Pierce College needs to establish friendly community to unite its students and staff.
That might have helped make the 2006 homecoming more successful than it was.
“Getting more students to support our college athlete department is something worthwhile,” Robert Garber, Pierce College president, commented on 2006 homecoming.
There were about 300 people at the Pierce side. Few appeared to be students out of more than 18,000 enrolled this semester.
Even fewer were aware that it was the homecoming game.
In a random on-campus survey, eight of 20 students knew when and where the Pierce 2006 homecoming was taking place, but only one of those actually attended.
“I had hoped there would be more students,” said Tiffany Henderson, a Pierce student who attended homecoming.
She suggested that in the future the school should provide a party with music, dancing and some competitions in the gym.
However, most students said they don’t care about homecoming.
Some said they don’t know anyone at this school.
Others said they just take some classes here.
A few students said they didn’t go because they were busy studying and an Indian cultural festival was taking place at the same time.
If our students don’t go to homecoming while enrolled, why would they attend any future Pierce homecoming?
Although the Associated Students Organization (ASO) was in charge of the event, it is supposed to be a school-wide event.
Here are some suggestions for building Pierce community.
Classmates often don’t know each other’s names.
Department chairs and instructors could set up study groups to encourage students to communicate and help each other.
ASO and its clubs could help students to organize forums or provide some small competitions or presentations to share knowledge and experience.
This would help students to get involved in the Pierce community.
For example, ASO could provide a forum about the Pierce development plans.
The school could give each student an e-mail account and save the e-mail addresses, so that students would be accessible anytime, even after they leave.
This is standard practice at most schools and universities.
Lawrence Kleinman, ASO treasurer, said the maximum amount of money they could spend on homecoming this year was $5,000.
This time ASO didn’t do well. They spent $100 on a trophy that two clubs competed for.
Even with this amount of money, next year before homecoming, organizers should advertise at least one month earlier and try to bring back alumni.
However, the fault of a poor homecoming does not lie with organizers alone.
Each person who attends or is employed at Pierce should help to create an environment and share suggestions to produce a better homecoming next year.
It’s time to put the community back in community college.
(Cesar Maguina)
