A Continuing Education

To be fair, former SBCC President Dr. Andreea Serban did not “hack away” at the college’s beloved Adult Ed program, per your SBCC Promise story. She was required to convert formerly state-funded, noncredit continuing education classes to fee-based community service classes.

I am certain Dr. Anthony Beebe, the new SBCC president-elect, was also faced with the exact same challenge to his own highly regarded continuing education programs at San Diego City College as a result of the post-2008 changes in state funding for these programs up and down the state.

Today, the current fees for similar continuing education classes are set by the instructors using a mutually agreed formula between themselves and SBCC’s new Center for Lifelong Learning, since state funding was never restored for these programs.

Ironically, it was the newly elected 2010 board majority who refused repeated requests to consider a district parcel tax that could have “saved adult ed.” It was also the newly elected board majority who voted to terminate the position of SBCC Vice President of Continuing Education and eliminate the former separate administrative structure that had existed for noncredit continuing education at SBCC.

Additionally, for decades, SBCC board policy limited international student enrollments to 500 students only. After the 2008 fiscal crisis, this fixed number enrollment policy was changed to temporarily allow 8 percent international student enrollment.

The current SBCC board by formal written policy designated this 8 percent to be applied to the total SBCC headcount numbers, which subsequently allowed upward of 1,800 international students to be now enrolled at SBCC.

Joan M. Livingston was an SBCC trustee from 1993-2012.