February 2018 Advocate: Questionable class cancellations

Faculty concerned about questionable class cancellations

As our District is spending decreasing percentages of their growing budget on the salaries of classroom instructors each year, faculty have reported what appears to be increasing numbers of course cancellations due to what the administration deems to be “low enrollment.” On February 1, members of the Skyline College Academic Senate expressed concerns about what they felt were inappropriate class cancellations that were made this semester. One Senate member stated that it appeared to be the most class cancellations in recent memory and that individual courses appeared to be targeted when previously there seemed to have been more consideration of “global load,” i.e. the load of a whole department or division, to allow some smaller classes to be balanced by higher enrolled classes.

Of particular concern to several faculty members was that numerous classes that were cancelled were classes for newly developing programs, classes that consciously deal with equity issues, core classes to guided pathways and other classes that are required for students’ progress. Faculty also wondered why administrators are being so quick to cancel classes that are important to student success when the District’s budget is extremely healthy.