Shweta Saraswat
MANURE TEAM COMPETES IN WASHINGTON, D.C.The Pierce College manure team, led by environmental sciences professor Craig Meyer, traveled to the nation’s capital this semester to compete for the first time in the annual People, Prosperity and the Planet competition conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency.After the team received a $10,000 grant to begin developing their idea to convert animal waste into something useful, such as a soil ingredient or fuel, they got the chance to rub shoulders with undergraduate and graduate students from across the country at the event.Pierce was the only community college present of the 50 schools competing.”In roll call, we were right between Penn State and Princeton,” remarked Pierce President Robert Garber, who hopes the team will enter the competition again next year.Though they did not receive the $75,000 grant they were competing for, Garber felt the team “showed themselves very well.”DAY OF THE CHILDPierce opened its arms to hundreds of foster care children in the October of 2007 for the ninth annual Day of the Child event.Each child was paired up with at least one mentor; together, they enjoyed the numerous rides and games that had been set up in Shepard Stadium.Many of the mentors were Pierce service-learning students who had signed up to be mentors for the day with political science instructor Jim Dawson.”The Day of the Child is a great event for students because they are able to help foster children have a day of fun,” Dawson said. “We really promote it here at Pierce.”Nursing major Anna Lee, 19, was one of those students.”I had a great time with my child…he really opened up to me,” said Lee, who added that she learned a lot of things about the foster care system simply by attending the event.She recalls the day with fondness.”When it was time to go, my child hugged me and didn’t want to go,” Lee said. “I was really touched.”THE FARMWALK AND HARVEST FESTIVALSheep shearing and horseshoe forging were among the activities visitors tried their hands at during the Pierce Farmwalk May 4.Organized by the Pierce agriculture and natural resources department, the Farmwalk was an opportunity for students, staff and community members to experience a huge part of Pierce culture firsthand.”It was pretty cool because most students don’t get to see that part of the campus,” said business major Bahareh Aghajani, 19.”It’s important to bring attention to the agriculture department, because Pierce was originally an agricultural school,” Aghajani said. “It’s good to get people involved in that.”The agriculture department had presented its wares earlier in the school year. The September 2007 Harvest Festival certainly served its purpose this year; not only were the campus fields brought into production, but money and awareness were raised for the department.”The festival was the only place you could buy an educated pumpkin,” joked director Robert McBroom, commenting on the approximately 200 tons of pumpkins that were harvested for the festival.Whether visitors chose to get lost in the corn maze, be thrilled in the haunted house or just sit with the farm animals, McBroom hoped they got the “full farm experience.”ASO ELECTIONSA record number of students voted this month in the Associated Students Organization elections, which resulted in Christian Marfil-Amatulli being chosen as president.”We had about 1,100 students vote this time, which is the most that Pierce has ever done,” said Tessa Moss, election committee chair and present ASO president.According to Moss, approximately 300 students voted last year. She said the average number of voters floats between 80 and 300.”We have really dedicated students this semester…we’ve worked hard to publicize the election,” Moss said.She attributes this year’s impressive turnout to “the fact that teachers were talking to their classes about (the elections) as well as the fact that the election was highly contested this year.”Garber was pleased with the heightened level of activity surrounding this year’s elections.”It was great to see the associated students in the middle of campus again,” he said. “The timing with the (opening of) the new student community center was terrific.”However, with the approximately 20,000 students who attend Pierce, both Garber and Moss see room for more involvement.50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE THEATER DEPARTMENTThe theater department at Pierce kicked off its 50th anniversary season in October with “Golden Encore,” a compilation of exciting moments from Pierce theater history, arranged and directed by RoZsa Horvath.”The 50th year was a special opportunity for us,” said department chair Gene Putnam. “It was nice to have alumni come back and perform scenes from plays they were in 20 years ago.”Among other things, “Golden Encore” included pieces from controversial productions such as “The Vagina Monologues,” classics like “Fiddler on the Roof,” as well as dance numbers from “West Side Story” and “Cabaret.”Director Valorie Grear followed up with the clever “Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet,” which Putnam called “a great success.”This semester, viewers were treated to two Pulitzer Prize-winning plays: the classic “All My Sons,” directed by Horvath, and “Anna in the Tropics,” directed by Grear, which sold out before it opened.”We are trying to do more plays that reflect cultural diversity,” Putnam said, “and ‘Anna in the Tropics’ did that very well.”This summer, Putnam hopes to draw out “the younger crowd” with the pop-musical “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” which has just been cast and is set to open in July.All of these plays have been cast with Pierce students and local community members, which reflects the enormous talent that is to be found in the neighborhood.”I’m very proud of the students,” Putnam said, “and I hope more people come up here to see our shows and be exposed to theater.”BUDGET AND ENROLLMENTPierce managed to balance its budget this year despite funding instability; according to Garber, the college began and ended the year with a $7 million balance. Though Garber felt this year was “great”, he feels the future is “uncertain.””We’ve already had $935,000 that was pulled back from our budget from the property-tax shortfall,” he said. “The governor’s May revise is coming out this year; his budget will reflect whether or not we’ll be cut, where those cuts will occur and whether or not we’ll be able to grow next year.”Still, Garber’s main commitment is to “not slash classes or cut back…on student services.””We don’t want to lose students,” he said.Far from losing students, Pierce had slightly increased its enrollment this year.”We started the year with a very challenging enrollment goal to gain… all in all, we’ve reached that enrollment goal and on top of that, grew about another 300 students.”As a result of this increase in enrollment, Garber believes Pierce has “the advantage of having gained additional growth funding in the past year that will help us protect the class offerings and student enrollment in the coming year.”