Several advertisements around campus have not been updated in years, and it is unclear who is responsible.
Some of the ads present movies that came out years ago while others promote four-year universities for transfer. A couple of ads promote what appears to be a crisis pregnancy center called Open Arms Pregnancy Clinic. Many of the ads have been posted since before the pandemic.
After COVID-19 forced school and business closures, processes fell to the wayside. With the stay at home order, there was no real need to update the ads.
History and Gender Studies Advisor Sheryl Nomelli said she wonders how an ad of this nature was approved in the first place.
“If anyone on campus is going to see something it reflects our campus and our leadership,” Nomelli said. “I think that it is really unfortunate and frankly, scandalous that this would be allowed.”
Rivet Vice President of Operations Kris Swanson said typically the process is a collaboration between Pierce College, a representative from the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) and Rivet.
The media company also serves over 115 other schools in Southern California, including California State University Northridge, where the ads for Open Arms were also seen as recently as April 22.
There are seven kiosks on the Pierce campus owned by Rivet Campus Media. The company is responsible for maintenance and repairs, including removing old ads to place new ones.
Some ads are replaced more often depending on where they are located. Kiosks that are in locations that get a lot more foot traffic get more attention.
Rivet relies on a representative from Pierce to contact them if they have a concern or a request for maintenance.
Swanson said that there is even an opportunity for the contact to approve almost every single ad before it’s placed. It is unclear whether there was at one time such a person at Pierce but there is not one now.
“There’s dialogue in many of our campuses, unfortunately, your campus the dialog is not there,” Swanson said.
According to section 91301.12 of Article XIII of the Los Angeles Community College Board Rules, there are certain restrictions for ads containing harmful subject matter. They range from alcoholic beverages and tobacco to lethal weapons and illegal substances.
The rules also state that all advertising contracts have to contain a clause guaranteeing that no ads placed on campus will be “libelous, obscene, misleading, fraudulent, or designed to promote illegal activities” and the failure to adhere constitutes a breach of contract by the advertiser.
Nomelli believes that not only are crisis pregnancy centers misleading in general, but the advertisement promoting Open Arms to Pierce students is, too.
“It says ‘information on pregnancy options’ – that’s misleading because you are led to believe all options available,” Nomelli explained. “But again it’s pushing you towards what they believe is right.”
Nomelli said she thinks the ads are out of place on a college campus.
“I do think it’s dangerous,” Nomelli said. “I don’t think a publicly funded college campus should have church-funded advertisements that discourage women from their legal rights. And I think that is what this does. I don’t know how else to interpret that.”
The advertiser may also be in breach of contract for exceeding the duration of greater than six months, according to Article XIII of the Board Rules.
Swanson said that ads for crisis pregnancy centers may be something that can get added to the restricted list by LACCD administration.
“That’s something where we can go back to the school and say, look, this is not on your restriction list, but maybe that’s something that needs to be added in the future,” Swanson said.
The ads were brought to the attention of Pierce College’s President Ara Aguiar, who said she plans to schedule a walk through to check out the ads currently on display.
Aguiar suggested using the ad space to benefit the programs and resources available to students right here on campus.
“Well, the thing is that this is in direct conflict with our health care center,” Aguiar said of the ads for Open Arms. “Our health care center can do the same thing.”
Even though the kiosks are on Pierce property, anyone who desires to advertise their programs or student resources has to pay the same fees as any other advertiser.
Swanson emphasized the importance of keeping Rivet’s relationship with the school strong and believes it’s the key to the ad placement process running smoothly.
“We want to keep our relationship with the school as positive as possible,” Swanson said. “If some issue comes up, school reaches out, we’ll look at that issue and say, okay, how do we fix this?”
Several attempts were made to speak with someone from Open Arms Pregnancy Clinic but they were unavailable to provide a comment before this story went to print.
