A returning student with goals to grow their current career, a stay-at-home mom looking to broaden her horizons, a first-generation high school grad working to put themselves through college — these are the types of Palomar students that certainly would benefit from the extensive support services Palomar offers. But the striking reality is the current hours often don’t give them the option to use them.
Palomar is notorious for its on-campus services closing early, either by design or due to a lack of consistent staffing.
According to the Palomar website for the San Marcos Campus, the counseling office and the Disability Resource Center are both only open Monday through Thursday until 5 p.m. and Fridays until 2 p.m. On Monday and Thursday, Health Services closes even earlier at 4:30 p.m.
Students needing to buy textbooks or eat on campus in the evening are also out of luck.
The bookstore is only open until 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 1 p.m. on Friday. The two locations that offer food: the Coffee Station and the Food Court close at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday respectively and are both closed on Friday.
Even more concerning, Student Life and Leadership is only open Monday through Thursday until 3 p.m. and closed on Friday. Services under Student Life and Leadership include the Access and Engagement Center and the Food and Nutrition Center.
According to my.Palomar, this semester the San Marcos campus has 160 classes at that begin at 5 p.m. or later. Those class sizes range between 20-42 students — that is potentially hundreds of students without access to nearly all the services offered.
Additionally, many of these students are enrolled in evening classes because they are unable to attend classes earlier in the day for various reasons. It’s easy to say that those students can simply find time on a different day, but some students that don’t have that opportunity.
Take, for example, a student who works a job from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday. For these students to have any access to services on campus, including academic counseling, they would have to take time off of work to come to campus during open hours.
Those students already struggling to balance daytime work or child care needs with their evening education demands are particularly vulnerable and in need of consistent support to succeed. And they should be able to get that support without taking time off.
You may also note that not a single one of these services are open on the weekend to help alleviate the problem even a little.
Getting mental health support, guidance from an academic counselor, or food and resources from the food bank shouldn’t be a sacrifice for students who can’t be on campus earlier.
It’s no secret that Palomar has a staffing issue. Both classified employees and staff made a strong statement that more staff is needed at a governing board meeting covered by the Telescope last year. Some progress in hiring has been made since then, according to the most recent meeting on Feb. 4, but it’s not nearly enough.
While discussing the Fallbrook campus at the meeting, President Star Rivera-Lacey pointed out that campus services are integral to keeping students enrolled and the college successful. The same is true at the main San Marcos campus and the even less supported satellite campuses in Escondido and Rancho Bernardo.
There are many remedies to this and, while I believe there should be the hours in the evening daily and open offices at least one weekend day, the bare minimum would be to extend hours into the evening one day a week. Palomar has a duty to support all their students, not just the ones able to be on campus 8 to 5.
Otherwise they are sending the message: evening students aren’t as important.
