The UCSB Ventura Center will offer nine degree-credit courses this summer, marking the first time the campus extension has offered the classes since 2009.

The UCSB Special Sessions courses are designed for students living in the Ventura, Camarillo, Oxnard, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks areas during summer, as well as non-traditional students such as parents and professionals who are unable to travel to Santa Barbara. The Ventura Center stopped offering classes with transferable units toward a degree since the university’s Off Campus Studies Program ended in 2009 due to a lack of funds.

In a statement released yesterday, history professor Paul Spickard said the satellite campus provides vital services for students unable to attend full-time at other colleges.

“I think the Ventura Center is one of the best things we do as a university,” Spickard said in the release. “It makes education possible for people who have to work full-time, or stay-at-home moms or dads who can take evening classes, and take them at a slower pace, but still make their way toward a degree.”

Spickard will teach HIST XSB 165IB: American Immigration. The class will examine American immigrants’ lives as well as the history of immigration.

Other courses include Politics and Public Policy in the United States (HIST XSB 172A), International Finance (ECON XSB 181), Native American History to 1838 (HIST XSB 179A), Developmental Psychology (PSY XSB 105), Introduction to Psychology (PSY XSB 1), Relationships and New Media (COMM XSB 160SC), Introduction to Social Psychology (PSY XSB 102) and Introduction to Psychopathology (PSY XSB 103).

The classes are taught by UC faculty and are scheduled in the evening with a maximum capacity of 32 students each.