The Pierce College Council assembled last Thursday for its monthly meeting to discuss construction concerns, budgets and updates to campus technology and security.
Much of the meeting centered around ongoing construction and infrastructure upgrades, most notably the project to upgrade the college internet to a fiber optics-based system. Project Director Ed Cadena received criticism from his colleagues about the pace of the fiber project.
“All the fiber has been laid, and most if not all of the testing has been done,” Cadena said. “It should be done in the latter part of September.”
Construction of the South Mall buildings surrounding the Botanical Gardens was another hot-button issue. Cadena offered no more than to note the department had passed its risk review for the project, which has roughly $6 million left in its budget.
Cadena also offered updates on the state of completion of the football stadium, and gave an estimation of when students can fully utilize the facility.
“The home side is fully operational, but the away side is seeing some issues. Some welding was done in Canada and needed to be checked,” Cadena said. “We think we’ll have the visitors side open for the next home game.”
Pierce College Sheriff’s Station Team Leader Deputy Al Guerrero iterated that the most time-consuming issues for the Sheriff’s department so far have been traffic incidents.
“Our traffic accidents are a little up in our student lots compared to previous years, so please tell the students to slow down,” Guerrero said.
Guerrero also said that the incident reported as a sexual assault earlier in the month was was misreported, and was not in fact an assault.
When the topic of the proposed campus security system was brought up, Vice President of Administrative Services Rolf Schleicher was adamant that it was a necessity, given camps security.
“Our police on campus act as lone soldiers in some cases,” Schleicher said. “If they have surveillance, they know what they’re walking into.”
