Since the formation of City College in 1959, we have always had a Continuing Education program. At the Sept. 27 Board of Trustees meeting, the board voted 7-1 in approval of Superintendent-President Lori Gaskin’s proposal to form The Center for Life Long Learning, thus ending the Continuing Education division’s 53 year-long run.

It was a tough and controversial decision, but it was the correct one.

Amidst the ongoing budget crisis, the college has been forced to extensively cut the amount of credit courses offered. Teachers have been forced to turn away students begging to take their classes. These are students who need just that one extra class to transfer; there is simply not enough room.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Santa Barbara population is nearly 90,000. The Continuing Education program serves an estimated 20,000 students annually, almost 22 percent of the entire population.

This is a program with a long, proud tradition on which many senior citizens rely. These taxpaying senior citizens have been supporting this community for decades, while many students at City College have just moved here.

Understandably so, the Continuing Ed students feel shorted by the decision to cut the program. Not to mention the instructors and administrators, many of whom are losing their jobs, are also upset.

Many senior citizens have deemed our generation uneducated and unfit to lead in the future. Give us a chance to prove this notion wrong.

The money, what little we have, has to go into the credit side of the college. Any other course of action is simply irresponsible.

To continue funding Adult Education would be irresponsible.

It is not simple to transfer to a four-year school. Every course we can afford to keep gives more and more students the chance to realize their dream of transferring.

Senior students had their chance, and we want ours.

This decision has been called the most significant change in the history of our college. The tough choices are never fair and are certainly not easy.

Our Superintendent-President undoubtedly knows this.

It would have been easy to simply cut the Continuing Ed division and move on. However, with the approval to form The Center for Life Long Learning, Adult Education still has a chance.

It will be different, and it will be up to the citizens and new faculty who cherish Continuing Ed to keep it running. The new center must be fiscally self-sustainable.

Though, after 53 years, it’s certainly worth a shot.