Fountain Valley : Coastline Will Resume September Class Start

Coastline Community College this year will return to starting its fall-semester classes in September, rather than August, the college announced.

In an unusual move, the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees, the governing unit for the college, approved a change that will allow Coastline a different starting date than its sister institutions, Golden West College in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

Beginning in 1984, the district shifted the fall opening date for all three colleges from September to August. The August enrollment date enabled the colleges to complete the autumn session by the Christmas break rather than continuing fall semester through January.

But all three colleges sustained enrollment losses, attributed at least partially to the earlier starting date. College officials said that in many cases, students were not prepared to start to school until after Labor Day in early September.

College officials at Coastline, which has had the most severe enrollment drop in the district, asked the trustees for a return to a September opening. Trustees granted the request on a one-year experimental basis. Coastline’s fall class is thus set to start Sept. 8 this year, almost a month later than its sister colleges.

Coastline Community College President William M. Vega said the later starting date will better meet the needs of the older student body at his college.