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More classes at OCC make first day easier

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Students hustled to classes for the first day of the fall semester at Orange Coast College on Monday morning, but unlike in previous years, most were confident a seat would be waiting for them when they got there.

In years past, fewer classes and lengthy wait lists were frustrating realities for Coast Community College District students, who sometimes had to wait several semesters to complete necessary classes to transfer to a four-year university.

Last fall marked the first time Orange Coast College had been able to increase class offerings since 2010, when the state slashed budgets for community colleges.

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The district was able to open its doors to more students with the passage of Proposition 30, which guarantees additional funding to the state’s community college system through temporary tax increases, said Richard Pagel, OCC’s vice president of administrative services.

Students at the district’s other colleges — Golden West in Huntington Beach and Coastline College, which has campuses in various locations in Orange County, including Newport Beach — were also welcomed back to school Monday with more classes than last fall.

Orange Coast saw even more growth this fall in terms of student population and seats in classes, especially high-demand courses such as English and math, preliminary numbers show.

The college is offering 7,175 more seats this year — an increase of nearly 10% over last fall. The college has 81,532 seats for students, compared with 74,357 last year.

The number of students on wait lists for English courses was mostly in the single digits Monday, said Michael Mandelkern, dean of literature and languages.

“It’s not nearly as bad as in years past,” he said. “The school has grown back in the last few years.”

The increase in classroom seats allows many students to move through the community college system and complete their degrees faster, officials said.

Joshua Esparza, 22, was excited when he stepped onto campus for his first day at OCC. He attended Saddleback College in Mission Viejo for a semester in 2011 but found it difficult to find available classes, he said.

He was on a wait list for two classes at Coast on Monday morning but was accepted into them with little trouble.

“It’s great not having to worry about that,” he said. “The first day is difficult enough.”

Preliminary figures show that the number of full-time students enrolled at OCC is up nearly 3% from last year.

The district has focused recently on increasing the number of full-time students at its colleges to qualify for additional funding through Proposition 30 for future years.

For more information on course offerings, visit cccd.edu.

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