Part of the Pierce College mission statement reads, “…to ensure that students achieve their educational, career and personal goals.”
“Personal” may be the most important part of the mission.
An Orange County Register editorial, published Dec. 4, 2006, is infused with accusations that degrade and belittle all the work put forth by the staff of this and other community colleges.
The editorial uses the facts and figures gathered from a Public Policy Institute of California study to support its defamation of community colleges.
Numbers may be how government rates “success,” but many people fail to recognize and appreciate the role that our two-year institutions offer.
The following “failures” were alleged by the editorial:
“Fewer than a tenth of community college students who focus on associate degree courses earn two-year degrees.”
“(Only) a fourth of students who intend to transfer to four-year schools ever do.”
“…as much as a third of both groups don’t even return to campus after their first year.”
People come and go for different reasons, according to Donna-Mae Villanueva, dean of academic affairs.
“Pierce has a different overall mission than upper-division classes,” said Villanueva. “This study probably doesn’t evaluate all the variables.”
Variables like the commitment of a full-time job (in order to pay for tuition and the soaring prices of books, among other things), while dealing with stress and obligations that come from home and family, along with a demanding academic schedule.
There is also the new student who may be unprepared when entering college and make mistakes in their course selection, forcing them to stay longer then expected.
Then there is the returning student, whose educational goals may not be listed on the little bubble sheet that is given to us once a semester.
And don’t forget the high schooler, who is one of the almost 2,000 concurrently enrolled students that come to Pierce to knock out requirements before they graduate.
In spite of the “failing” numbers that are shown by the report, two-year institutions have much more to offer their students.
Instructors at the community college level are solely devoted to teaching, where four-year professors are more focused on their own research.
Community colleges are more then just “13th grade.” They are the campuses where anyone can maintain more personal working and educational relationship with professors, as opposed to their four-year counterparts where students are herded into a jam-packed auditorium for a lecture from a professor who vanishes into vapor after droning out a lecture that will be regurgitated by teacher’s aides for many days after.
Many students do not have the financial luxury to attend a UC or a state university, especially with recent tuition hikes of 7 percent for the UC (collecting $6,571 annually for undergrads) and 10 percent for Cal State (totaling to $2,772 for undergrads). All this is on top of the $700 to $800 in campus-based fees.
Two-year institutions give students a chance to complete part of their undergrad requirements at an affordable price, especially with Pierce’s lowered fees of $20 per unit. This is $240 for a 12-unit student, on top of any textbooks.
We are a learning institution for the community, no matter what a student’s facet of life. This and every other community college has that obligation to their community.
Pierce supplies the fountain of knowledge for all who thirst for it, for whatever personal reason.
That is the goal of Pierce College and they are doing a hell of a job trying to achieve it.