Students Optimistic on their Return to Santa Barbara City College

After years of concern over fee increases, Santa Barbara City College students are focusing on getting their classes, a degree, and moving on.

Thousands of students are arriving this week for the first wave of instruction.

President Lori Gaskin says about 22,000 students will be enrolled. That’s up slightly from last year. Six percent are international students.

During the recession some courses were cut back, and the school has been trying to add enough classes to meet the demand, especially in math and english.

“We have been able to add back sections and most importantly meet students needs. Probably you will see high demands in two areas, and that’s english and math and frankly we can not hire enough faculty to offer the number of classes we need to offer,” said Gaskin.

One student was on the right track with his planning and looked at the big picture. “I am a Biology major. I am taking all the basic courses here, and will transfer to UC Santa Barbara, which is my goal,” said Vincent Gonzales. “Ican get right on to working on my degree.”

His cousin Maribel Anguiano was planning to get a nursing degree and has already taken some of the classes she needed towards that degree, while at Santa Barbara City College.

The year also comes with students arriving at the Schott Center and the Wake Center where the Lifelong Learning classes are offered.