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A FIRST AMENDMENT PUBLICATION Woodland Hills, California
Volume 131 - Issue 1
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
One copy free, each additional copy $1.00
Enrollment stays consistent from last fall semester
Sports teams short players
Numbers are 100 percent from this time a year ago
fill their rosters
Plethora of issues result in athletic programs struggling to
ARIELLE ZOLEZZI Sports & News Editor @ArielleZolezzi
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JACKSON HAYANO News Editor @HayanoJackson
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he percentage of students who don’t re-enroll from the first semester to the thrid is up by 11 percent. However, strong numbers from incoming students have kept Pierce’s enrollment steady. “The good news is that we are 100 percent in terms of head count of where we were at the same time last year,” said Pierce President, Alexis Montevirgen. “Last year we were at 46,964 [students], yesterday we were at 47,551 [students], so that’s 587 more than we were this time last year.” While enrollment at Pierce is remaining steady, not all classes are safe from cancellation due to low numbers. Department Chair of Performing Arts Michael Gend said that his department has cancelled one class so far due to low-enrollment. “I’d say, in my experience, nearly every cancellation that’s happened in my department would have been because of low enrollment,” Gend said. Chair of Modern Language Department Fernando Oleas expressed his concern that cancelled classes leads to students droping out or trasfering to other colleges. “In the first two weeks of school, we are losing a lot of students because of cancelled classes,” Oleas said. “They’re not waiting to see if there’s a possible opening in a new section. They’re going elsewhere.” Oleas stated that he hopes the new president will take this into consideration and work with faculty to prevent further cancelled classes.
[For the full story visit theroundupnews.com]
Chris Torres / Roundup
Alexis Montevirgen, the new Pierce president, greets the tutors at the Center for Academic Success at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Calif. on Sept. 5, 2019. Montevirgen looks to boost student success and community involvement in his first year as president.
Impact through involvement
New president emphasizes student engagement CHRIS TORRES Editor-In-Chief @chris_t_torres
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hen people talk about a successful person, they talk about someone with millions in their bank account, someone who's authored a plethora of bestsellers, or even a professional athlete. But if you ask new Pierce president, Alexis Montevirgen, what the orthodox definition of a successful individual is, he will tell you that achievements like those would not make him feel accomplished. “I don't define success as achieving a presidency or becoming president,” Montevirgen said. “It's not how much one makes, it's more in terms of how much of an impact you are able to make with society as a whole because all the money in the world, the highest position in the world, if you're not making an impact with others and improving other people's lives, what’s the point of it?” From coming to California as an immigrant from the Philippines, to being the oldest sibling and the first in his family to go to school in the United States, Montevirgen assumed the leadership role from a young age. “I remember being in third
grade where as soon as I got home, I would have to get the rice going for my mom so when she and my dad would get home from work, that dinner's already started and I would have to watch over my brother as well,” Montevirgen said. “So I always felt as if I had to grow up or I had to mature early and be a leader quicker. So those were my first memories of having to take on leadership responsibilities.” Despite living in the bay area, Montevirgen decided to attend University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He said his family considered it a bold move because as an immigrant, staying close to family was a big part of their life. Montevirgen started at UCSD as a premed major and despite graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in biology, he knew all along he did not want to be a doctor like his parents wanted him to be. “I never had the heart to tell my parents that I didn’t want to go into medicine,” Montevirgen said. “Knowing how hard my parents worked and continued to work to put me through school, I thought I would be disappointing my parents because of everything they have sacrificed.” It was not until he became involved with the cross cultural center at UCSD and joined the Asian and Pacific-Islander Student
Alliance (APSA) and Kaibigang Pilipina/o (KP), where he finally realized there are others dealing with the same hardships as he was. “There are people here that actually want to understand what I'm going through, want to provide you with support and want to help me,” Montevirgen said. “So then I realized, maybe this is what I want to do because I want to be there for other students that come after me who are having a difficult time because there were times where I wanted to just drop out and go back to the bay area.” By joining cross cultural groups and getting support from his peers, the first-year president understood that his passion was to help students figure out their path to success. After receiving his Master's degree in education, Montevirgen worked as the coordinator for student organization development and special programs at San Jose State University where he was involved in 300 to 400 different student organizations. He went on to be Associate Director for Multicultural Programs at California State University, San Marcos. Montevirgen was instrumental in helping develop their cross cultural center, which now has just celebrated their 15th anniversary. Montevirgen then brought
his insight to the California Community College system. From 2006 to 2009, he was Director of Student Life for the San Jose/ Evergreen Community College District. From August 2009 to 2014, he served as Dean of Enrollment Services and later, as Vice President of Student Services at College of Alameda. He then took his passion for student success to Indiana University Northwest where he served as Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management for five years before assuming his role as President of Pierce College on July 1, 2019. Francisco Rodriguez, Chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, was instrumental in the hiring of Montevirgen and believes that his leadership and character is what made Pierce a perfect match. Rodriguez also admires his ‘pro-student’ approach to leadership. “We are proud and pleased that President Montevirgen has joined our team of educational leaders during this critical time of dramatic shift for the state’s community colleges with the transition to the new Student-Centered Funding Formula and the implementation of Guided Pathways and AB 705."
