Several important decisions were made November 5th to the 10th that will affect students and faculty in the upcoming spring, summer and fall of 2008 semesters. The Academic Senate elections voted in seven people to represent full-time and part-time faculty at Pierce College . Vice President for Academic Policy will be Robert Martinez who won with a total of 56 votes. Other candidates for the position include Betty Odello with 29 votes and David Oshima with 2 votes. The job of Vice President for Curriculum was bestowed upon Sharon Levick who had a total of 80 votes. Her runner-ups were Richard Follett with one vote and Betty Odello who had also one vote. Levick was re-elected for chair and has had the position since February of 2007. “I was basically unopposed mostly because I have the knowledge and experience, which are benefits from having done the job this year,” said Levick. “I have monthly responsibilities to maintain the quality of existing courses and to work with professors who want to start new courses,” she said. Martinez and Levick have a term of 2 years. They will be in office from February 2008 to January 2010. Tami Aviles, a new student to Pierce this semester, said “I wasn’t aware that faculty members made financial and academic decisions. I thought it was all up to the state.” Several at-large full-time senators were elected to serve for one year. The winners are Richard Follett with 86 votes, Betty Odello with 66 votes and Gail Hobbs with 46 votes. They will represent the full-time faculty at Pierce and they will serve from February 2008 to January 2009. Other candidates for the full-time senator position were Pamela Dr. Brown, Beth Benne and Richard Skidmore. Along with the full-time senators, two at-large part-time senators were also selected to serve from February 2008 to January 2009. The part-time senators are Martin Karamian with 26 votes and Kathy Holland with 46 votes. They represent the part-time faculty at Pierce. Jill Binsley is the instructor of Computer Applications and Office Technologies at Pierce and also a member of the Academic Senate Nominations and Election Committee. “The academic senate bulletin is posted up on the board in the mail room so everyone can go look at it to see who won,” said Binsley.
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