Construction issues, campus security feedback, enrollment and a self-evaluation essay were topics of discussion for the final Pierce College Council meeting of the fall semester.
Construction:
Ed Cadena, the College Project Director, addressed the existing North of Mall phase one project. Cadena said he will meet with the general contractor and said he hopes to find a resolution for the project in the first quarter of next year.
Cadena said it would take a year to get a master plan through and approved, and three and a half to four years to get a new building constructed. He said the north of mall phase two, which is the digital and Media Arts Building project would be on hold until the other phase is completed.
“I think we are in a great shape for this particular project because it is replacing square footage,” Cadena said. “We are working towards a full complement of staff to be able to execute the work that is in front of us.”
Cadena said at the moment they have a remaining budget enough for renovation but not for destroying and reconstructing buildings on campus.
Campus Security Feedback:
Captain Rod Armalin of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Community College Bureau, talked about a field audit process they are implementing which means a sheriff’s supervisor will look at calls received for service and call people back to ask about their experience and how the employee responded to the service requested.
Armalin said they need to have this type of feedback and find out how they are doing and how they can improve their service to the community.
“I ask for you to give us the honest truth,” said Armalin. “We are human. We do realize we make mistakes.”
Armalin said If anyone from the department didn’t do something right it’s important to let them know because they are also in the business and customer service environment. He said the biggest part and main priority is the education of the students.
“Our small piece of that is to make sure they are safe and comfortable so they can focus on their studies,” said Armalin.
Enrollment:
Doreen Clay from Enrollment Management Committee, said they have a joint task force with the Student Success Committee on barriers to enrollment.
Clay said a company evaluated the district enrollment process and found out that LACCD is losing 44 percent of its students between the time they apply and the first day of class.
“They call this unheard of and never seen before in any other district anywhere and it is pretty shocking,” said Clay.
Clay said the key to preventing this is the communication with students since the first time they show up to class. She said it’s important to follow up throughout the semester.
Self-Evaluation:
Accreditation Committee Representative Margarita Pillado said the quality focus essay is a component of the institutional self-evaluation report that the college submitted to the Accrediting Commission Community of Junior Colleges (ACCJC).
Pillado said they identified three areas that they would like to improve, the student learning outcomes, professional development for not only faculty but employees and students and information technology (IT) infrastructure.
“We were given 18 months to address this deficiency. We can not be out of compliance with the accreditation standards,” said Pillado.
Pillado said since they did the action process and focused on IT a lot of things have improved.
“We have the smart classrooms, we have a lot more support in terms of personnel for faculty, a lot of people helping us. In that area we have shown a lot of progress,” said Pillado. “In other areas, we are still trying to figure out in what ways the district will help or hinder our effort to achieve the remaining goals.”