By Kathryn Reed

Lake Tahoe Community College has reversed its policy regarding mailing quarterly class schedules.

In what was touted as a green initiative in terms of money and fewer trees being destroyed is no longer the direction the two-year institution is pursuing.

Tom Greene, who became vice president of Academic Affairs and Student Services at the South Lake Tahoe college after the policy was in place for fall quarter, initiated the reversal.

“Ethically speaking it’s important,” Greene said of mailing the schedules. “It doesn’t feel right not to. It’s hard to quantify the access barrier it may have created.”

Part of the mandate of California community colleges is to provide access to all. Greene said a significant segment of the South Shore does not have computer access, and therefore is cut off from knowing course offerings without it being printed.

But if people can get to the college, then they have computer access. Libraries also have computers.

The college printed the fall schedule, but it was only available at the college.

When it was announced in August this would be the new policy, an annual savings of $10,000 was proclaimed. Starting with fall the schedule was half the number of pages as previous ones because course descriptions were eliminated.

The printing cost for the fall schedule was a little more than $2,900. The run for winter quarter was about $4,300 because of printing enough to mail to people living in California. It cost about $1,500 to mail them.

It is not possible to discern if the lack of mailed schedules impacted enrollment for fall quarter. Part-time enrollment is down, but that could be because fewer classes are being offered per state mandates that adult community members would take. Full-time enrollment is up, which has made overall enrollment rates be higher.