Pierce College is facing financial trouble and is navigating changes to the budget to combat it. Pierce has reported a projected $10 million deficit for the upcoming year with a $5 million deficit for the current year, according to Pierce President Ara Aguiar.
California community college enrollment has struggled to rebound to pre-pandemic levels, a problem that has proved challenging for many Los Angeles Community College District campuses, including Pierce. According to Aguiar, the college is exploring several avenues to minimize the deficit, including applying for grants, streamlining certificates and eliminating some costs.
“There are reductions, but we are working to grow out of this,” Aguiar said. “We need to grow out of this.”
To combat the current deficit, Aguiar said the college will no longer be hiring faculty for vacant positions this year, unless it is for a department that has funding through other outlets, or it is a crucial position.
Aguiar explained that in previous years, Pierce has prioritized faculty hires because of state requirements for ratios of full-time faculty to adjunct faculty. Last school year, Pierce was able to hire more faculty than needed, because the state provided funding to support the faculty hires.
Aguiar added that another measure Pierce is using is canceling classes that have low enrollments at the start of each term, while following the requirements outlined in union contracts. She said that this has been frustrating for students enrolled in those classes.
“Academic affairs has been very diligent about if a class is low enrolled, per the contract, we have canceled low enrolled classes,” Aguiar said. “I know that some students were very disappointed that we did that, and I guess for that, I will apologize, but it’s a situation that’s out of our control at this point.”
Academic Senate member and physics professor Dale Fields discussed how the deficit can affect adjunct faculty jobs, because full-time professors get classes first.
“One of the big differences between full-time instructors and adjunct instructors is that full-time instructors have more job security,” Fields said. “By cutting the classes, the adjunct instructors are the ones who suffer. They are the ones who first lose their jobs.”
One of the primary factors contributing to the deficit is enrollment post-pandemic. While there has been a steady increase in enrollment numbers in recent years, Pierce has not been able to recover enrollment fully since COVID-19.
According to Pierce College Office of Institutional Effectiveness, 2019-2020 enrollment numbers showed 30,859 students were enrolled, whereas 2023-2024 shows 28,150 students enrolled.
“This reduction is costly for the college, and the thing that makes us nervous is that if you reduce the number of classes, then we have fewer students, and if we have fewer students, then we get less money, and then it sort of spirals around that problem,” Fields said.
While Pierce’s budget has seen cuts, Aguiar said that the main goal is to ensure students are successful, and they get the credits needed to transfer to a four-year university. Part of that process involves outreach to students who are close to achieving a degree or certificate, and helping them get there. This also benefits the college by bringing in state funding.
“The team is looking at ways to generate reports that show a student that’s only missing one or two classes to graduate,” Aguiar said. “They’ve done a lot of their work already. We reach out to students who are missing a few classes.”
According to Associated Student Organization President Jasmine Minchez, ASO is prioritizing making cuts where they see fit to prevent financial trouble, while Pierce works its way through the deficit. Minchez added that despite certain financial changes within ASO, she believes there will continue to be ways for clubs and the school to host events for the students.
“We are prioritizing stretching every avenue of funding that we can, so that we don’t exhaust the reserves that we have now,” Minchez said. “I have seen, regardless of the deficits and the cuts all year, the events that have existed for the past couple of years are still being put on. We’re just changing the way that we would do them.”
