Large moves are never easy, as everyone at Emeritus College knows.

As a result of DVC’s budget crisis, the provider of short-term, non-credit classes for seniors was forced to leave the 30-room Walnut Creek Center in downtown Walnut Creek and relocate to the Pleasant Hill campus.

DVC and the San Ramon Valley Center had also offered classes there until this semester.

However, the problem for the non-profit Emeritus program was not just leaving its home of the past five years for a small, portable building near the DVC library.

“Nobody knows about us here,” registrar Marianna Ford said.

Some former students either do not know how to contact the college or believe the new location is too far away and the parking too difficult. “Some people are very hesitant,” Ford said. “They don’t want to drive beyond their comfort zone.”

Emeritus student assistant Anthony DeLuna said of the Emeritus students, “It’s what they looked forward to throughout the day.”

Although the lease on the Walnut Creek Center runs through Sept. 30, 2011, the district hopes to sublet it to save money.

In an e-mail message to Emeritus students unhappy about the relocation, DVC President Judy Walters said the lease amounted to $22,128 per month and, utilities cost more than $36,746 during the 2008-09 school year.

“During one of the most difficult budget years for higher education in California, it is incumbent upon us to look at how we are doing business and to change how we are doing that business,” Walters wrote.

She noted Emeritus “did not pay for the facility or any money for its operations.”

Susan Lamb, vice president of instruction, said she believes the number of fee-based classes will increase from its current 67 classes, which are distributed among JFK University, the Rossmoor senior center and DVC.

But Ford said planning the new catalog was challenging.

“We had teachers committed to classes, but we didn’t know where they were going to go,” she said.

Currently, 798 people have signed up for classes, but that number may increase because classes start at different times. This is on par compared to last semester’s numbers, Ford said.

Classes tend to be small and are taught by retired professors or people with certain areas of expertise. “We get people who have their following,” Ford said about students who return to take classes with their favorite instructors.

The Emeritus College office, located in the annex between the library and physical sciences building, is open from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

Contact Oksana Yurovsky at [email protected]