This year, the university only offered admission to about 2,500 transfer students from California when they normally admit around 2,800, which is nearly an 11 percent decrease compared to prior years, according to officials.

“The UCs have been notifying all of our students about admission offers. I’m sure you’ve been seeing some tears–of joy, I hope,” Director of Transfer Center Sunday Salter said during an Academic Senate meeting on Monday, May 6. “It was a tough year to get into UCLA.”

UCLA is one of the the top institutions that Pierce students transfer to after completing their general education requirements. Salter explained that the reductions were not a tactic, but that the incoming junior class at the university was simply too large.

“The UCLA transfer woman who reads the applications at UCLA said she was in tears when she was going through all of the appeals, and she had so few that she could let in but so many who deserved it,” Professor of English Richard Follett said.

For students who were not accepted into the university for the fall semester, there are many resources that the Pierce College Transfer Center offers to aid students in getting to the next level of their college careers.

The Transfer Center hosts various workshops that help students with their applications, with writing personal statements, and even workshops for students that were not accepted and want to know what their options are.

The Center of Academic Success also works closely with the Transfer Center to help students reach their academic goals so they have quality work that makes them acceptable to competitive universities.

“We will continue to offer tutoring the areas of English and math, and in addition to that we will focus on the gatekeeper courses,” Center for Academic Success Director Crystal Kiekel said. “The gatekeeper courses are the high enrollment, high fail courses.”

In addition, the Transfer Center also hosts events, like the UCLA/CSUN transfer fair earlier in the month, where representatives come and educate students on course requirements, acceptable grade point averages, major prerequisites and major curriculums.

Students who were not accepted into the college or colleges or their choice were encouraged by board members to not be discouraged, but to instead use some of the many resources that Pierce has to offer.

“If you have a student who’s concerned about this or having issues with their admission, or they were denied and they thought they should’ve been admitted, have them see me or they can email me.” Salter said.

Students will compete in two categories: informative and persuasive, according to Associate Speech Professor Michelle Silver.

The event is open to everyone, but the tournament is only open to current Speech 101 students.

Tournament winners will receive cash prizes–$200, $100 and $50 for first, second and third place respectively. The event is sponsored by the Associated Students Organization.

Silver also said that students enrolled in speech courses could earn extra credit from attending.

These high-speed optical reading machines will utilize special Scantron forms that are personalized by students’ identification numbers, and tie into the Student Information System, said Mathematics Department Chair Robert Martinez during an Academic Senate meeting Monday, May 6.

When the forms are fed into the new machines, they will provide different data responses, including a breakdown of student performance with itemized scoring, overall score and an item analysis of all students who took the test, Martinez said.

This detailed information will be useful for faculty to diagnose exactly what happened on the test, Martinez said.

The machines can be utilized for Student Learning Outcomes assessments, and the Math Exit Test, he said.

The sophisticated software and machines were purchased through extra funds that were fed back into the school, according to Martinez.

This money was then allocated for equipment that the whole college could benefit from, he said.

One of the two machines will be located in the Center for the Sciences, while the other will be placed in the future Academic Senate offices, which will be located on the first floor of the Library and Learning Crossroads.

“This is going to be a real good thing for the college,” Academic Senate President Tom Rosdahl.

Academic Senate Candidate Forum

California’s Student Success Scorecards individually present benchmark data about the state’s 112 community colleges’ completion rates categorized by a student’s degree of preparedness, and segmented into race, ethnicity, gender, and age.

“This new tool . . . gives the California community colleges an unprecedented level of transparency, making the nation’s largest system of higher education also the most accountable,” California’s Chancellor of Community Colleges Brice Harris said in a video released on YouTube Tuesday.

Wednesday’s conference, at which Pierce student and co-President of the Black Student Union Jerry Peralte will be speaking, is one of only two unveilings. Northern California’s Diablo Valley College hosted the other on Tuesday.

As of Tuesday, each of California’s 112 community colleges have a Scorecard posted on the chancellor’s office’s website, cccco.edu.

By gauging and publishing measurements of student achievement, the Scorecards are posed to increase transfer and graduation rates, according chancellor’s office’s website.

Pierce was selected to represent the community colleges of Southern California partly because of the results the collected data yielded, according to Vice President of Academic Affairs Anna Davies, who said Pierce’s data scored above the state’s average.

Davies said the data shows that success and completion rates are directly helped by a student’s preparation, and Davies feels the Scorecards could help incoming community college students gain perspective on what it takes to succeed.

“I’m hoping that we can work closely with our local high schools, so that potential students can begin to see the characteristics of successful students at Pierce,” Davies said.

The information presented on the scorecard details the different rates of progress through percentages, but is not intended to be used as a way to rank or compare schools.

The data shows that students who test into college-level math and English are 29 percent more likely to complete courses, and that students who have taken at least 30 units yield more favorable data overall, Davies sad.

This information could be used to help incoming students form a plan for their education, according to Davies.

