The Academic Senate discussed Monday the Club Rush event, along with supporting school athletics and guided pathways.
Associated Student Organization (ASO) President Qais Azizi reported that they are very pleased with the turnout during the two-day Club Rush event held on Wednesday and Thursday. According to Azizi, it was a huge success.
“We have more than a dozen great new clubs coming in,” Azizi said. “It was a great turnout with a lot of great student engagement from the student population.”
According to Azizi, any students that would like to charter a club must submit the required forms to the ASO team by Friday. Azizi also reported that a couple of clubs are still in need of an advisor.
“The majority of clubs do have advisors,” Azizi said. “However, a small portion of clubs do still need advisors. If there are any faculty members that want to get involved, that would be great.”
Another topic discussed, brought up by Academic Senate president Barbara Anderson in collaboration with Academic Senate California Community Colleges (ASCCC) Guided Pathways Liaison Angela Belden, was an initiative she referred to as “Brahma Backers”. This is a joint celebration of the campus’s student athletes.
“Our next event is on September 28 at 6 p.m. to support our women’s volleyball team,” Anderson said. “This is an opportunity for us to sit there as faculty and show that we support our students as we transition back to campus. These students have been here representing our school and we need to have their backs.”
Guided Pathways representative Judy Lam shared that in October 2021 the Guided Pathways team worked on a transformation train by gathering a bunch of state holders to discuss how students change their majors in the system.
“We went on a mission to try to make it a little easier for students to change their majors. A new process was created using Microsoft forms,” Lam said. “To date over one thousand students have gone in to change their major successfully.”
The change of major form can be found in several areas on the website as well as the counseling website, the admissions and records website, and the career center website.
The last topic of interest was brought up when Anthropology professor Brian Pierson asked about bringing food back on campus.
Aguiar said there is a food truck on Brahma walk right by the statue in the Pierce College Mall.
“It’s a district-wide contract that we have and unfortunately, it’s not financially feasible given the number of students on campus at this time,” Aguiar said. “So, what we’re going to do is try to bring in food trucks temporarily until this matter is resolved.”
Associate Vice President of the Business Office Ron Paquette also said that the food truck is provided by Pacific Dining and the Brahma Café is also open.
“We’re trying to provide more vegetarian choices in the Brahma Café,” Paquette said. “We feature Corner Bakery lunch boxes and we’re also providing some salads as well. We will try to do more in the Brahma Café to expand people’s options.”
Political Science professor Denise Robb requested for more vegan options to be made available and suggested that the cafeteria be opened at some point soon so that students have an air-conditioned area to sit while they eat. Wendy Bass seconded that request.
“Is there any way for the cafeteria to be opened for students to have somewhere airconditioned to sit and eat when it’s hot outside? Robb asked. “There is nowhere for them to sit in air-conditioning currently and I think the students would really appreciate it.”
The next Academic Senate meeting will be on Sept. 26 at 2:15 p.m. on Zoom, but this will likely be moved due to Sept. 26 being a Jewish holiday.
