Santa Monica College votes to cancel winter classes

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (KABC) -- Just into the start of the new fall semester, students at Santa Monica College learned winter classes, which were set to begin in January, have now been cancelled.

"I thought that was ridiculous because already it's hard to get classes and without winter session it's going to delay some of our graduation times," said student Daisy Asonye. "I'm going to end up being here another year if I don't get into classes. It's really frightening."

Thursday night the board of trustees voted unanimously to eliminate the six-week winter session, which will save about $2.5 million. The board says it had no choice, given the college lost $8 million in state funding. But it will cost the 11,000 students who take winter classes.

"It's going to be a lot more work load during the regular year because I'm going to have to take extra classes in future," said student Clayton Ryles.

About 400 classes will be eliminated with winter session, and many students fear this is just the beginning of even more drastic cuts given the state's dire financial situation.

"They feel like they're going to start taking classes out of the big semesters like spring with less classes. That's not really good because it's already hard enough to find classes," said student Keshia Nash-Johnson.

The college says that is a real possibility. If voters reject the tax measure on the November ballot, between $7 million to $8 million more could be cut from Santa Monica's funding in the middle of the fiscal year.

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education, los angeles news, leanne suter

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