In an effort to increase the transfer rate and help students fulfill their general education requirements, Fresno City College has added 12 classes to the Fall 2011 short term class schedule. The plan has become known as the “Big 4” rule. Under the rule, the courses added must meet the requirements of general education, basic skills, occupational, and transfer courses.     
“As we try to manage our enrollment and our FTES (full time equivalent students), we are attempting to accommodate students with the courses that have the highest demand,” said Kelly Fowler, interim vice president of Instruction. “FTES is a numerical tool that is used by the state and our district to compensate our district based on the number of students we serve,” Fowler said. “We work with our District Office in establishing a target for FTES and recently our target increased.”
Fowler explained that the additional classes can bring a slight increase in enrollment and help students who are close to completing the requirements for transfer.
According to the State Center Community College District Institutional Research, enrollment at FCC has decreased by 15.36 percent this semester.  
Fowler attributes the decline to the budget crisis. She says the state lowered how many students could enroll in the class in order to keep the same number of sections.  “The state allocates funding on the number of students at our college. We are allocated based on a formula that includes the number of students and classes. We traditionally have served 4000 more students than we are paid,” said Fowler. “In addition, the state continually lowers our allocation and thus we have to respond by decreasing the number of courses offered each semester.”
She adds that the district did anticipate that enrollment would decline since section caps were reduced along with course offerings.
“Since our allocation had been reduced from the state, we needed to also reduce our course offerings as a result,” said Fowler.
While the addition of classes has been applauded by some, it has also been criticized by smaller programs such as Foreign Language and Music, which are not among the added classes.
“In the fall, we always offered three sections of French 1, and a section of French 2. It was even more than that before the previous budget cuts came around, but now we are down to a drastic two sections of French 1 and our summer classes have been eliminated even though it was always full to the rim,” said French instructor Eve Taylor, who worries that the French program could slowly diminish like other language courses such as German and Chinese, which have already been completely eliminated.
“We’re seeing these languages get cut, even though there is still a lot of interest,” said Taylor. “We want to be a school that offers a good variety of languages because not every student wants to take Spanish.”
Taylor stresses the importance of language due to its contribution to job development and cultural development.  She especially emphasizes the importance of French as it is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.
“French is a great language if you want to have a degree in international business. We want to maintain these options for students,” said Taylor.
Fowler says a vast number of classes are being considered to be added to the spring schedule. “At this time, we are still in the planning phases and are awaiting more information about the mid-year cuts before a final decision is made,” said Fowler.