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A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION
Woodland Hills, California Volume 124 - Issue 3
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Inside: Health & Wellness pg 3
Roundup
One copy free, each additional copy $1.00
Health survey emailed to students
Health Center seeks input for providing additional services DONNA ROBLES Reporter drobles.roundupnews@ gmail.com
The Student Health Center sent 9,000 surveys to students at random through the Los Angeles Community College District emails. Students that were selected will be entered in the chance to win a MacBook Air or one of five iPads upon completion of the survey. Beth Benne, director of the Student Health Center, said that this survey is important to know what the students need and if there are additional services that the Health Center can provide to the Pierce students. Out of the 9,000 surveys that were sent, the Health Center is expecting to have 900 responses. Benne said that she’s hoping to have at least 900 responses in order to have generalizations on what the students on campus need. Art major Sergio Vega thinks that it is a good idea that the Student Health Center is sending out surveys. “It’s good because it benefits them, but they are also helping the students by providing educational tools. It’s a two-way street,” Vega said. Students who received the email were randomly selected by the American College Health Association National College Health Assessment and Benne did not have a say on who was sent the survey. “The researchers randomly pulled student ID numbers out of the hat, computer wise. I have nothing to do with who was selected,” said Benne. “They did that on February 22.” Benne’s only worry is whether or not the students will respond to the survey. Responding to the survey is not mandatory. Additionally, completing the survey takes about 20 to 30 minutes, but they have an incentive, according to Benne. Student Health Center Assistants Bonnie Zahavi and Loralyn Frederick said they notified the students through email reminders and word of mouth.
Brahmas go coastal College tour introduces students to schools by the sea
NADINE GOSTANTIAN Reporter ngostantian.roundupnews@gmail.com Thirty-seven students huddled into a bus at Pierce College to participate in a college tour, focused on coastal campuses in Southern California on March 10. The tour visited California State University Channel Islands, California Lutheran University and University of California Santa Barbara. Arranged by the Pierce College Transfer Center, the tour gave insight
“ASO has been reaching out to the students and the SHAC committee,” Frederick said. Zahavi looks forward to seeing the results so they can further develop the services in the health center. “We’re really excited because we want to know how we’re doing because we want to assess everything we do and [see] if there’s room to improve, which there always is,” Zahavi said. Benne said she wanted the survey to be available to all the students from Pierce. However, they cannot afford to have it available to everybody. The survey and incentives are funded by the Associated Students Organization.
“It’s good because it
benefits them, but they are also helping the students by providing educational tools. It’s a two-way street.” -Sergio Vega Student
“If we could afford to send it out to everybody, that would be great but we couldn’t afford it,” said Benne. “Actually, the student government paid for it.” The survey will be available for three weeks. It started on March 7 and it will end on March 25. The results of the selected students who will receive the incentives will hopefully be notified by March 28, according to Benne. Students who have not yet responded to the survey will be reminded on March 16 and March 21. The survey is confidential and Pierce College will not know any personal details of the respondents. The hope is that with the information gathered the Student Health Center will be able to better service the needs of students, according to Benne. “Every person who gets an invitation and submits the survey, as an incentive, will be entered into a drawing for a Macbook Air and one of five iPads,” Benne said.
