t
INFOGRAPHIC
COUNTING THE HOURS
197 HOURS
A new state education plan would make thousands of hours of new work for Palomar’s already overstretched counseling department.
Average time students spend on Facebook each semester, per a 2011 nationwide study.
This graphic uses circles to compare how many hours each counselor will have to spend each semester bringing students up to speed versus other common student tasks.
336 HOURS
the telescope
Average time American students spend working per semester, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Palomar College’s Independent Newspaper Vol. 65, No. 17 • Monday, April 23, 2012 1140 W. Mission Rd, San Marcos, Calif.
DO WE HAVE THE TIME? STUDENT SUCCESS TASK FORCE
Palomar’s counselors could struggle to handle new workload INFOGRAPHIC
HOW WE STACK UP Santa Monica College, a similarlysized state school in Los Angeles, has nearly three times the help in its counseling department compared to Palomar.
At Palomar COLLEGE... 1 counselor for every 1,100 students
1 counselor for every 300 students
= 10 STUDENTS
How many work hours a counselor can work in a semester, according to the 2006 Palomar Classified Employees contract.
gio nieto & ian hanner The Telescope
Palomar counselors said they are worried they could be overrun by new requirements passed down from the state. Counseling officials said they have already implemented the core requirements of the Student Success Task Force (SSTF) initiative, a state plan aimed at saving California community colleges money by pushing students to plan better and finish faster. But a lack of academic advisers at Palomar—13 full-time counselors are available to service more than 30,000 full- and parttime students—left some department leaders wondering if they could keep up with new demand created by the task force plan.
Ed Plan Could Overwhelm Counselors At SANTA MONICA COLLEGE...
640 HOURS
One key component of SSTF, section 2.2, would require every new Palomar student to create an education roadmap spelling out what degree they want and what classes they’ll need to get it. The task force is still revising its plan, but the mandate is expected to stay, opening the door of Palomar’s counseling department to a flood of needy students. Several counseling positions remain vacant this semester after a college-wide hiring freeze, leaving the department unable to handle a significant increase in student demand without help, said Lynda Halttunen, dean of counseling services. “We only have 18 counselors for [more than 30,000] students,” Halttunen said. “That’s not a lot of counselors.”
PUSHED TO SUCCEED A 4-part series on proposed changes to statejuniorcolleges. Part 1: From the Top
tsne.ws/SSTFONE Part 2:
Counseling
940 HOURS
Challenges THIS WEEK
Amount of time students spend sleeping per semester, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Part 3: What’s the Cost? NEXT WEEK Part 4: Here’s Where We’re At MAY 7
GO ONLINE FOR MORE INFO Find documents, notes and analysis and more. WWW.TSNE.WS/SSTFPLAN
TURN TO COUNSELORS, PAGE 9
1,600 HOURS How long it will take each of Palomar’s counselors to process 30,000+ students over the course of one semester under the new plan.
SCALE 1 inch = 100 hours