Coastline Isn’t to Blame for College Difficulties

Re “Community College Spending Is Uneven,” Dec. 21:

Alan Remington insinuates that Coastline Community College is the reason that Orange Coast College had to cut “more than 400 sections” from its fall schedule. In fact, it was state budget shortfalls that have forced creative faculty, staff and administrators at the three Coast Community College District colleges (including Golden West College) to find ways to make serious cuts in their staffing, programs or offerings, and still offer excellent educational programs at a very reasonable cost to their students.

Remington is a recently retired Orange Coast fine arts professor. He should know that the reason Coastline offers Chinese brush-art courses is because Coastline is lucky to have Ning Yeh, a renowned Chinese brush artist, on its full-time art faculty.

And shame on Remington for criticizing Coastline for offering yoga classes when Orange Coast offers three yoga classes. Look at Orange Coast’s online physical education schedule. It has 148 P.E. courses, including two surfing courses and a sailing class. Sounds like fun. Coastline, on the other hand, offers five P.E. classes.

Coastline College is not a traditional college like Orange Coast or Golden West. We don’t have a centralized campus, and we don’t recruit graduating high school seniors. We don’t offer activities of interest to that age group such as intramural sports or P.E., and not doing so obviously saves our college money.

Coastline attracts students of all ages. A great many of our students are working adults with family responsibilities. They take one or maybe two courses a semester, hoping to eventually earn their degrees. These mature students have a strong desire to learn that is inspiring to teachers and to other students. It is fun to teach them and to be in class with them.

Because Coastline uses learning centers throughout coastal Orange County, it is hard to visualize “where” we are. But once students get to understand where we are, many come to enjoy the smaller settings and not having parking hassles they might encounter at larger campuses. Coastline also offers award-winning telecourses and many online courses for students who are unable to come to an on-site course.

Coastline and its sister colleges are doing a great job of educating students. Check out our course offerings online; spring semester starts Feb. 5.

Gayle Noble

Fullerton

Professor, Coastline

Community College