispatch reported the average age of a nurse in California is 47, with 45 percent of nurses being older than 50.

The State of California Board of Registered Nursing stated in 2010 more than 80 percent of nurses ages 50-64 have not retired, and 49.8 percent of nurses 65 and older are still working.

Rudolph is optimistic California will need the nurses who go through SRJC’s nursing program.

Rudolph acknowledged the health sciences like nursing and dental hygiene are dependent on the life sciences and said that is why the sciences took smaller cuts. “We need to serve both and we’ll do the best we can,” Rudolph said.

When SRJC needs to make cuts mandated by the state’s workload reduction, which means the state will fund fewer sections at SRJC, Rudolph sits down with SRJC’s Dean IIIs and asks who can cut where and how much.
The foreign language department cut its entire summer program so it could keep a more full fall and spring schedule.

The Radiologic Technology program couldn’t cut any classes because it is a two-year program with classes in the fall, spring and summer. Instead, it did not accept any new students in the fall 2011 semester, thus saving six semesters of courses.

The Public Safety Center only took a 5 percent cut in order to keep its full-time equivalent student head count above 1,000. If it falls below, the program loses an extra $270,000 from the state, like the nursing program.
College skills, English 1A and math 155 took between a 3 and 4 percent cut because they are pathway courses. “We need to keep those pipelines open,” Rudolph said.

The cuts for scheduled classes were 11 percent with several departments exempt or having reduced targets for various reasons. Individual departments decided how to best cut their classes and the cluster deans and the Academic Council approved the proposed cuts.

Those majors with the 11 percent cuts had more electives and could better absorb the cuts, Rudolph said.

“Historically, we haven’t said one [transfer program] is better than another,” Rudolph said.

Sheldon said the way the cuts are going now, SRJC is favoring the liberal arts, but top SRJC administrators say they aren’t favoring any programs. “Nobody wants to make the decision: what does the college want to be?” Sheldon said.