College classes available this summer for just $46 a unit
An improved budget picture will enable the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) to restore summer college credit courses this year for the first time since 2009. More than 1,000 classes will be offered at City, Mesa, and Miramar colleges at $46 a unit – including numerous online courses. In addition, San Diego Continuing Education will offer more than 2,000 free noncredit classes at its seven campuses in San Diego.
Classes in high-demand areas such as allied health, basic skills, hospitality and consumer sciences, and career technical studies will be among those being offered. The primary summer session is set for June 16 – Aug. 9, but three other sessions also will be held: May 27 – June 28; June 9 – Aug. 2; and June 30 – Aug. 2.
Plans call for 436 summer courses at City College, 424 at Mesa College, and 204 at Miramar College.
“After years budgetary belt-tightening, we take great pride in again offering summer courses that provide thousands of students the tools they need to get a timely, high-quality education, secure their degrees, and prepare for the workforce,” said Rich Grosch, president of SDCCD’s Board of Trustees.
“I’m excited,” said San Diego City College student Christian Silva, who plans to enroll in a few courses this summer before transferring this fall to major in biology at UC San Diego. Silva enrolled at San Diego City College in 2010. “Not having summer classes available definitely set me back in trying to get the classes I needed to transfer.”
Carolina Moreno, president of the Associated Student Government at San Diego City College, knows how Silva feels.
“The lack of summer classes was keeping a lot of us from being able to graduate in a timely manner,” Moreno said. “I probably would have had my associate’s degree had there been summer classes.”
The summer class schedule is now available at www. sdccd.edu. The deadline for new students to file an application for admission for summer and receive priority registration is April 30. Registration by appointment will be held May 12-23. Open registration begins May 27.
“We are committed to providing the best community college experience for our students, and we are pleased that improved state financing has enabled the San Diego Community College District to again offer summer college credit courses,” said SDCCD Chancellor Constance M. Carroll.
SDCCD was forced to stop offering summer courses as the recession led to $1.5 billion in state funding cuts for California Community Colleges from 2007-08 to 2011-12. Statewide, the number of for-credit summer course offerings plummeted from more than 45,000 in 2007-08 to less than half that number in 2011-12.
The restoration of summer courses is expected to have a positive impact on the region and state. California community colleges educate about 70 percent of our state’s nurses and train approximately 80 percent of firefighters, law enforcement personnel, and emergency medical technicians. Nearly 42 percent of all California veterans receiving GI educational benefits attend a California Community College.