The Pierce College Council met to discuss ongoing updates and concerns from the standing committees and department members in a Zoom meeting on Thursday, Feb. 27.
Associate Vice President Ron Paquette updated the PCC members on the amendments for the upcoming student fee policy that will be mandatory in the summer semester of 2025.
“Starting this summer, the district is rolling out this new policy where students are required to pay their fees before the beginning of classes, or they will be disenrolled,” Paquette said.
Paquette also mentioned that there would be an exception for those who have financial aid or are in a difficult situation.
“There are a lot of exceptions to that rule for students who are in more challenging situations, students who have financial aid or have been waiting for it, or other students that we know will get paid,” Paquette said “. But generally, this is going to be a pretty big change for our students if they are not paying attention to the deadlines or paying in advance. They could get dropped from their classes.”
Paquette also added that it’s important for there to be a smooth transition of communication regarding these reforms between the Pierce College staff and students.
“We are going to try to get as much communication out there as we can to the students in many different forms,” Paquette said “The district is also going to do that, and there is some district training coming up, and I know that will be aimed at a lot of people in admissions and records, student services, admin services and the business office.”
Michael Habata from the Diversity Committee discussed their upcoming event.
“The committee is working toward the fifth campus-wide Multicultural Day on April 23, 2025,” Habata said.
Associated Student OrganizationPresident Jasmine Minchez updated the members on recent events and the success of the Club Rush.
“We had 60 clubs sign up for Club Rush, and about 95% of them showed up for the days they signed up for,” Minchez said “So that was really great. That brings us back to our peak numbers from, I think a couple of years ago, so awesome.”
Paquette added that although many community colleges are facing a deficit, state funding for community colleges is in better shape than four-year colleges for the upcoming budget year.
“The community colleges are doing pretty well for next year’s budget, compared to UC and Cal State,” Paquette said “There are a lot of complaints from the four-year universities right now that their budgets were cut, and the community colleges got a pretty good bump. So next year, the state level funding looks pretty good.”