4,146 students enroll in Grossmont College summer courses

EL CAJON—Graduation ceremonies were conducted only last week, but the Grossmont College campus is buzzing again with 4,146 students who are attending the summer session that began on Monday, June 10.

More than 160 courses in 42 widely varying subjects lured the students back to campus.  Many of these are core courses needed by students to complete the requirements for graduation in their specialties, while others are electives, offering students opportunities to taste new subjects and try new endeavors.

For example, one cross-listed, course which can earn a student three units credit either in geology or geography will take up to 20 students on a 9-day trip to the Eastern Sierra under the tutelage of Professors Judd Curran and Tim Cliffe.

The students will leave June 15 in two passenger vans and one trailing baggage van to visit and camp at such venues as Lone Pine, the Owens Valley, the Long Valley Caldera, and the Mono Basin.

In Lone Pine, where numerous western movies were made, they'll see the "unique contrast between the rounded brownish-colored plutonic rocks of the Alabama Hills with the grey, jagged granitic rocks of the Sierra Nevada in the background," Judd tells us.  They'll also get a good view of Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous 48 U.S. States, before heading to the remote White Mountains, home of the oldest-known living trees on earth, the Bristlecone Pines, of which some are in excess of 4,500 years old.

Then it's on to Bishop and beyond to see the Long Valley Caldera, site of a massive, cataclysmic eruption 760,000 years ago that blew ash as far east as Nebraska.  Subsequent eruptions formed Mammoth Mountain and the Inyo/Mono crater chain extending northward into the Mono Basin.

Students will visit the Devil's Postpile National Monument to study volcanic rock that cooled to form hexagon-shaped columns.

Near the end of the trip students will descend into the Mono Basin to focus on the politics and environmental issues involving Mono Lake and the export of water out of the basin for the City of Los Angeles.  The trip will end with a comprehensive final exam in Bishop County Park before heading back to Grossmont College.

Other Grossmont College courses being offered, thanks to the passage last year of Proposition 30 which increased taxes to pay for education, range from Administration of Justice to Biological Sciences to Cross-Cultural Studies, and go on through the alphabet to include such courses as Dance, Economics, Family Studies, German, Heath Education, Inter-Disciplinary Studies, and more.

Because of the shrinking of the state budget over the last four years, some courses that could not be offered in the past are being offered this summer to make sure students can complete requirements in their majors.

“We are so gratified that the voters of California exercised wisdom and generosity in adopting the temporary tax increase ballot measure,” commented Grossmont College President Sunita Cooke.   “It’s clear from the number of students who have elected to spend their summer with us that there is a tremendous pent-up demand for these courses."   -- DHH

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Editors:  Judd Curran may be reached for additional comment on his cell phone., 619 454-2000.
Photos: 1.  Students register for their classes June 10 at Grossmont College  (Photo: Stephen Harvey)
                2.  Students study rock formations in the Alabama Hills of the Eastern Sierra (Photo: Judd Curran)