Funding from Proposition 30 will be used to open 100 to 125 sections at Pierce College this year, though restrictions on allocation are still unclear.
Administration expects to open a minimal number of the added sections during Spring 2013, and the bulk of new sections will be opened during an expansive 8-week Summer 2013 intercession, Pierce College President Kathleen Burke-Kelly said at an Academic Senate meeting on Monday.
“We will probably have a beefed up summer,” Burke-Kelly said.
“It means added sections. There will be more options for students,” Academic Senate President Tom Rosdahl said.
It has not been decided which sections will be added, said Beth Abels of the Scheduling Advisement Committee.
“It’s probably a guess at this point,” Rosdahl said of the new course offerings.
The college is waiting for confirmation from the Los Angeles Community College District before it makes final decisions on spending, Rosdahl said.
As mandated in the proposition, money cannot be spent on administrators or administration, and it’s use on other resources, like instructional supplies, is still unclear, Burke-Kelly said.
After allocation restrictions become more clear, a budgeting committee will decide how the remaining funds are spent, Burke-Kelly said.
“Rather than unilaterally deciding, I would like to take it to the budget committee,” Burke-Kelly said.
John Zayac, the chair of Physics and Planetary Sciences is part of the budgeting committee.
“The classes are going to come out of the schedule advisement committee,” Zayac said. “And the monies will be done by the budget committee who recommend where the money should go.”
Burke-Kelly would like to use the remaining funds to reestablish tutoring services and increase the budget for instructional supplies, Burke-Kelly said.
“Some of it is going to have to fall under the category of how we audit it or account for it,” Burke-Kelly said.
For faculty, the added sections may mean an eventual hiring increase of full-time faculty, Rosdahl said.
“It’s more than likely that there will be reasonable hiring next year,” Rosdahl said. “At some point in the near future, we will know how many people.”
The Faculty Position Priority Committee presented the list before the senate earlier in the month regarding the department hires and who would have priority.
It was unanimously approved by the senate.
Cinema is ranked first, due to an automatic rehire as per senate policy when professor Karin Stellwagen left the department at the end of the spring 2012 semester.
There is also a reading specialist position at the Center for Academic Successes as per senate policy to replace Lori Nelson.
Other departments ranking high on the list are microbiology which ranks 4th and horticulture which ranks 7th.
For a full list of the Priority Hires visits theroundupnews.com
The senate also unanimously agreed to lower the number of students required to keep advance courses from closing on the first day of class.
An advance course or a third level course is defined as a course which requires two CSU or UC transferable prerequisites at both Pierce College and the transfer institution, according to the advance course policy to be approved by the senate.
In the pass 15 students were required to be enrolled in the course to continue, it has now been changed to require only eight.
Final decisions on spending, course offerings and faculty hiring will be made in December, Rosdahl said.