We the below signed are students currently enrolled in the Behavioral Health and Human Services (BHHS) program at Community College of Philadelphia.

We are submitting this petition to register a formal complaint regarding the closing of the main campus on Friday evenings and Saturdays.

Many of us in the BHHS program are trying to navigate the challenge of balancing our personal lives while simultaneously remaining committed to our educational goals.  Unlike the majority of traditional CCP students we are nontraditional: 65% of us are older (35+), parents, grandparents, caregivers, caretakers, employees, etc. attempting to improve our lives through education.

We have been disproportionately disadvantaged by the changes in the class day/time schedule offerings for spring 2013. The changes will have a disruptive impact on us as follows:

·        Graduation – many of us who are scheduled to graduate in May 2013 do not have the required offerings to do so.  Many sections of various BHHS courses have been either cancelled or overlap in time with other courses we need to graduate.

·        Employment – many of us are employed by shift; 7-3pm, 3-11pm or 11-7am. The spring 2013 schedule competes with or overlaps with our employment schedules. Getting permission to leave our jobs 2-3 times per week to attend class presents a hardship.

·        Economic – the schedule change will immediately increase our time and cost for transportation and/or parking.

·        Childcare – the schedule will demand that we find alternative/additional childcare arrangements.

·        Safety – leaving the campus at 9:45pm presents a potential safety risk to students who travel by public transportation.

We are angered and dissatisfied with the lack of communication, input and consideration of students regarding this significant change. We are not alone; there are many other students within the college who have been negatively impacted by this decision.

We request that we be given a commitment to have previous schedules restored going forward; we need the option to attend classes that are conducive to our graduation, employment, economic, childcare and safety concerns.

We believe you are concerned about all Community College of Philadelphia students and look forward to an acknowledgement of our petition.

Sincerely,