n the past couple seasons of Pierce College Athletics, there has been a decline in the amount of students participating on the sports teams, making it harder for some of the programs to compete. Tennis Head Coach Long Dao has struggled to find the minimum requirement of student athletes to play. Dao believes that this decline of students has been for a multitude of reasons. “Usually when I recruit, most of the players ask me about scholarships and how much I can provide them. My answer is always the same," Dao said. "No junior college in California has any athletic scholarships.” Dao explained he was hoping the Los Angeles Promise Program would come to his aid, but it's still fairly new to the college and it would only apply to the students coming from a LAUSD high school. Dao also mentioned most high level athletes are going to want to look at the facilities they will be using, and the tennis courts are past due for renovations. “Last season, I lost a recruit that ended up being the best player in the conference due to the court conditions,” Dao said. Another budding issue is if a sports team does end up getting the necessary number of players, they now have to get the newcomers up to speed to the level of the athletes who have been practicing during the pre-season. Swim and Water Polo Head Coach Judi Terhar explained how latecomers are affected in the teams she manages. “A number of the athletes that are coming to us now at the beginning of school have missed an entire summer of training, we started back in June,” Terhar said. “Our late-comers coming to us in the first week from other schools not knowing that we already had our orientation, physicals, form ones. Everything that is required had already taken place.”
[see SPORTS on pg. 8]
[see NEWS on pg. 4]
Search continues for new athletic director School is lacking qualified candidates, position has been unfilled for five months FELIPE GAMINO Sports Editor @fgamino13
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s the Fall semester kicks off and sports teams begin their journeys to make lasting memories, Pierce College has been unable to find an athletic director to fill the vacant position. The job was previously held by Moriah Van Norman, who announced she was stepping down in May, ending a tenure that lasted two years.
Pierce President Alexis Montevirgen said they are working closely with human resources to identify an ideal candidate. "There is progress in the sense of we're continuing to move forward with posting the position and trying to get in that pool in order to be able to bring someone on board as soon as possible," Montevirgen said. "I know we would have already wanted them onboard already, but I think at this point it's just getting them identified and onboard." Bob Lofrano, who was the athletic director from 2007 to
2017, said he is frustrated with the current situation. “To someone who played sports here and had some great moments, like the hall of fame dinner where we inducted some great coaches and incredible athletes, it is embarrassing to realize that a college that is still running an athletic program to not have a face of the department. A leader is inexcusable,” Lofrano said. Lofrano also stressed why having an AD in place is important. “What high school coach would want to send their athletes to Pierce in this situation? It is kind
of a mess,” Lofrano said. “That is why it is so important to have an athletic director because who is going to sit in the meetings? There are 17 colleges in the Western State Conference and they'll be asking where is the Pierce person.” Genice Sarcedo-Magruder, dean of Athletics and Title IX coordinator, talked about the reasoning there hasn’t been anyone named as the new AD. “We are held to the district policies. In the faculty contract we have to open the position internally and we didn't have enough of a candidate poll,” Sarcedo-Magruder
said. “We opened up to the district and it's the same situation.” Sarcedo-Magruder said they couldn't interview some of the candidates because they were not internal, full-time faculty members, or just didn’t qualify. If they don't have someone within the district, they will open the position externally and will have the posting for six weeks, according to Sarcedo-Magruder.
Chris Torres / Roundup
Multiple athletic teams are posting flyers on the walls of the South Gym because they are short on players. Photo illustration.
[see NEWS on pg. 4]
News
Photo Essay
Features
Self-Defense seminars aim to prevent assault on campus
EOP&S celebrates its 50th anniversary with buffet-style lunch
Math professor has more than 336,000 subscribers on Youtube
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