MOORPARK : Classes in Laser Optics Put on Hold

Moorpark College has shut off enrollment and may cancel its 12-year-old laser optics program because federal defense cuts have decimated job opportunities in the field, officials said.

No new students were allowed to sign up for the program this fall, said Clint Harper, who teaches laser optics courses at the college. But the half a dozen students already enrolled in the program will be able to finish their two-year degree in the subject.

The program allowed students to train to be technicians in industries that build, design or utilize laser electro-optical systems or get courses that they could apply to a degree at a four-year college, Harper said.

Only three other community colleges statewide offer the courses, which are usually not available to students until they reach graduate school in physics, he said.

Laser electro-optical systems are used for reading bar codes in supermarket checkout counters. They are also used in compact disc players and the equipment used for eye surgery.

But the biggest use of the technology has been by the military.

“Two-thirds of our graduates have gone into jobs directly or indirectly related to military applications,” Harper said.

Laser optics were used in the socalled smart bombs of the Gulf War, he said. The technology has also been a crucial component of Star Wars research.

But the federal government has slashed Star Wars funding and made other defense cuts, precipitating the downturn of the Southern California aerospace industry.

As a result, the Moorpark College program last year was able to place only about half of its dozen graduates in jobs.

Harper has received a $10,000 state grant to study how state colleges can redesign various high-technology training programs, including laser optics, to meet the future needs oS. corporations.

Depending on the results of this study, which should be completed by spring, Moorpark College will decide whether to abandon the laser optics program, shut it down temporarily or continue it with a new focus, Harper said.