UCSC Review Winter 1995

Learning for Life...and Livelihood

Far from the towering redwoods that dominate the UC Santa Cruz campus are classrooms in business parks and office buildings where the only trees are elements of a strictly planned landscape.

The students in these classrooms wear business suits, not T- shirts and tennis shoes. During the day they go to work, not to school. They gather on evenings and weekends to learn about such things as computer programming languages, environmental science, and human resource management.

These are students of UC Santa Cruz Extension, which serves Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Monterey, and San Benito counties. And they are signing up for classes in increasing numbers.

At a time when enrollment at UCSC and other UC campuses has flattened due to tight budgets, UC Santa Cruz's Extension program is serving more students than ever.

"The growth has really been tremendous," said Janice Corriden, dean of UCSC Extension and Summer Session. In fact, Extension has more than quadrupled in size in little more than a decade. This past academic year, it had 36,000 enrollments and an income of $10 million, compared to 8,000 students and revenues of just over $1 million in 1982.

Why is UCSC Extension growing so rapidly?

Extension is riding a wave of people wanting to hone their skills or retrain for a new career in a tough job market. It's teaching English to foreign students and businesspeople, and, under its contract education program, teaching specific skills to employees of businesses that pay for the services.

Since it operates as a self-supporting nonprofit, Extension has been impervious to declining state support. Extension's fiscal health is a function of only one factor: enrollment.

Its success has enabled it to reach into areas of public service, said Corriden. One of these projects is the Northern California Business Environmental Assistance Center, opened last year by UCSC Extension in Santa Clara. The center helps businesses figure out how to comply with environmental regulations.

Corriden said that one day soon UCSC Extension may also help support the university in its undergraduate and graduate educational mission. "It could be as simple as offering the 'Subject A' writing competency course or as complex as offering courses toward a graduate degree," she said.

UCSC Extension's largest classroom site is in Oxford Business Park in Santa Clara. In July, it opened facilities in Sunnyvale's Moffett Business Park. It also leases space for classrooms and administrative offices in Santa Cruz and holds a few classes on the UCSC campus.

A variety of classes are also taught in Monterey and San Benito counties.

In its course offerings, UCSC Extension reaches beyond the basics, said James Den Boer, administrative planner. "Instead of learning about how to use Microsoft Word, Extension students might learn about the programming language behind Word," he said.

Students can currently choose from a mix of classes lasting from one day to more than a quarter, or work through one of nearly 30 certificate programs. Course subjects range from watercolor painting to accounting to advanced Unix programming, with fees from $10 to more than $500, depending on the course. About one- third are in computer science.

The idea for extension programs springs from workingmen's social clubs that were formed in England at the turn of the century, said Corriden. The people in these groups met to learn basic skills like reading and writing.

In 1891, a group of UC Berkeley professors crossed the bay to San Francisco to offer classes in Shakespeare, history, and mathe- matics, in what is seen as the first UC Extension class. The Board of Regents made Extension an autonomous department in 1902, charging the organization with helping people develop professionally and grow personally through continuing education--in effect improving the economy and education in the state.

Later, the Board of Regents divided the state into eight territories. Each would be served by a particular UC Extension program, linked to a general-education UC campus. "For many cities in California, the closest that people come to a UC is an Extension class," said Corriden.

More than 85 percent of UCSC Extension students are professionals who already have bachelor's, master's, Ph.D., or professional degrees, according to a survey of Santa Clara students taken in early 1994. Most have household incomes of more than $40,000 a year. More than 40 percent are 26 to 35 years old. These people have flocked to UCSC Extension in increasing numbers as the economy has changed.

"A lot of companies are laying off right now," said Tim Johnson, director of UCSC Extension's computer science and engineering program. In the past, companies had touted keeping employees until retirement, he said. "Now companies are rewarded for the ability to adjust, for being fiscally prudent. None of them are above letting people go."

The program attracts more than just those out of work, Johnson said. Many of its students are keeping their resumes up to date so they can find a new job if forced to. Also, he said, many are excited about the new technologies and want to learn more.

The rapid change taking place in technology is a driving force behind the growth of the computer science and engineering program. "Extension stepped in and provided access to these technologies in ways that are not available anyplace else," said Johnson.

Johnson's department may take part next fall in a special program offered by Extension, which is working with the campus on a plan to allow computer engineers to take classes toward a master's degree without commuting to Santa Cruz, Johnson said.

While there are still a number of hurdles that must be tackled before the program can be offered, he said, it is envisioned that a video and audio hookup would transmit courses between the Santa Cruz campus and an Extension classroom in Santa Clara.

Creating better access to knowledge is one part of improving the California economy. "Economic conversion is, I believe, by and large going to take place on an individual basis," said Johnson. "If economic conversion is going to succeed, people at a very personal level need to gain new skills that permit them to take on new tasks."

--Francine Tyler