The press conference and town hall discussion will be held Wednesday from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. in the Great Hall. In addition to Harris’ appearance, Los Angeles Community College District Chancellor Daniel LaVista will also be speaking.

Due to several professors going into retirement, Pierce is looking to hire instructors for approximately 16 new positions for faculty in various departments.

During an Academic Senate meeting on Feb. 11, Kathleen Burke-Kelly, Pierce College president, said positions for different departments have been approved and Pierce may be hiring as many as 20 new faculty members.

The reason behind hiring these new faculty members is mainly because several faculty and staff have retired in the past year, which have to be replaced by law. Colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District must maintain a certain amount of faculty employed.

“The state of California has a requirement for community colleges called F.O.N. [Faculty Obligation Number] which gives us a number of faculty members that must be employed for each college,” said Tom Rosdahl, Academic Senate president. “The current percentage is 60 percent of faculty that must be working full-time.”

The number of employees required to work in LACCD varies according to budget of that particular college, according to Rosdahl.

If the budget is low then the F.O.N. lowers, and if the college has a higher budget, they must begin to hire more.

These requirements are determined by the chancellor of the district, Daniel LaVista, and the presidents of each college during LACCD meetings.

The district will then inform each college their specific number of employees that must be working at the college.

Pierce College is looking to hire professors that teach English, math, anthropology, speech, chemistry and journalism, to name a few. Pierce is also looking to hire a new librarian and some staff in administration.

“We are very excited to hire new faculty because new professors make a difference in the experience of each student,” said Anna Davies, vice president of Academic Affairs.

According to Davies, Pierce is still in the process of recruiting and interviewing possible candidates that meet the colleges requirements and will possibly be hiring these new instructors in June.

“As of now, we don’t know who we will hire yet, but when once we do we sill be sure to give that information out,” said Davies.

Anyone who meets the requirements is welcome to apply for a position at Pierce.

For more information about how to apply to become a faculty member at Pierce College, visit www.laccd.edu and www.piercecollge.edu.

The visit, which began Monday, will determine whether or not Pierce meets standards that will allow the school to be accredited.

“Accreditation is important to students because it enforces good health and validation to the school,” Mia Wood, accreditation coordinator, said. “Courses that are accredited in this institution give students the chance to transfer to a four-year institution.”

Accreditation is a seal of approval for colleges, according to Pierce’s accreditation Web page.

Wood also added that with full accreditation the school will continue to be federally funded.

The visit consists of at least 10 confirmed team members, all volunteers who will evaluate the school and its facilities, Wood said during a Feb. 14 meeting on accreditation.

These team members will have full access to the school. They will be able to walk into classrooms and meetings at any time, said Wood.

Back in January, the Pierce Accreditation Committee sent their self-evaluation to the ACCJC.

Lyn Clark, president of the Pierce College Council, explains how the school self-evaluated itself.

“We respond to statements to show how the college does or does not show up to standards by providing evidence,” Clark said.

The four standards that the committee had to follow were provided by the ACCJC. The standards go over the technology the school provides, where the funding for the school goes, how the school is guided by their leader, and the plan or mission for the school’s and its students’ futures.

Clark’s participation in the self-evaluation was to prove to the ACCJC that Pierce lives up to its mission statement.

They needed to prove that Pierce “provides opportunities for lifelong learning,” and that their services “enable students to earn associate degrees and certificates.”

The team members will have read Pierce’s self-evaluation before they travel to the school, according to Wood’s presentation.

“They come to this campus to confirm what they read in the document is what we do,” Wood said.

After the team has been on campus for four days, they will create a written evaluation that determines whether or not the school’s standards are up to code.

Then, the team members will meet with the ACCJC and discuss their evaluation. The commission will not make the final decision on Pierce’s accreditation until July.

But Wood tells the group that there’s nothing to worry about.

“Everything that the standards asked us to address has been addressed,” Wood said.

Pierce College’s last accreditation evaluation was in 2007.

The program link will be sent via a mass email to all the faculty and staff of Pierce College.

“We hope to increase awareness of students’ behavior,” said Student Health Center Director Beth Benne, who introduced the program to the senate. “The objective of this training is to learn how to recognize the common signs, how to approach students with approved skills, and how to refer students to the health center.”

Kognito’s “At-Risk for Faculty and Staff” program is an interactive online simulation that allows faculty to engage in conversations with five different avatars showing signs of psychological distress. The program allows for the responses the person chooses to dictate which way the conversation will conclude.

“The ultimate goal is prevention. Get in early, that’s the bottom line,” Benne said.

Due to rises in mass shootings on school campuses across the nation, Pierce has taken steps to prepare the college in the event that a shooting occurs on site.

For instance, an active shooter training seminar has increased awareness about campus safety at Pierce.

Kognito has been provided for no cost to Pierce as well as five other colleges in District Nine due to the California Mental Health Services Authority grant, CalMHSA, initiated by Proposition 63.

