The Chancellor of the Peralta Community College District, Dr. José M. Ortiz, has announced that the four Peralta Colleges – Berkeley City College, College of Alameda and Laney and Merritt Colleges in Oakland – will be adding up to 200 new classes for the spring 2013 semester.
The passage of Proposition 30 has made it possible for the Peralta Colleges to add additional classes for the spring semester in order to accommodate up to 700 more full-time students. Enrollment for the semester has already begun, and classes are being added by each of the colleges. Classes for the spring semester start on January 22, 2013.
The District, which includes Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland and Piedmont, took the prudent approach of budgeting for a scenario that assumed Proposition 30 would not be successful. But Proposition 30 passed and as a result the Peralta Colleges will be able to restore approximately $5.5 million to the unrestricted general fund.
“While this restoration allows us to build back many of the class sections and services that had been provided in the past, the $5.5 million is only a start to the restoration process,” Chancellor Ortiz said in a statement to faculty and staff.
For the last three fiscal years the District, which serves about 27,000 students each semester, has had to cut approximately $20 million in response to state-imposed budget reductions. This has meant that as many as 3000 students could not get into classes.
“Immediately,” Chancellor Ortiz said, “we will be adding up to 200 strategically selected sections to our existing spring schedule of classes.”
“We are also looking to further promote our spring 2013 schedule to attract additional students,” he said.
“Each of the Peralta Colleges will be adding sections and the deans, vice presidents and presidents will be working closely with faculty to determine which classes and sections will be added to our schedule,” the Chancellor added.
Classes to be added include sections in English, Math, Biology, Business, Biotechnology, Multimedia Arts, Music, Art, Social Science, Ethnic Studies, Political Science, ESL, Environmental, Dance and other areas of study.
“This is a very good opportunity for our students to get the classes they need,” Chancellor Ortiz said. “I encourage students to check our Website (click here) to see which classes we are adding and to enroll as early as possible.”
On Friday January 18, 2013 representatives from the Guangxi College of Water Resource and Electric Power in China visited 
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