Andre Fuller / Roundup
With schools cutting classes, the last thing any student needs is to not have the ability to get into a class because it’s based on a lottery system.
Doing away with the waiting list, Pierce College is deciding to put the fate of students’ academic lives in chance. This is a plan that is isn’t thought through to its fullest potential
Having a waiting list is beneficial to all students and faculty. There are students that waited and waited for classes they couldn’t get into. Just for the board to say, “Sorry, but you’re out of luck because you didn’t win the game of chance.”
Where’s the justice and fairness in this issue? I guess that still remains to be seen.
In a public meeting on Sept. 14, the Academic Senate addressed this issue.
Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh, Vice President of Academic Affairs, stated that Pierce College was abolishing the waiting list and going with the lottery system.
There are senate members, who are opposed to the abolishment of the waiting list, that were under a different impression last semester. Before the public meeting on Sept. 14, senate members agreed on letting the individual departments decide whether they wanted to get rid of the waiting list.
Unlike the math department, which decided to do away with the waiting list, the English department wanted to keep the waiting list.
Richard J. Follett, an English teacher, is one of the senate members that is upset about the college’s plan to abolish the waiting list.
“We were told in May that some departments can use the waiting list system, and some don’t have to. Now they are going away with it?” said Follett.
The lack of communication is visible between senate members.
“When you have faculty members that want to have a waiting list and then you do away with it, there’s a problem,” said Follett.
Organizational skills is must in order to succeed in business or institution. However, the skills of keeping things organized are not here at Pierce College.
If several senate members can’t come together about whether or not to abolish the waiting list system, what faith do I have in them bringing the lottery system together? How can I feel safe with trying to get into a class when I have odds, like “the lottery” stacked against me?
With the waiting list, everything is made easier because the students that weren’t able to get in the first week have a better chance of getting in the next week because they are on the waiting list.
Conversely, with the lottery, if you can’t get to the class early enough the first day, it’s going to be very hard for any student to take the class. It furthermore takes up the time of the students that are already enrolled while the teachers try to figure out which students to pick at random for the class.
Teachers, are you supposed to know that the student that you pick at random wants to take the class or just wants to fill up the schedule they paid for?
The California State Assembly and Senate passed Title V, which states that community colleges need to function more like a university. The college is invested into the faculty.
With all this miscommunication between faculty members and senate members, is the community college really investing in its faculty?
If you are left scratching your head, don’t worry I was too. Changing from the waiting list system is not only wrong, but it will further complicates an issue that is already is in disarray.
Andre Fuller / Staff Writer (Gerard Walsh /Roundup)
