OGDEN -- After an unsuccessful attempt to cut back, Weber State University is closing its community education program.
"Basically, what we've had to do because of constraints in the budget, we've had to shift resources to more of our core activities," said Brian Stecklein, associate dean for continuing education.
"We've had to discontinue (community education classes) for the time being."
The program provided noncredit classes to community members wanting to learn a new skill, such as digital photography or Dutch-oven cooking.
Stecklein said the classes were open to anyone, but were aimed more toward the baby boomer generation and older, more mature adults.
"They were more for personal enrichment than anything else," he said. "We were just trying to fill a niche for the community. We've just come to the point where we needed to work more on core issues."
Stecklein said the university initially tried to scale back the classes, but even that wasn't enough to save the program.
Bruce Davis, vice provost and dean of continuing education, said legislative budget cuts combined with an increased enrollment caused the university to cut the program.
"Part of our challenge is, enrollment is up, but we took more budget cuts," he said.
"We have to cut someplace, and this seemed like the least harmful way to make a reduction that we need to do."
About 600 people were involved in the program as students, Stecklein said, which made the cut more difficult for university officials.
"It was kind of difficult to make a decision to stop doing it," he said.
"It involved a pretty good-size group of people. Even as we tried to scale back and save some of it, it was still not enough to keep people interested."
The cut will eliminate one position, saving the university about $30,000.
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