District-wide deficits continue to be a major concern for Pierce College, which were discussed throughout the Academic Senate meeting on Monday, May 19, in Building 600.
Before discussions took place, Pierce Academic Senate President Margarita Pillado informed attendees of a GoFundMe that had been created for East Los Angeles College History Professor Aki Maehara, who was injured during a hate crime on his way home from teaching on Tuesday, April 29. With a goal of $50k, Maehara’s donations have already reached $76k, as of this writing. Maehara is recovering but requires home health aid, according to the GoFundMe.
Pierce President Ara Aguiar spoke about the new payment policies for classes. Previously, an owed balance of $100 or more would unenroll students from the upcoming semester, but the cutoff threshold increased from $100 to $200. Students can check when they will be disenrolled by checking their Student Portal.
“This resulted in 2,400 students district-wide saved from unenrollment, with 300 to 400 from Pierce for this summer semester,” Aguiar said. “Text and emails have been sent to students.”
Associate Vice President of Administrative Services Ron Paquette spoke alongside Aguiar about the payment changes, later elaborating about possible pressures to come.
“The first couple of semesters, summer and fall, will be the roughest,” Paquette said. “One of the things the district wants to do is minimize student debt, which was quite high.”
The education pathway designed to help students fulfill their lower-division general education requirements, California General Education Transfer Curriculum (Cal-GETC), submitted their evaluation of Pierce courses.
Articulation Officer Cristina Rodriguez expressed her concern over the assessment and the severity of the denials of articulation with four-year institutions.
“Fifty-three courses were submitted for over 70 different areas. 35 were denied,” Rodriguez said. “All of our ethnic studies submissions were denied. I will work with the faculty on revising these courses for resubmission if we’re able to.”
Pierce’s 77th Commencement ceremony will be on Tuesday, June 10, at 8 a.m., in the Shepard Stadium at Pierce College.
With around 100 students participating in the ceremony, Academic Senate President Margarita Pillado asked for volunteers ranging from parking attendants and traffic directors..
“We’re not going to have the traditional name readers we’ve had before,” Pillado said. “It’s going to be AI-assisted, so we’ll have backup in case it doesn’t work.”
The next and last Academic Senate Meeting for this spring semester will be held Monday, June 2, at 2:15 p.m., in Building 600.
