Mayra Escobedo / Roundup
Help for international students, enrollment issues, FLEX offenders, faculty being hired and the mall construction were some of the topics covered in Monday’s Academic Senate meeting Monday.
International Students Club President Sina Ghiabi asked for help, for international students who have been attending Pierce for less than one year because they are having trouble adding enough units to keep their visas. There approximately 180-200 international students attending Pierce
Ghiabi suggested getting more classes or programs so that international students can get the units they need. To which Diane Levine, vice president of the Academic Senate said “look into service learning.”
Overall, senate members empathized with international students needs. Richard Follett, at-large senator, said he thought the “school had an obligation to help international students get enough units.”
As a result of this, a task force will be established to see if they can help international students get a certain number of units, according to Diane Levine, vice president of the Academic Senate.
At one point, priority registration was suggested as a way of helping international students then attention was put on whether athletes are allowed or should be allowed priority registration because they provide a service to the college.
Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh, vice president of academic affairs, cleared thing up saying that athletes did not get priority registration and that only EOP&S, disabled students and veterans get priority registration.
When asked about the possibility of priority registration for international students or athletes Levine said she “disagreed with any group of students getting priority registration that aren’t legally allowed.”
Another topic covered in the meeting was enrollment issues.
The problem that Frank Chartrand, history professor, presented was that Admissions is being able to add students into classes at any time until the class is full which is causing over enrollment because they are adding students at the same time professors are.
Another problem with enrollment is that some students are being allowed to enroll into classes that have prerequisites when they don’t meet them.
A possible solution discussed was that Admissions should not be allowed to add students unless they have an add slip regardless of whether the class is still open.
Also discussed were professors who are FLEX (professional development) offenders meaning they have not turned in their FLEX forms for the 2008-2009 year will be docked sick day pay. This will be the first time that this will happen.
College districts negotiate with the chancellor’s office for a certain number of pay days in order to have professional development days which they can do on their own time.
“The problem isn’t that faculty aren’t doing things to professionally develop themselves it’s that they are not filling out the forms” said Kathy Oborn, Professional Development Coordinator, adding that 60 out of 1000 didn’t complete forms.
During the meeting, Mike Van Dyke was voted as the Classified Hiring Committee Representative. He has 16 years of industry experience, which includes developing new positions.
It was announced that faculty will be hired in the following departments: Speech, GIS, P.E., Learning Center, Philosophy, Grant Writer, CAD and Library.
The approval of a summer bridge program for high school students was also announced.
Another announcement was that the mall should be completed and ready to open in the Fall 2010 semester.
Abu-Ghazaleh, said he was “glad that the campus was looking more like a university than a high school.”
More information on the Academic Senate can be found at http://faculty.piercecollege.edu/senate/.
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