When I moved back to Santa Barbara (my hometown) in fall 1978, I had attended that year’s Santa Barbara Writers Conference (SBWC) and wanted to pursue my love of writing.
My first move was to sign up for a Santa Barbara City College Adult Education fiction-writing course taught by Herb Harker (Goldenrod, 1973), a workshop leader from the Writers Conference. His class introduced me to several Santa Barbara writers and took me on a lifelong writing path that has gone to places I never envisioned.
Eventually, I ended up teaching Adult Ed weekend writing workshops (Nonfiction Writing Using Fiction Techniques) for several years. Dreams do come true.
Adult Ed was a game-changer as it had been for thousands of Santa Barbarans. Every semester we could choose from hundreds of classes with superb teachers and up our learning opportunities. Talk about the good life.
Started in 1918, Adult Ed grew through the century to exceed 40,000 students per year with courses in academics, languages, health, arts, and career- or hobby-oriented subjects.
Around the 1990s a second program was initiated: Center for Lifelong Learning (CLL) aimed at retired and older adults. The rest of Adult Ed was open to anyone over 18 years old.
In 2013 SBCC decided to eliminate Adult Ed except for the CLL classes. Most were state-supported and open to all ages, although many included the title “for older adults.”
Our community was not happy to have lost such an exceptional resource. By 2015, CLL enrollment had dropped to about 12,000.
Writing courses went from 17 per semester in the 1990s (if my memory holds) to two taught originally by Anne Lowenkopf, now taught by her widower, Shelly Lowenkopf. They are excellent classes but the only choices.
Something wonderful happened this fall — it’s back. Adult Ed with the new name of School of Extended Learning started Monday, Aug. 21, with registration available during the next two weeks.
How did this happen?
When Anthony Beebe took over as president of SBCC last year, he met with residents all over the community. People consistently protested the loss of Adult Ed. In an early speech, he announced a top goal, “Reconnecting with the community is really a critical, critical piece.”
This past year SBCC has worked to bring about Extended Learning under the leadership of interim vice president Melissa Moreno, who has worked for ten years at SBCC. We talked about her wishes.
“My goal is to maximize programming,” she said. “Our team has worked behind the scenes on strategies to have a robust, variety of classes.
“Extended Learning encompasses all of our existing community-based offerings, including all fee-based classes and our tuition-free vocational programs in health, culinary arts, construction technology, environmental horticulture, and English as a second language.
“We’re trying to create more tuition-free, state-funded programs that bridge the gap to give credit degrees and transfer opportunities,” she said. “We’ve had to work gradually to put much of this together fulfilling the many requirements and organization but have tried to move as quickly as we can.
“Our team is excited to integrate the two brands CLL and Adult Ed, so we can shepherd students together with tuition-free and fee-based classes. Since next year is our 100th anniversary, we hope to bring all courses together by then under one name — School of Extended Learning.”
The fall semester will be a transition time to combine everything while creating a list of new and stunning courses. Moreno gives much credit to Beebe.
“He came from San Diego Community College and is a top program Adult Ed expert. He recognized gaps here and went straight forward. He’s a fantastic supporter and proponent,” she said.
“The Board of Trustees with Marsha Croninger as president has been supportive all along,” Moreno said. “Dr. Beebe didn’t make the decision in a vacuum. He had a tremendous amount of feedback.”
Ken Harris, associate director of the School of Extended Learning, has lived through these transitions in the past seven years from an active Adult Ed before 2013 to the more limited CLL, and now back to a much broader program.
“We have two kinds of classes — state supported-tuition free or fee-based. CLL has been fee-based oriented more for retired older adults. We’re working toward more tuition-free but have had to take time because of requirements and bugs.
“The state is supporting new classes based on enrollment, 17 people per class to break even,” Harris said.
The old Adult Ed also required a minimum of 17 people to sign up, but there was no requirement to attend after enrollment. Minimum information was required from those enrolling: name, mailing address and how to pay. Things have changed.
“We want you to come, and we are collecting more data than we did for CLL and previous classes,” Harris said.
“Now we’re also asking for your ethnicity, educational background and goals, hoping students will answer. Then we can come up with classes people wish for. Identify yourself, and get the product you want,” he said.
When I looked over the list of literature and writing courses on the website, it made me see a golden treasure. This fall the number of offerings is back up to 11 different classes with a wide range of options and topics taught by highly experienced writers and teachers.
Among them are three who also lead workshops at the annual SBWC: Dale Griffith Stamos (Write a Good Story by Answering Key Questions), Marilee Zdenek (A Love Letter to the Future), and Duane Unkefer (Writing Fiction: What You Need to Know).
Other examples are Ross Robin (Russian Literature Rediscovered), a teacher at UCSB’s Creative Studies and Cate School; and Angela Renkoski (Tune Up Your Grammar), a college teacher and copy editor for national magazines for 30 years.
There are many more across the board of subject matters. Check them out at https://www.thecll.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/CLL_PrintSchedule_Fall17_Web.pdf.
Or attend a town-hall gathering, community informational meeting about Extended Learning, 6-7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 16, at Schott Center auditorium, 310 W. Padre St. Moreno and her team will be there to answer questions and take suggestions.
They also are also creating an ambassador program “comprised of community representatives from diverse populations to provide feedback in the development of new programs and to ensure SBCC is creating programs that are relevant and meet the needs of our community to help get the word out about this unusual and positive new path.”
On a final note, and since it is a new program, registration will be flexible this fall so you can sign up for classes anytime in the next two weeks and possibly the week extending to Sept. 8. Too good to be true? Go for it.
— Noozhawk columnist Susan Miles Gulbransen — a Santa Barbara native, writer and book reviewer — teaches writing at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and through the Santa Barbara City College Continuing Education Division. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.
