By Joy McMasters
Daily Bruin Staff
While thousands battle the worst wildfires in years, California public colleges prepare to accommodate student firefighters who may not be able to return to school until late in the fall term – if at all.
Citing the student firefighters’ valuable service, on Aug. 23 Governor Gray Davis sent a letter to the heads of the University of California, California State University, and California Community Colleges requesting that the institutions extend enrollment, registration, financial aid, and other such deadlines until Sept. 30.
“Some of these young men and women have plans to enter college this fall and they should not be asked to abandon their positions on the fire lines at this critical time in order to register for and enroll in classes,” Davis said in the letter. “Many of these students are experienced firefighters whose services are critical to fire fighting efforts in California and other western states.”
In addition to deadline extensions for the fall term, Davis requested that students be allowed to defer enrollment for up to a year without penalty and receive a refund of fees already paid if they are unable to return this term.
“It just seemed reasonable to ask the leaders to allow these students to delay their registration so they don’t have to worry about rushing back,” said Roger Salazar, a spokesman for the governor.
According to spokespersons for each of the statewide school systems, the schools plan to assist the students at the governor’s request.
UC President Richard Atkinson prepared a letter forwarding the governor’s request, said UC spokesman Chuck McFadden.
“I believe we certainly will go along with the governor’s request,” McFadden said, “This is a very special circumstance because this is the worst fire season in the West in 50 years.”
It is not known how big a job it might be to help firefighters as they return to school, but the job is worth doing, McFadden said.
“It seems to me that we’re not talking about inconvenience, were talking about convenience for students,” McFadden said.
Agencies keep records on individual firefighters, but they do not know how many might be helped by the governor’s request, said National Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman E. Lynn Burkett.
Many students and teachers decide to fight fires during their summer break and some of the students decide to take the fall term off to continue their work, she added.
Firefighting crews rotate and members come from a number of agencies around the world. Though the students’ places could be filled it would take time for their crews to work together well, Burkett said.
“We are using everybody we’ve got right now. The firefighters that are from college are a very valuable resource so they would be a loss, but were prepared to compensate for that,” Burkett said.
Chancellor Thomas Nussbaum favors doing as much as is possible to help student firefighters said California Community Colleges spokesperson Linda Michalowski.
“In the spirit of supporting our students currently engaged in a courageous and noble endeavor, I would like to strongly encourage you to embrace the governor’s request on behalf of our student firefighters,” Nussbaum said in a letter to Community College administrators.
“We’re hopeful that our colleges will be able to pay special attention to their situations,” the letter said.
If campuses are crowded, community colleges may not be able to help students as much as they might like to, Michalowski said.
At community colleges, unlike the CSU or UC systems, the problem is that classes fill up since it’s not as much of a problem getting into the colleges as it is enrolling in classes.
As a result, though deadlines may be extended, the classes may fill up anyway.
“Deadlines are not an issue for us in the way that they are for UC and CSU,” Michalowski said, “It may take some extraordinary measures to make sure that the classes are still available.”
WESTERN STATES ENGULFED BY WILDFIRES California college students are among those fighting fires that burned nearly 6 million acres nationwide as of August 25. SOURCE: National Interagency Fire Center Original graphic by YU WANG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Web adaptation by CHRISTINE TAN