MISSION VIEJO : Saddleback Students Feel Economic Pinch

Students at Saddleback College are feeling the effects of the economic crunch in California, with classes too few and with more enrollments expected by the end of the week, according to school officials.

Enrollment is up about 2% from last fall, bringing the total number of students to 21,054, said Gary Stakan, dean of admissions and records. But because of the state’s budget crisis, the college was unable to add enough courses to meet students’ needs.

“Our general education transfer classes are almost all closed,” Stakan said. “That means we have about 10,000 students on waiting lists to get into those classes.”

Students may be on more than one waiting list, he added. Courses such as English, math and the sciences are in the most demand and have the longest waiting lists. As the week wears on and students realize they are not going to get into those courses, Stakan said, most will opt for their second choices.

Meanwhile, since many California State University campuses have closed enrollments due to their own funding problems with the state, students who planned to transfer from Saddleback are now returning to the college to wait out another semester, Stakan said.

“Add to that the people who, because of the recession, are unemployed and have to return to school for retraining and you can see why our classes are filling up,” he said.