Before each semester starts, the vice president of student instruction at Skyline College, Regina Stroud, meets with the deans and instructors of each division, to figure out a way to formulate an efficient schedule for students. In this process of organization, classes are either kept or let go based on the number of enrolled students, its timeliness in terms of students being able to attend, and if it’s needed by enrollees for a particular degree or transfer credits. Stroud says that even with a tight budget, money is not the only factor in this procedure; they also put into perspective the needs of the students based from information from past semesters. She also elaborates on some parameters a regular three unit class needs to achieve in order to be considered efficient in terms of enrollment. A three unit class needs to have eighteen to twenty students to be acceptable. “We are trying to maximize our hours,” said Donna Bestock, Dean of Social Science and creative arts at Skyline College. According to Stroud, 51 classes were already cut before the semester had even begun and 20 more were discontinued after classes started. Subjects such as Water Coloring and American Sign Language were cut because no one applied to them. Stroud refers to this process as a complicated balancing act in which classes with an excess of students, like Math and Biology are used to compliment classes which have less students, an example would be Journalism and English Literature. “We would like to keep our classes open,” Stroud says. She adds that in some cases in which a class is still in its experimental stage of development, they allow the instructor of that particular subject to gain momentum, and students to secure it’s longevity in future semesters.”We let the class meet before we make the decision to cut the class,” says the vice-president of student instruction. In other cases classes are rescheduled or turned into an instructional class and given more time to develop. Visual Interpretation of Art, taught by Arthur Takayama was in development last semester, but was turned in to a special projects class because of low enrollment.

“I understand that the school has certain policies to abide by,” said Leo Rosales, a Skyline student who applied to Takayama’s class. He also adds that he is not resentful of the decision to reorganize his class, but he would have liked to have been informed earlier, before he had purchased items needed for the class.”It is up to the students to talk to their teachers,” says Stroud, when asked how a student can try to keep his or her subject open.