WHAT TO DO AFTER DARK : Evening Scholars Fill College Campuses

When most county residents are driving home, the parking lots and classrooms at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo and Irvine Valley College in Irvine are filling up.

Students converge on the two campuses for classes they hope will carry them on to four-year colleges, prepare them for new or changing careers or simply enrich them.

“Our parking lots are jammed at night,” said Saddleback spokesman Kurt Hueg.

During the fall semester that just concluded, 56% of Saddleback students took some or all of their classes at night.

That is an increase from 46% in 1986--the earliest year for which comparable data are available, said Bill Andrews, Saddleback Community College District’s director of planning, research and development.

At Irvine Valley, 68% of those enrolled for the fall semester attended some or all of their classes in the evening, an increase from 57% in 1986, Andrews said.

The rise is likely due to an increase in the number of full-time students the colleges are enrolling, which is due in part to the higher costs of attending four-year schools, according to Andrews.

About 28% of the district’s students are enrolled full time at one of the colleges, up from 19% in 1986.

To get the courses they want, the full-time students often take evening classes.

Students taking both day and evening classes at Irvine Valley increased to 39% of total enrollment in 1993, up from 17% in 1986, Andrews said.

At Saddleback, the increase went to 32% in 1993 from 19% in 1986.

Those increases have helped offset a drop in the percentage of students taking only evening classes.

Everett Brewer, Saddleback College’s vice president for instruction, said the declining number for evening classes is the result of the state two years ago raising fees for students who already have a bachelor’s degree. Those students made up a large share of the enrollment.

Previously, all students paid the same fees. Now a person holding a bachelor’s degree must pay $50 a unit, or $150 for a three-unit class. An undergraduate pays $13 a unit, which would be $39 for the same class.

“We’ve had quite a decrease in our bachelor’s degrees,” Brewer said. “But they’re starting to come back now.”

On a typical day, Brewer said, the flow of traffic and parking-lot congestion run high in the morning, peaking about noon.

The numbers dwindle in the afternoon before building again about 4:30 p.m.--when evening division classes begin.

And from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m., the campuses are packed again.