Automotive technology has been voted to be 1st priority during last Thursday’s Pierce College Committee meeting.
The decision will be presented to Pierce College president Kathleen Burke-Kelly. She will take this suggestion into account while making her decision.
The Auto Department has been a part of Pierce College for over 40 years since the construction of the current building in 1968.
“We teach more than double the types of courses for auto, on top of what we taught in 1968” says Tom Fortune, Chairman of Industrial Technology at Pierce.
The automotive industry has developed by leaps and bounds since the 70s and the automotive department has done their best to keep up with it, and provide useful education for students according to Fortune.
Since 1968, the department has gone from 10 to 25 courses covering the new and changing aspects in the field, but the building is not accommodated for all the new equipment.
“They’ve given us the equipment over the years, and we’re thankful for that” says Fortune, “but we’ve turned from a working shop to an equipment storage center.”
The expansion will provide enough space for the equipment of the developing industry and will include advanced emission testing, an alternative fuel lab, and cars that they need to work on to do this.
The whole upgrade will cost approximately $32 million and will include all the new equipment, bathroom upgrades, a chiller plant, and a new parking lot.
