The Pierce College Council meeting on Oct. 25, centered around technological advances on campus including better Wi-Fi, more surveillance cameras and an updated school website.
Buckley said when he first arrived at Pierce, he was surprised by the lack of Wi-Fi connection. Fixing the technological infrastructure has been a priority for Buckley and he does not want to delay fixing this problem.
“What we need is a multi-million dollar infrastructure change, but we need to do something now to fix the Wi-Fi,” Buckley said.
Buckley said we have the ability to increase 75 percent of total coverage on campus with an emphasis in the Library / Learning Crossroads and the classrooms both north and south of the Mall.
Rolf Schleicher, vice president of administrative services, said the problem with the Wi-Fi is the access points. He said it is going to take $150,000 to fix all of them.
Schleicher thinks a realistic goal is six weeks to increase coverage, but Buckley is optimistic and thinks they can do it in four weeks or less.
Eddie Tchertchian, the department chair of mathematics, is ecstatic about the improvements coming to the wireless internet.
“We have been reeling for this and it’s been years that we have been waiting for such an improvement to come and it would be really great to see what happens within four to six weeks so I am very excited about it,” Tchertchian said.
There is also a campus-wide security camera project that has already been put in place. According to College Project Director Ed Cadena, the installation of these cameras are going to be fully installed possibly before the holidays. They will be placed in areas such as the Student Store, the Library / Learning Crossroads and in classrooms.
There were some concerns about faculty and staff privacy following a report from a staff member in the Admissions and Records office.
According to Will Marmolejo, the dean of student services, said the staff member felt uncomfortable because the camera was installed directly over her work space.
President Buckley reassured that the cameras are for security and to ensure liability. They will not be focused on workspaces and not be utilized as an evaluative tool for employees.
Tchertchian was relieved to hear the cameras are being used for campus safety rather than to keep an eye on faculty.
“I just wanted to make sure and get reassurance that we are using these cameras for security purposes, not for evaluation purposes and the President reassured us of that, which was great to hear,” Tchertchian said.
Buckley also mentioned that they are in a position to renew the front page and some prioritized second pages of the Pierce website. His goal is to successfully revise certain aspects of the webpages by the end of this semester and has taken full accountability for this project.
“I am putting myself out as someone accountable for this,” Buckley said. “If all goes well, thank Rolf. If it doesn’t work, you can blame me.”
