UC Extension to close Santa Cruz office, close two programs - S...

"a $30 million debt load racked up in recent years by the UCSC Extension. The extension, which does not receive state funding, is supposed to be self supporting through tuition revenue, but in recent years has borrowed money from the university to stay afloat."

They were allowed to run up $30 million in debt? Who are the people that were in charge of letting that happen?

What a bummer. Really liked the Extension and the people that worked there were extremely friendly and courteous. Sad to see the Santa Cruz office go.

Maybe if they lowered their fees people might actually attend some of their classes. But at $120?/quarter unit, forget it. For 1 simple class up at UCSC (5 qtr units), it costs over $600! No Thanks. Total Rip off. Their greed doomed their fate. Too bad. They did offer a good service to the community, but their prices kept going up almost every year... and enrollment went down proportionately. Figure it out clueless admins! Keep prices reasonable and you might survive. Raise them to out of control proportions ($600 for a 10 week class), and you will eventually lose students and go down in flames...

another empty downtown building

It is only a portion of the Galleria building, but ouch, that has to hurt the owner. One may complain about the costs of education, however I feel it is still one of the best deals around.

Your right wildman, to be able to get HAZMAT certified through the UC Extension for less than 4000 was definitely the best deal you could find anywhere around. All those foreign kids don't get to experience downtown living and again the galleria is gonna have a hard time finding new tenants.

Speaking as an escort to a troupe of students from Hokkaido Information University, Hokkaido, Japan, this news comes to me as a great shock.

We have been coming here every year since 2002, and every time we have had a fabulous time in a near-storybook setting. I can think of no better place to show my Japanese students the sunny, friendly side of the United States, and a relaxed, tolerant community to let my students explore for a month. The ELI staff have been top-notch and reliable, and the program has always been affordable for us. And we're not even touching upon the homestay program, which has given us insights into American family life that simply cannot be gleaned from a textbook in a faraway Japanese classroom.

I hope that the people who consider only the bottom line will also consider the void being left by this decision. Treating educational facilities purely as a business, without considering the impact upon present and future students, will inevitably lead to short-sighted decisions that hurt the Santa Cruz community as a whole.

I beg the UC decisionmakers to reconsider their decision. Our students want to come back here next year.

Arudou Debito, coordinator of HIU students
Associate Professor
Hokkaido Information University
debito@debito.org
August 13, 2008

Its a shame they had to shut the downtown office. The local UC extension is a very good way for local folks to reap the benefits of a UC education without the difficulties of being formally accepted as a "regular" student at the UC. Maybe the UC could still offer UCSC Extension courses up on the main campus in an under-utilized building and forgo the residential hall? How about offering something practical for Santa Cruz County citizens, maybe hospitality management, basic accounting or similar? Why don't they look at the top 5 well paying jobs in the county and figure out where skilled workers are lacking and offer the appropriate courses? One thing the other posters don't seem to understand, UCSC Extension courses are not subsidized to the same degree as the community colleges, so of course they are more expensive and its not greed that caused these cuts.

Alas, the US is thick with credentialism. I wonder how many of the UC credits just went to persons who, in a prior generation, would not bother to take those courses, but nowadays do it solely to look more educated?

What are they renting for $62,500.00 per month ??????????

disabuser wrote:

<quoted text>
They were allowed to run up $30 million in debt? Who are the people that were in charge of letting that happen?

Surely people who have never run a buisness, that had to make a profit in order to survive. Another example of people spending oether peoples money with no idea of what there doing!

ELI Santa Cruz will remain in our hearts forever... A turning point for many students where learning English was a pleasure, an adventure through the wonderful streets of Santa Cruz and Pacific avenue... I'll always remain thankful and grateful to ELI staff for their support, their help and their dedication ...

What is not mentioned in the article, is that the ELI dept. exceeded their tuition and overall revenue budgets set for this fiscal year, even when asked to add another 10% to the figure as a stretch goal. The program is not being closed becuase the ELI dept. did not produce the revenue they were asked to bring in, the actual reason is that the Extension programs in Cupertino and Sunnyvale, performed so poorly in the past few years, the defecit was so large, that in an effort to 'simply' cut costs, the ELI dept. was sacrificed. It must be that this dept. was considered expendable, because we were not part of the University's goal to succeed in Silicon Valley.

UC Santa Cruz has LESS than 1% of the enrollment (15,000 students) from international students. That number is way below most top research universities in the country and is really a shame and a sin. The ELI program was starting to pump international students into the campus through their concurrent enrollment program. Last spring there were 25 students from universities in Japan, Korea, Italy and Germany. This fall there will be 40 international students in this program and it was on a trajectory to continue to grow exponentially as students return to their home university and tell about their incredible experience, on this most beautiful campus and amazing small city.

The ELI staff was stunned with the decision as they are in the midst of the largest and most successful summer program in their history with students from more than 51 countries participating in their programs, making Santa Cruz a mini-United Nations. Where else will Santa Cruz get this kind of ethnic and cultural diversity that help to make the city so amazing? There will be no English Language school in Santa Cruz after UCSC Extension closes the ELI program.
There will not be international students on the streets come January, nor will they be at Jack's, Borders, New Leaf, Longs, Pizza My Heart, and the numerous coffee houses and shops in town. Santa Cruz will lose a lot when we lose the ELI dept. and their students. What's even more disheartening is that this is all to support UCSC Extension's efforts to survive in Silicon Valley.

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Maybe that's where the new FBI intel office, UCSC branch, will be.

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