to students who want to transfer to universities. The tour was completely free of charge with meals and snacks provided. Three Pierce College transfer mentors, Akadina Amrekhasadeh, Rosa Medrano and Nicole Goddard, guided and assisted students during the tour. The mentors answered questions regarding transfer requirements, application deadlines, scholarships and tuition. The first stop of the tour was California State University Channel Islands. Students got to explore various areas of the campus, such as the library, cafeteria, bookstore and the buildings where classes were held. Amy Wallace, CSU Channel Islands dean of the library, answered questions and gave information about the services that were offered at the university library. “One thing unique about our library is that we are open 24 hours a day on the week of finals,” Wallace said. “The other big thing that we do is check out any sort of equipment for classes, such as digital cameras, video/audio recorders, laptops and a
From the classroom to the field Every Wednesday, Raymond Wells takes his Marine Biology Laboratory Field Studies class to the beach to put into practice what is taught in class and apply it to the field. Wells, a professor at Pierce for more than 27 years, is one of the founders of the Marine Biology program at Pierce. Photo: Taylor Arthur / Roundup [See Field Lab, pg. 4]
Positive accreditation report
Preparations made in 2014 helps Pierce during spring term KELLAN BRADLEY Campus Lifestyle Editor kbradley.roundupnews@gmail.com
The Accreditation Steering Committee delivered a positive exit report Thursday, March 10 in the Great Hall after last accrediting Pierce College three years ago. During the exit report meeting, Pierce College Accreditation Team Chair, Joel Kinnaman, gave a final summary of their observations of the college and what Pierce needs to improve on. “Overall, the exit report meeting went well,” said Sheri Berger, vice president of academic affairs. “A lot of the recommendations the committee gave weren’t really a surprise.” If you plan on transferring from Pierce to another school, then credits from a nonaccredited college will not transfer appropriately. Course credits only transfer from institutions that are nationally accredited. It is important for community
colleges to be accredited because of the financial aid students can obtain and even the jobs they will get upon graduating, according to Lyn Clark. “If the college is not accredited then the students would not be able to transfer anywhere. All of the classes you take would not count and it would be as if you did not have an education,” Clark said. Los Angeles Pierce College began preparations for the 2016 accreditation cycle in the spring of 2014 by preparing a 350-page self-evaluation report. The selfevaluation report can take over a year to be put together. The report presents each standard that the community college has to demonstrate and what the college needs to complete. The Pierce College Council approved the self-evaluation report during the Fall 2015 semester after a presentation given by faculty accreditation coordinator Margarita Pillado. “It is very important to show
Matthew Garcia / Roundup
Students from Pierce college visit the campus of California Lutheran University during the Coastal College Tour on Friday, March 11. lot of different media. Our collection is mostly electronic because it’s a newer library and we have one of the best collections in the CSU system because of the small area,” Wallace said. The next stop of the tour was California Lutheran University, a private university located in Thousand Oaks.
Linh Nguyen, Transfer Admissions Counselor at California Lutheran, gave information about various topics like living on campus, acceptance rates, transfer requirements, majors offered, and the activities held on campus. Nguyen emphasized that Cal Lutheran matched scholarships offered by other schools.
the accreditation committee the accredit information has been discussed at the campus level throughout all committee groups,” Pillado said. The Accreditation Steering Committee must thoroughly describe what Peirce College has done to meet the accreditation standards. The accreditation commission also added standards in the middle of the year, lengthening the process. Accreditation is an evaluative process and seal of approval for institutions of higher education and it ensures that you are obtaining a quality education and for your future employers and graduate programs to recognize your education. “If the college isn’t accredited nobody will come here because they cannot get an AA degree that has any validity,” Clark said. “The whole process went well. The last meeting was great. I heard the accreditation team give us commendations for the library
and for our planning. They thought that those areas were outstanding. I can’t wait to see the school’s final report.” said Jose Luis Fernandez, Dean of Academic affairs. The compliance recommendations that the accreditation committee gave are related to the following topics: evaluation of personnel, the search for and selection of adjunct faculty, calculation of future liability and faculty load-banking, development of a business continuity plan, external audit findings and consistent review of Board of Trustee rules. “It is likely that this recommendation will say “in order to meet the Standards the College should undertake a series of actions.” We will not know the specifics of that until we see the draft report, which will still be confidential and will remain so until the ACCJC acts on the report at their meeting in early June 2016,” stated President Burke in an email sent to out to Pierce faculty.
“We match the same scholarship amount awarded by a UC school if a student has been accepted by one,” Nguyen said. “For example, if a student gets accepted by University of California Los Angeles, and is offered a scholarship of $20,000, we would match the same amount.” Nguyen also gave information on the application students need to fill out. “We are a Common Application exclusive university. Meaning that the only way [students] can submit their application is online,” Nguyen said. “With the Common Application, we do ask for a personal statement and two questions. Why you want to transfer to California Lutheran and what you want to study. In addition to your application, we do require one letter of recommendation.” The final stop of the tour was the University of California Santa Barbara. Students attended a meeting and watched a slideshow introducing the school and went on tours guided by student tour guide. Marisa Flores, Transfer Admissions Counselor at UCSB, was at the meeting and gave information about the majors offered and what
students needed to do in order to get accepted. “I love that students come here to visit,” said Flores. “It’s definitely one of that campuses that you need to drive out here and see. You actually have to feel the energy of it and the peacefulness and get that feel that it’s a homely type of environment.” Andre Tabnak, 30, nursing major at Pierce, thought the school should be hosting more tours from now on. “It was very informative, exciting, interesting and motivating for me to bring up my GPA,” Tabnak said. “The food, the ride, it was all awesome. There was nothing bad about it and the mentors really went above and beyond to help students. It was really well organized.”
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