Students struggle to navigate the newly implemented PeopleSoft system and to ease any challenges or confusion, the Pierce POP-UP event was created to help reverse the decline of student enrollment.
Some school officials believe the PeopleSoft system may have contributed to low enrollment rates across LACCD.
To improve this, Pierce College hosted its first POP-UP event today, a few days before the start of the spring semester, to help students with last-minute issues that may prevent them from enrolling.
“We want to do everything we can as a department to make sure that students aren’t having goofy things holding them up,” said David Turcotte, a Career and Technical Education counselor. “This gives students a one-stop shop to clear issues and barriers to enroll.”
Pierce POP-UP was located in the Library / Learning Crossroads computer lab. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., representatives from Admissions and Records, Financial Aid, Counseling, the Business Office, Outreach, Student Engagement and IT were available to help students.
“This event was designed to assist students who have last-minute needs before the semester starts next week,” Turcotte said. “Just myself, I have seen more than 30 students, meaning it was a packed house.”
Sergio Gonzalez, a student recruitment coordinator, said that today’s Pierce POP-UP is the first of what he hopes becomes a biannual event to help students get ready for the upcoming semester.
“We are using this one to learn from it and see how its working and what’s working,” Gonzalez said. “We are hoping to do this two weeks prior to the semester.”
Gonzalez said that enrollment has been low in all of California. He said that they are aware that converting to PeopleSoft might have contributed to lower numbers in LACCD.
“We are doing this event to help the campus with enrollment,” Gonzalez said. “There are students who have not adapted to the new PeopleSoft system, so whatever we can do to put ourselves out here, we hope it will help.”
Tia Goossen, a communications major, saw the event advertised online as she was adding classes for the spring semester. She said her schedule was disorganized, so she decided to attend the Pierce POP-UP to become informed about classes that fulfill requirements.
“I feel like my headspace is clear now. I now know what classes I need to transfer,” Goossen said. “Every time I see a counselor, I feel more excited about school.”
