Dems nearly come to blows in Great Hall

Congressional hopefuls, hosted in Pierce College’s Great Hall on Thursday, have continued to make headlines across the nation as two former allies each deal with fallout this week from their high-tension display.

The 30th Congressional District race heated up late last week when Rep. Brad Sherman forcefully put his arm around opponent Rep. Howard Berman’s head with unclear intentions.

The debate was part of Pierce’s Day of Politics 2, sponsored by Pierce’s Departments of Political Science, Economics, Criminal Justice, and Law and Chicano Studies.

Monday.

Although many members of the audience noticed the comment, Brown did not.

“I don’t remember him saying that I’m a hypocrite,” she claimed.

Brown is a non-union professor at Pierce College, a unionized campus.

Sparks did not deny making the controversial comment at the debate.

“I probably did say something like that,” he confirmed.

Proposition 32 requires that unions get permission from members before they use paid dues for political activism.

“Because I am at Pierce, the union negotiates for me,” Brown explained.

She also explained why she thought Sparks called her a hypocrite.

“Pierce, a unionized campus, the union negotiates for me, so I’m a hypocrite because I’m not

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This March, bidding will begin for the installation of next-generation technology at Pierce, according to a statement made at last week’s Academic Senate meeting.

Jill Binsley, Technology Advisory Committee member, announced that the buildings in the North Mall will be equipped with 70 SMART Classrooms.

These will be installed and ready to use by Fall 2013, with a few now being used in the Center for Sciences building.

“Pierce will have the most [SMART classrooms],” Binsley said.

David Schamus, Chair of the Computer Science and Information Technology Department, explained to the Academic Senate a little more of the new state-of-the-art equipment.

“[SMART Boards] are essentially electronic versions of the white board,” Schamus said.

These new boards will be directly hard-wired into the room, so that instructors will not have to worry about bringing in their own cables to hook up their laptops.

Blu-ray players, AV connectors, and higher Wi-Fi connectivity will also be in place with the new gear.

“Interactive and media-rich environments in our classrooms is our goal,” Schamus said.

The SMART classrooms are just one of many programs geared toward fast turn-around for students.

Transfer Center Director Sunday Salter also introduced a new website, ADegreeWithAGuarantee.com.