Although student enrollment numbers have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, the Pierce College Council revealed increased Summer and Fall 2024 enrollment data at an Aug. 29 meeting.
Vice President of Academic Affairs Mary-Jo Apigo discussed that summer semester enrollment was 14% higher this year compared to last year.
On the same note, she spoke about the importance of stopping fraudulent accounts from enrolling at Pierce in online classes, which has been an ongoing district-wide challenge.
“Our Fall (2023) numbers were unreliable,” she said. “That data was unreliable because of the volume of fraudulent enrollments we had.”
Previous Academic Senate meetings revealed that with artificial intelligence, bots now can submit assignments and take quizzes.
Despite these challenges and uncertain data, Pierce is working to grow its student body and as of the first week of the semester, fall enrollment exceeded last fall’s enrollment by 3%.
“Our enrollment picture is looking really promising and really great right now,” she said.
Pierce President Ara Aguiar updated PCC members on the current state of eight-week courses at the college.
“We did cancel some classes that were low-enrolled,” Aguiar said. “However, we did add classes to the second eight weeks that were in high demand with waitlists.”
During the PCC meeting, Deputy Isaac Jorge discussed traffic reports for the first week of the semester, stating that the Sheriff’s Department is ticketing vehicles parked improperly beginning on Sept. 9.
He also alerted the PCC about ongoing automobile and towing-related scams that have occurred on campus and in a small vicinity surrounding it.
“What the scam is, they come and take that car, they say they are from your insurance,” he said. “They take it really really far and they pretty much kidnap your car, they don’t tell you where it’s at and they charge you per mile.”
He concluded his report by noting that West Valley Occupational Center (WVOC), which is across the street from Pierce, has had six lockdowns in the past two weeks.
On July 23, a threat made to the WVOC campus, which was later deemed to not be credible, caused Pierce to go into a lockdown as well, which lasted 45 minutes.
Vice President of Administrative Services Rolf Schleicher expressed frustration over how some staff and students have responded to lockdowns.
“When there’s a lockdown, we want people going indoors, we don’t want people jumping in their cars or roaming around,” he said. “A lockdown means that there is a potential shooter or assault happening, so we want people coming indoors.”
Aguiar also said it is important to take lockdowns seriously.
“The immediate action from people is not to take it seriously,” she said. “The kids are not listening, no one is listening.”
The PCC will hold its next Zoom meeting at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 26.
