Students looking for a three-unit math class to fulfill their requirements will have to look elsewhere starting next semester, as Math 245 will be eliminated at Pierce.
College Algebra, which is a transferrable course to both UCs and CSUs, will no longer be offered after a decision reached by Pierce’s Academic Scheduling Committee.
The committee recommended changes in course offerings across all disciplines, said Bruce Yoshiwara, the Mathematics Department chair.
The committee made changes to address the redundancies in the number of classes offered by Pierce and the number of classes needed by students to transfer.
For mathematics, the committee chose between two options, one being reducing the number of transfer math units by 12 in both the fall and spring. The option they ultimately decided on was eliminating Math 245.
Math 245, despite fulfilling a general education requirement for transfer, is not required for any specific major. It is however, the only transferable three-unit class that fulfills a math requirement.
All other offerings consist of four-unit to five-unit classes.
The difference in workload between a three-unit class and five-unit class makes a difference to students like political science major Matthew Oh, 21.
“They can’t cut the class. It’ll be hell,” he said.
Oh, who is currently enrolled in Math 245, said that not having the class on the table for him would have been equivalent to leaving him with no options at all.
If the class had not been available, “I would have been petitioned,” he said.
Other Math 245 students like computer information technologies major Karl Rojo, 22, consider the decision to be a step in the wrong direction.
“There were only two other sections for this,” he said, referring the Math 245 course. “[If anything] they should be making more room for this class.”