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A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION
Volume 121 - Issue 10
INSIDE
ROUND OUNDUP
Junior College All-Stars.......................................Page 7
Wednesday, Dec. 3 2014
One copy free, each additional copy $1.00
Evacs, hires, Smart Classooms in works Meghan McGillicuddy Online Editor Seth Perlstein News Editor
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n a continued effort to better protect Pierce College students, faculty, and staff, an emergency task force will be in effect. Larry Kraus, associate vice president of Administrative Services, and Rolf Schleicher, president of Administrative Services, announced their plans for the Emergency Evacuation Coordinators at the Academic Senate meeting on Monday, Dec. 1, 2014. The task force is already in effect and has 37 members. Pierce has had two lock downs/evacuations during this semester. The first one occurred in September and the second one took place in October. Many students did not know how to properly respond because of latency issues with Blackboard Connect (the emergency alert system used by Pierce College). Some students were sent incorrect information and others did not receive any. In response to this issue, Schleicher, and Kraus have assembled a task force. “They will have bright orange vests, clipboards, whistles, all that,” Kraus said. The Emergency Evacuation Coordinators are volunteer faculty and staff that will be trained by the Los Angeles Fire Department to handle emergency situations. Two members of the task force will be stationed at each building on campus at all times. “It’s a comprehensive plan to assist with the students, faculty, and staff to help us all. It’s all to help us,” Kraus said.
Mohammad Djauhari / Roundup
Lauren Bollinger and Ekeme Ekanem walk in front of the Bull statue on The Mall during a rainy Tuesday afternoon. “I really like this weather,” Bollinger says. “I think the area needs it.”
New Hires Pierce College is planning to hire 30 new by Spring, 2015, according to Kathy Oborn, president of the Academic Senate. In an e-mail Kathleen Burke, president of Pierce College, sent to Oborn, Burke stated that she
Diego Barajas / Roundup
Larry Kraus displays the new evacuation cordinator vest that will be given to selected people in different buildings on campus incase of an evacuation at the Academic Senate meeting. approved two new counseling positions and one new position in the physics department for the Spring, 2014 semester. For Spring 2015, Burke has approved several new positions in departments including math, English, and counseling for new students. According to Oborn, Burke is still considering other positions for departments such as philosophy and sociology, business administration, and theater and dance. Smart Classrooms According to Schleicher, a plan is underway to add 82 “Smart Classrooms” on campus. Smart classrooms will be modernized classrooms that have technology teachers and students need. “I think it will allow hybrid classes to be more interactive. For example, in a business class you could pull up a report and look at it as an example,” Schleicher said. The smart classrooms have already been added to the budget for the construction that will resume in the spring. Each classroom will cost about $29,000- $30,000 . “My goal is to get people job ready, and this will enhance that,” Schleicher said.
$40,000 software to aid SLO assessment
College Outcomes Committee chooses eLumen as upgrade Jaël Allen Roundup Reporter Seth Perlstein News Editor
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ierce College‘s Academic Senate approved the College Outcomes Committee’s (COC) recommendation of eLumen as the college’s new student learning outcomes software. The senate voted 26 yes, two no and two abstentions at its final meeting of the semester on Dec. 1 in the Great Hall. “We think eLumen is the better choice,” Cleveland said. The eLumen software will cost the college $40,000 up front, and $1,000 per year, according to Monique Cleveland, instructor of english and Academic Senate
“We think eLumen is a better choice.”
-Monique Cleveland Instructor of English
secretary. The money to purchase the initial software would come from the Student Success and Support Program fund. “This is going to be purchased under special funds,” Kraus said. The eLumen software will allow for more configuration than the current software the college uses,
Student Learning Outcomes (SLO). It will also be easier to maintain with updates, and will be more secure. Though SLO has been functional, it’s on its last legs, according to Beth Benne, director of the student health center. “It’s near dead,” Benne said. “It’s terminal.”
The college needed to improve upon SLO to meet the standards of the accreditation renewal with the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC). “They expect us to provide data,” said assistant professor of modern languages, and accreditation representative, Margarita Pillado. The Outcomes Committee discussed two software options, TracDat and eLumen. Pillado said she was “perfectly comfortable” with either option. But 90 percent of the COC said they thought eLumen was more user friendly than TracDat. Even though the COC overwhelmingly recommended eLumen, either it or TracDat would have been an improvement to SLO. SLO allowed faculty to gather general information about class
objectives and their outcomes, but not individual students or groups of students. SLO was also not very secure, as its online portal did not require a user name or password. Anyone could access it and make changes to class outcomes. “Anything is better than what we have right now,” Assistant Vice President Larry Kraus said. To compile accurate outcomes assessment data, the COC recommended that assessments be updated every semester. “It seemed like assessing every class, every semester, was suggested without fully vetting it,” said instructor of english David Gonzales. In order to get the disaggregated data needed for accreditation, the sample needed to be much larger in order for it to make sense.
That is why it became apparent to do total assessment, according to Gonzales. “We need 100 percent sample,” Cleveland said. In order to meet AACJC expectations, the committee wanted Pierce to have a uniform, secure and user-friendly outcomes system. “Visually, and for the needs of this campus, and for the faculty members in particular, it seems like the best way to go,” Gonzales said. However, some instructors wanted to be sure the new software‘s data would not be used against them. Cleveland assured committee members the software will assess student outcomes only, and not the teachers who provide the data. “They won’t be able to see the actual names of the instructors,” Cleveland said.
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