Interim President Ara Aguiar announced during the Academic Senate meeting on Monday that an important member of the Biden administration will soon be visiting the Pierce College campus.
Director for the Department of Science and Technology at the White House Arati Prabhakar will be visiting the Center for Science and Earth Science buildings at Pierce College on May 2 to tour the lab and engage with students.
Pierce was chosen as one of 30 institutions for Prabhakar to visit.
The requirements for this decision were based largely on the use of government funds to support the school, and Aguiar regarded Pierce in a positive light while discussing the decision process.
“The criteria is, how have the federal funds supported the college, what have we done with it. And our team does an amazing job,” Aguiar said. “How we have applied those funds to support our students. All of those things contributed to the decision. They want to see their dollar being utilized effectively, and I think we’ve demonstrated that and that’s why we were selected.”
The Academic Senate also discussed other important events coming up at Pierce, including UCLA and CSUN Day as well as the Transfer Celebration, which are both scheduled to be held on the mall on May 3.
Transfer Center Director Sunday Salter discussed the importance of having these events take place at the same time.
“The reason we have them on the same day is because the majority of our students, as you know, have a goal to transfer to UCLA or CSUN, or are transferring to UCLA or CSUN,” Salter said. “The students who are transferring can meet their new advisor and talk to someone who is at the campus they’re going to.”
Students can meet admission representatives at the event from both UCLA and CSUN, and can learn more about financial aid, clubs, student services and housing.
The transfer event recognizes students for their accomplishment in transferring or who are applying for transfer. Games, free churros and prizes will be provided for both transfer students and transfer applicants to enjoy. During the celebration, transfer students will be awarded with a platinum chord for graduation.
The Academic Senate meeting also covered several grants that were recently awarded or are in the works for Pierce, one of which was announced by Faculty Professional Development Coordinator Brian Moe.
The Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practices “Best Practice Initiative” Grants were awarded to Pierce as well as 58 other schools. The goal of this $300,000 grant is to bridge the gap between performances of different demographics in schools and allow schools to better serve the students. The grant will be distributed to Pierce over the next 3 years with $150,000 issued for 2024 and 2025.
Pierce applied with a focus on the EDIT program – which is the equity, diversity, and inclusivity team developed by the English department. The goal of this grant is to provide services to lessen the equity gaps within the school.
“This is a way to expand that,” Moe said. “By putting some funding behind it, we get more programs involving different disciplines throughout the campus. It will better support our students and help us speak to a wide range of backgrounds.”
The next Academic Senate meeting will be held at the Faculty and Staff Center Monday, May 8, at 2:15 p.m..
