San Jose City College has made progression in anthropology’s favor by offering two courses for the spring 2013 semester.

At a SJCC Academic Senate meeting on Oct. 2, anthropology instructor Jeffery Smith passed out a letter of concern to each member of the Senate expressing his distress for the standard of anthropology courses offered.

“The previous instructor disappeared without notice; the program had obviously been neglected,” Smith said.

Smith has been with SJCC since 2007 and is the only anthropology instructor for SJCC. As an adjunct instructor, he is only allowed one class per semester, which is a 66 percent cut of classes since Smith has started at SJCC.

De Anza College and West Valley College offer at least four courses a semester or quarter.SJCC has had one class per semester with no lab for the classes offered.

Each semester SJCC offers one of two classes, so if a student cannot take the class for that semester, he or she must wait one year until it is offered again.

This semester the class was under-enrolled;  previous semesters the anthropology classes at SJCC have been full with  students enrollment plus additional
students on the waitlist, Smith said.

“Most people are dropping out, leaving and changing their major because of the administration’s choices,” Smith said.

Smith has purposed the expansion of the department every semester since his arrival, but said he  “ is not too sure if there has been any kind of formal proposal.”

Anthropology is the study of human kind, the evolution of Homo sapiens and where humans come from.

Peoples and Cultures of The Middle East, Visual Anthropology, also called the Anthropology of Art, and Ethnic Musicology are just some of classes suggested by Smith that he called “basic classes.”

Mario Navarro, 21, is a psychology major taking Smith’s class and said “(anthropology) brings awareness of what’s happening in the world… helping to bring unity and equality to society.”

Kelley Ann Jones, 19, a hospitality management major, is taking Smith’s anthropology class. She said she would take more anthropology classes if they were offered and that “social movements come directly from the study of culture and man.”

It is up to SJCC to decide to set up the program to local standards or just leave it in its current position.

Smith has taught at schools across Europe, in New York and at UC Santa Cruz.

It is up to SJCC to decide if they are able to set up the program to local standards or just leave it in its current position.