10/23/2018
I recently learned from your Student Rep to the Advisory Board that many of you are disappointed that a 22 unit program takes 4 semesters to complete and that one class (LITEC 51) is offered every fall.
There are good reasons for the schedule which I will share with you all now. If you have any suggestions for change or improvement after reading the reasons, please feel free to share them with me.
• Most of our students are already in the workforce, and two 11 unit semesters would be too taxing for them.
• Most (4 out of 5) of our faculty have a regular 40 hour work week, and teach in the program on an overload basis. Since we are not allowed to teach more than 4 units per semester, we just don’t have the faculty to offer every class every year
• One way to offer every class every year, in theory, would be to cut the class sizes in half (from 36 to 18), however this would most likely lead to classes being cancelled for low attendance
o Repeated cancellations due to low attendance could cause the program’s viability to be called into question, and (and this is a long shot) the program could be discontinued.
• Before offering LITEC 51, our introduction course, every fall, some students didn’t take it until their last semester. This made all of the classes a bit tougher for them. Now students either have LITEC 51 in their first or second semester, and this has increased the success rate.
Taking a course from another California Community College is always an option; however, you must take 12 units from FCC in order to earn the FCC certificate. If you are considering taking a course elsewhere to speed things up, you should get the approval of the project lead beforehand.
