Student Schedules Squeezed

Valley College student Eylene Pirez has enough to worry about as an astrophysics major, yet she has to deal with complicated schedules and special procedures just to make sure that she can take all of the classes that she needs.

"Physics and chemistry labs overlap with math so students can't take the classes they need to continue in the series," said Pihrez. "Students are having to take them in winter and summer and the district will not add new section numbers."

Though there are few chemistry and physics students, every student has had problems scheduling all of the classes they need and the more specialized the classes, the harder they are to arrange.

If a student does notice a conflict, they should bring it to the awareness of Academic Affairs so that they can work with the student to try and solve the problem.

"When people bring [conflicts] to our attention we bring it to the attention of Academic Affairs and the deans and then something is done about it," said Vice President of Student Services Yasmin Delahoussaye. "But with 1,200 classes... there's bound to be some overlap."

Class schedules are planned by Academic Affairs in cooperation with all of the Valley department chairs. Scheduling problems are relatively rare because Academic Affairs takes great care to ensure that students can get their classes

"I'm going to meet with some students very soon to get their ideas about the catalogue," said Dean of Curriculum Carol Yee, "I want to sit down with students in kind of a focus group about the schedule... and that would be a great place if people have concerns about how the catalogue is working or not working."

Sometimes problems occur because there are not enough students to merit the introduction of a new class or a lack of space to hold the class. Science, in particular, has only so many labs and classrooms available where they can instruct. In these cases there is not much the administration can do.

However, students do have options when they need help working out their classes for the next semester.

"I don't think that a lot of the students know that they can ask for a course substitution," said Delahoussaye. "If [one] particular course is only offered once a year and it's preventing you from graduating on time because maybe it isn't offered during the course of the year... you can go to the department chair person and say, 'I'd like to get a course substitution' and they will work with you."