Summer classes slashed

By MAURICE O. NDOLE

Summer school courses will be cut by 68 percent, university spokesman Mark Aydelotte said Tuesday.

The cuts are expected to affect all colleges under the California State University system, after an arbitrator ruled that faculty members should be paid the same amount of money for teaching during summer as they’re paid during regular semesters.

A memorandum of understanding between the CSU system and the California Faculty Association required the university to start the new pay system this summer, a deal Aydelotte said the CSUs were not prepared to put into effect.

Aydelotte said the university has been forced to cut classes because it doesn’t have enough money to pay the professors and provide classes for all sections of summer school.

“The agreement increases the cost of offering classes,” Aydelotte said, “which means we have to cut classes to keep within the budget.”

Robert Merrill, president of the California Faculty Association at Fresno State said the university had enough money in reserve to subsidize the summer school program.

But Aydelotte said the university was already planning to subsidize summer school programs, which is why it will be able to offer courses to more than half of the students who will enroll during summer.

He said despite the cuts, 62 percent of the student enrolled would still get their classes. To provide for the students, Aydelotte said, the university plans to consolidate sections of the same courses and provide classes to more students using fewer professors.

The cuts are likely to weigh heavily on students’ graduation plans.

“It’s mostly going to affect undergraduate students,” Aydelotte said. “Upper-division classes will be protected because they’re taken by students who are about to graduate.”

Carol Munshower, the director of the international students services program, said the cuts would have a negative effect on international students because most international students take classes over summer.

Munshower said she was concerned the cuts would delay some students’ plans for graduation.

Computer science post-baccalaureate student Suhas Pande said the summer school class cuts will affect his plans of getting into the graduate program.

Pande, a student from India, said three classes, prerequisites for his graduate program that he had signed up for, are among the canceled classes. He said the cancellation would affect him in many ways and also delay his start in the graduate program.

“It is cheaper to take classes during summer school,” Pande said.

During the summer, international students pay the same amount of fees as California residents.

The university has released a hotline number, 278-0530, for people who have questions about the summer school situation. Aydelotte said the university will keep posting updates on the university news Web site, www.fresnostatenews.com, on the classes offered and the ones cut.

Aydelotte encouraged students whose sections have been cut to try to get the classes from local community colleges.