One section of DVC’s popular human anatomy class is MIA in the 2008 fall schedule due to schoolwide budget cuts demanded by the district.

Despite high demand for the class, the biological science department was forced to drop one from six sections to five, said biology professor Catherine Machalinski.

The anatomy section fell by the wayside, along with Oceanography 102, in order to keep Environmental Science, a 3-unit lecture class offered only once a year and required for certain certificates, Machlinkski said in the last edition of the Faculty Senate Newsletter.

“I’m truly worried about what is going to happen this fall,” Machalinski said. “What’s bizarre about it is that they’re cutting sections everyone knows would be full.”

Human anatomy student Nova Robb said it was difficult enough to enroll in the class, even with five sections. “It took me three years to get in,” she said.

Susan Lamb, vice president of academic affairs, said the cuts come as a result of an 8 percent enrollment decline in recent years, while the number of classes offered dropped by only 2 percent.

All academic divisions are affected by the cuts, although the impact varies by department.

Overall, the school was told to eliminate 1.5 percent of its classes, but these cuts are divided proportionally across departments, based on where student numbers have decreased.

” We hate cutting courses,” Lamb said. “We try to do it in the way that has the least impact on students, and the only way we could do that is to cut where there are less students.”

Machalinski, an outspoken critic of the class-cutting plan, offers a different solution: Add sections of popular classes.

For a class of 42 students, the district makes upwards of $20,000 in “almost pure profit” after all expenses are paid, including the faculty member’s salary, she said.

And to prove her point, Machalinkski has offered to foot the bill for the anatomy class that is set to be cut in the fall – provided she can keep the profit the district would have otherwise received.

“This is a serious proposal,” Machalinski said. “It would be tough to find another investment where I can more than double my money in four months.”