Tom Rosdahl, president of the Academic Senate, learned of this program for the first time during the meeting on Monday.

“I’m assuming that by going through the program we can get some good ideas to deal with students, to know what type of questions to ask and to be compassionate for these students,” Rosdahl said.

Benne is in the process of getting the Associated Students Organization, the student government, to approve this program to be extended to the students.

During the meeting, it was also announced by Kathleen Burke-Kelly, college president, that 14 positions to be hired have been approved, and that number could increase to 20.

“There are at least two positions that I have asked to be approved, and we could go as high as 20,” Burke-Kelly said. “Once we get beyond 20, I think it becomes difficult for us to hire.”

The Academic Senate meets on alternate Mondays at 2:15 p.m. in the Campus Services Building Conference Room.

At the meeting in the in school’s College Services Conference Room, Senate President for Academic Policy, Tom Rosdahl explained that the three other schools in the Los Angeles Community College District—Harbor Community College, Southwest Community College, and West Los Angeles Community College (West L.A.)— asked the district for $750,000 to finance efforts to clear the sanctions.

“Harbor wants $249,000, and these,” Rosdahl stated. “They want $90,000 for half of a salary of an ALO, which is an accreditation liaison officer, for one year expense. They want $20,000 for stipends. I’m sure to pay faculty or classified people to do work. They want $135,000 dollars for reassigned time for faculty. That means they’ll take a faculty member out of the classroom. And they want $4,000 to pay the team to come back.”

He said Southwest requested $279,000, and West L.A. asked for $210,000.

Senate Vice President John Zayac stated that he was displeased with the procedure to allocate funds in the district.

“One of the big problems I have is that when looking at being in a district, a couple colleges always tend to be ahead of the curve, and they’re doing their job— they’re being fiscally conservative,” Zayac stated. “And then that money ends up being diverted to other colleges that aren’t doing as good of a job.”

Rosdahl stated that while he was not glad that the schools might receive money for issues Pierce College planned in advance for, he understood that the money was allocated out of necessity.

“These colleges have to fix it. It has to be done. It’s money that must be spent,” Rosdahl commented. “If you say, ‘No, we won’t give them the money,’ then they’re just going to go down the tube—and you can’t allow that…they’ll go down to the next level and they could eventually lose accreditation. And if they did, then we’d have bigger problems. “

While Zayac recognized the need for funds at other schools in the district, he still said it was unfair to Pierce College’s careful planning each semester.

“While I realize we’re a system, it’s frustrating for us to it here in every meeting to talk about accreditation, and then talk about the limits to what we can actually do to address the weaknesses we’ve identified ourselves,” Zayac said. “So that’s why we’re sending Tom to the district budget committee to argue to give us money ahead of time so we can address our own issues.”

Vice President of Academic Affairs, Ana Davies stated that while the college is suffering fiscally, the institution has prepared for any fiscal “worse case scenarios” and that it was unlikely that scheduling for the spring semester would be impacted.

Crystal Kiekel, co-chair of the Standard IIA, and Donna-Mae Villanueva, co-chair of the Standard II, hosted a game of Bingo to help faculty learn more about the issues that accreditation evaluates.

“Our goal is to make it easier for people to remember the information,” Kiekel said.

The game drew attention to matters concerning the strengths Pierce has, as well as bringing to light areas that need improvement.

Some of the strengths Pierce identified are: determining Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), effective counseling and administrative office services, and keeping accurate and current information available.

“We’re going around [campus] doing presentations to get people more engaged”, Kiekel said.

Many faculty were engaged in the game, and winners took home simple prizes including, dry-erase markers, Post-it notes, and cookies.

Aside from learning more about accreditation, Jill Binsley, Technology Advisory Committee member, announced that the buildings in the North Mall will be equipped with 70 SMART Classrooms.

These will be installed and ready to use by Fall 2013, with a few now being used in the Center for Sciences building.

“Pierce will have the most [SMART classrooms],” Binsley said.

David Schamus, Chair of the Computer Science and Information Technology Department, explained to the Academic Senate a little more of the new state-of-the-art equipment.

“[SMART Boards] are essentially electronic versions of the white board,” Schamus said.

These new boards will be directly hard-wired into the room, so that instructors will not have to worry about bringing in their own cables to hook up their laptops.

Blu-ray players, AV connectors, and higher Wi-Fi connectivity will also be in place with the new gear.

“Interactive and media-rich environments in our classrooms is our goal,” Schamus said.

Sunday Salter, Transfer Center Director, also introduced to the meeting a new website, www.ADegreeWithAGuarantee.com for students to learn and find what associate degrees are transferable to the California State University system.

The state chancellor is very enthusiastic about this new website, Salter said.

Salter emphasized that this new website will help students because it will have all the information regarding transferring and degrees in one place.

Learn more about this and other Academic Senate news at www.theroundupnews.com.