www.theroundupnews.com Woodland Hills, California
A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION Volume 120 - Issue 2
INSIDE IIN NSSSIIID N DEE D
UP
Sports: New coach hits the ground running...Page 7
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Technology: Classes offer practice in specialized subjects, Page 6
One copy free, each additional copy $1.00
Free tax preparation available weekly
Program offers filing assistance Marissa Nall Roundup Reporter
Photographer Diego Barajas / Roundup
SPARKS: David Caplan uses a cutting torch in oxy-acetylene welding class in the Applied Technology Building, March 5, 2014.
Budget is in the black
Council properly manages money amid district-wide scarcity Lynn Levit Features Editor
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ierce College has no deficit and will meet its 2013-2014 budget, according to the Budget Committee. The body of the committee is made up of twelve members, co-chaired by vice president of Administrative Services, Rolf Schleicher and physics/astronomy professor, Don Sparks. The committee’s focus has helped control funds by limiting frivolous expenditures. “We must make sure the budgeted funds are monitored from top to bottom and that there is an even line of communication to make sure there are no discrepancies or areas of over-spending,” Schleicher said. The Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) decides budget allocations for the nine colleges in the district from funds granted by the state of California. “The allocation of funds to
“We must make sure the budgeted funds are monitored from top to bottom and that there is an even line of communication to make sure there are no discrepancies or areas of over-spending,”
-Rolf Schleicher
VP of Administrative Services budget for 2014-15 is $57,676,126,” Associate vice president of Administrative Affairs Bruce Rosky said. Schools who operate outside of the realms of their budget are supplemented by money allocated from schools without a deficit, including the Pierce College Contingency Fund. An issue schools are facing is a scarcity of funds and these campuses may now rely on Pierce
College for monetary support. “The desire is greater than the money allocated, but the budget must balance,” professor Joe Perret said. One budget discrepancy that Pierce College needs to further explore is the money allocated to the Library/Learning Crossroads. “The Library is over budget by 3 times,” Perret said. “Why and where did the approval come from?” The library needs additional full
and part time staff during Library hours. A major problem in distributing funds properly is the allocation model the LACCD uses. The model was recently changed to give more money to smaller community colleges and less money to bigger community colleges. This money is paid out from the Contingency fund. Additional issues are associated with financial aid. The administrator grants money to those students with financial needs. If that student does not show up for class, the money must be returned. Students continue to abuse the system by misrepresenting their enrollment status. Pierce does receive a small amount of income on campus from parking fees, the farm rental, leased land for the Metro bus line, and filming on campus. The final adjustment for the budget must be presented back to the LACCD by April, so that the 2014–2015 approved budget can go into effect July 1, 2014 and run through June 30, 2015.
New and returning students and administrators gathered in the Business Education building Saturday morning to serve their community by preparing tax returns at no charge. As one of many locations that teaches and participates in the Voluntary Income Tax Assistance program (VITA), Pierce College invites local community members to have their taxes prepared for free every Saturday morning. “It’s one of the ways in which we serve the community,” said Norachai Chawareewong, an administrator and former board member for Cal CPA. “We have many taxpayers who have been returning clients for many years.” The program at Pierce receives as many as 700 applicants filing returns each year, filed on paper and online. In previous years, the volunteers would work both Wednesday and Saturday, but due to a shortage of available lab space they are limited to one day per week and are already operating at full capacity. “I’m sure there are people that are coming on Wednesday nights that have been Wednesday night clients and finding it not open,” said Hugh Laughlin who has been volunteering with the program for over 20 years. “We won’t know until the end of the season how this has affected us.” Sponsored by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the California State Franchise Tax board, the class provides
certification and experience with simple tax returns at no cost for books or materials. Students who speak Spanish and Farsi are participating this year, making it even easier for community members to get their returns filed. “We try to service the community even if English isn’t their first language,” Chawareewong said. About half of the clients are repeat clients and many of them come back as students and volunteers, according to administrator Ian Hall. Only a small portion of these applicants are students. “We do get Pierce students and we should be getting more of them,” said Francisco Ortega, a teacher at Northridge Academy High School and Cesar Chavez High School who volunteers with VITA after taking the Business 10 course. “We could even show them how to do it. We’re more than happy to do that.” It is also a good experience for the students taking the class. “Some of us do it to make a career out of it. Some of us, like in my specific case, we do it because we want to be able to manage our future business endeavors,” Ortega said. “It’s a very complementary course to take for any students out there for any major.” Chawareewong stressed the importance of tax knowledge to students when applying for jobs and scholarships, both for the technical and real-world experience. “In fact, it’s beneficial for any students because everyone, unfortunately, has to pay taxes,” he said. This program will continue through April 5, in BUS 3218.
Sheriffs play it safe
Diego Barajas / Roundup Detained: A man suspected of breaking into cars in Parking Lot 1, Wednesday March 5, was detained by Sheriff deputies. After a search of his car came up empty, the deputies released the man.
Peer Assisted Learning program provides tutoring alternatives Richard Zamora Roundup Reporter The Center for Academic Success (CAS) is working on implementing a program called Peer Assisted Learning, which is aimed to facilitate academic aid to students beyond a tutoring session. Crystal Kiekel, director of the CAS, wants to develop a community where students help each other gain a better comprehension of subjects
RUONLINE?
they may be struggling with and to extend that community across the campus and beyond the tutoring center. “We don’t want the students to come to the tutoring center just to come to the professor when they need help,” Kiekel said. “The role of the faculty really is there to empower and to inform the students so the students can help each other.” The goal is also to get students who may be looking into receiving an internship at the CAS and
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getting experience that can be put on college applications. “In order to incentivize volunteers, you need to come up with something that the students want,” Kiekel said. “We have a comprehensive training program and we have letters of recommendation that we write. A lot of our interns want to be professors themselves someday or they want experience in public speaking because they want to be lawyers.”
The Pierce College Weather Station has provided meteorological data to national agencies since 1949.
Wednesday March 12 High: 77° Low: 51°
A new addition to the center is Allison MacLeod, an adjunct English professor. “I have been working with CAS starting this spring and getting more involved everyday,” MacLeod said. “I think it came about from seeing how well students do helping each other and how productive that’s been.” Also representing the CAS was Edouard Tchertchian, an instructor in the math department “I’ve found it beneficial in my
own classes because I teach math and math is a very popular subject when it comes to tutoring and group study,” Tchertchian said. Math seems to be the most requested subject for assistance at the CAS. “Math is considered to be the number one roadblock to student success nationally,” Kiekel said. “The vast majority of students are testing into developmental math, which means they are testing below transfer level mathematics.”
W E A T H E R
CAS is hoping to enlist the help of students to recognize the value that they have to each other. “The faculty needs to be out there. They need to be pushing it with counselors and other students need to be talking about it too,” Kiekel said. “We want so many students in there that we can’t fit them.” The CAS is open to students between 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday.
R E P O R T
Thursday March 13
Friday March 14
Saturday March 15
Sunday March 16
Monday March 17
Tuesday March 18
Wednesday March 19
High: 77° Low: 50°
High: 80° Low: 52°
High: 88° Low: 57°
High: 91° Low: 58°
High: 84° Low: 54°
High: 79° Low: 51°
High: 76° Low: 49°
Sunny
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