4 minute read
Five things you should know
Brian Schwartz, Cynthia Garcia, Sydney Grossman, Melody Soto / Roundup
Solar powered parking
In Parking Lots 1 and 8 at Pierce College, photo voltaic arrays, or solar panels, are being installed over the first two rows of parking.
This project began on March 11 of this year, and is projected to take five months to complete.
These arrays will help offset the cost of the energy that is provided to Pierce by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
“All said and done, [the arrays] will provide approximately 1.34 megawatts of energy that will feed back into the LADWP grid,” according to Allison. The photo voltaic arrays will cover over 700 spaces combined in both lots, acting as shade structures for cars as well as saving money for the college.
Portable food
Pierce College depends on the services of several catering trucks to provide food for students in the absence of the recently destructed Country Cafe, but their presence on campus has been inconsistent.
“The nature of food trucks is transient, so they might go somewhere else,” said Larry Kraus, Associate Vice President. “They go where they can sell, and as long as the business is good,” said Castallon. “Right now, I’ll be here Monday through Thursday every week.”
The college will determine later if the food trucks will be on campus during the summer sessions as well, according to Kraus.
Textbooks
The Textbook Task Force continued to enforce policies that urge deadlines for faculty when requesting books for their courses, during the Pierce College Academic Senate meeting Monday.
Lauren Valdes, a representative for the committee, encouraged faculty to turn in the course textbook request on deadline because it has a big effect on students.
“They [students] don’t have time to shop and make the best financial decision for themselves,” said Valdes when faculty doesn’t give students the text requirements early. “Timely manner is important for students,” she added.
In addition, there was discussion on text book prices increasing and Bookstore Manager Kim Saunders said publishers will lower costs when they see no income.
“What we’ve learned in our research is that there can be text a price reduction when students find other ways to get the material,” said Saunders. She said that this wasn’t a matter of students protesting, but simply coming across ways of obtaining the textbooks through cheaper means.
Rounding up an award
After submitting the Roundup to the American Scholastic Press Association’s newspaper competition in December 2010, the results are finally in.
The newspaper judges from the ASPA congratulated the Roundup on winning first place with a special merit award earlier this week.
With a possible 1000 points to be won, the Roundup’s grand total was 955.
With the ASPA serving more than 2,000 schools annually, the Roundup is honored and excited to be the recipient of the award.
Possible cancellations
Enrollment in as many as 90 sections scheduled for fall 2011 have been frozen, according to Diane Levine, chair of the events and recognition committee.
“The 15 to 25 students enrolled, don’t know that there is a possibility that those classes might be canceled,” Levine said.
Kathy Oborn, the professional development committee chair, has already notified students that were enrolled in the frozen sections under her department.
“We’re just waiting to see the budget, to see whether those classes will actually be canceled and what the district wants us to do,” Levine said.
Karla Gomez, 22, a nursing major, believes she will be personally affected if the classes that have been frozen are ultimately canceled.
“It’s not fair,” Gomez said. “I’m already really behind in transferring.”
