Counseling Pierce students

Students should know alternatives to appointments

UP: Going green Facilities has begun sprucing up the area outside of the Industrial Technology Building 3600 by installing a new lawn.

-Poll Results-

How should the school communicate messages?

Mobile phone applications - 34

Email - 21

Text - 16

Face book - 4

Dep

* out of 75 responses from those on campus

Would you pay more to add popular classes?

Yes - 61

No - 14

* out of 75 responses from those on campus

-Corrections-

Volume 119 Issue 4

Page 1: Jeanne Clery and the Clery Act are misspelled.

Page 2: Gustavo Sandoval’s name is mistakenly printed in the Letter to the Editor closing salutation

Page 3: Aggravated assault is mistakenly referenced twice in the “On campus offenses for 2010-2012 information box.” The correct number of assaults is 10.

Page 5: Photo caption: Rachael Goodwein, Karen Ashley and Justin Morse paint a stage deck during the Set Design class in preparation for the upcoming play “The Fantasticks”. “The Fantasticks” is scheduled to open Oct. 25, 2013. Photo taken: Monday, Sept. 30, 2013.

Photo: Mohammad Djauhari

Page 6: Lauren Vellvé illustrated the dancers cartoon. Page 7: “Football head coach teaches math at local high school”

With the number of students attending Pierce College, it is not surprising that counseling time is difficult to attain, but the process of booking appointments could be improved.

Career Center Director Joanna Zimring-Towne said that 10 full-time counselors averaged 193 appointments per week last semester to address the needs of a student body of more than 20,000.

The Roundup has heard complaints from students about the restrictive and fruitless process of booking counseling times.

A limited number of half-hour appointments per week are available to be booked only online and only beginning each morning at 8 a.m. If students fail under competition to book their desired appointment, they must rearrange or delay their life.

If a student is lucky enough to secure a time, it may be during class or work time. But professors don’t want their students missing class and counseling is not a good reason to get in trouble at work.

The counseling office does offer a few other options for students that are unable to secure an appointment or to answer general questions, but that does little to console a student with in-depth concerns and limited time.

Students may also wait for a 10 to 15 minute walk-in appointment with the next available counselor. But walk-ins may wait for hours. With a busy schedule of school and work, students rarely have the time or patience to spend hours in the counseling office.

Students with only basic needs may stop by the office for lobby hours, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at which time counselors are in the lobby to answer brief questions.

Students may also email the counseling office with questions and wait to receive an answer within three business days.

Lastly, students could rely on online information to figure out how to transfer or graduate and hope come graduation time, they calculated correctly and have all the units they need.

Pierce counseling should broaden its availability like that of East Los Angeles College, which offers priority appointments in person in addition to over the phone and online bookings.

Not all students need to see a counselor each semester, but for those who do, the process shouldn’t be so burdensome.

Penalize those who drop crashed classes

Opinion -Con-

Opinion editor

In spring 2013, more than 3,100 freshman students enrolled at Pierce College while only 2,545 basic general education seats were available, leaving a potential 550 students only one option – crash the classes they need.

Colleges nationwide openly encourage crashing classes – many offer tips on the practice. Some schools have the practice written into their policy manuals like Palomar Community College in San Marcos, Calif. whose counseling manual clearly defines the practice of crashing classes: “You must attend the first class … If there are no-shows (enrolled students who don’t claim their seats) or withdrawals (enrolled students who decide the class is not what they want), you may be allowed to enroll.”

You will not find mention of academic penalties for crashing classes, though some students complain about crashers at meetings and some faculty, like Pierce Automotive Service Technology, make loose associations between crashing classes, class sizes and student outcomes.

Students are the unwitting and omnipresent victim of faulty planning and mismanagement of resources by college administrations. To contemplate blame of students who crash and drop would be like blaming a patient when a doctor prescribes the wrong medication.

Forecasting the needs of students with more certainty must be addressed. There should not be a time when a group of students like Associated Student Organization (ASO) president, Gustavo Sandoval takes the school by surprise with a protest for basic English courses as they did last semester outside the Roundup newsroom. School administrators must utilize their resources frugally to ensure they offer nimble solutions that fit freshman student’s educational needs. If they do this well, then the only drop that will matter will be the drop in animosity in the first week of each semester.

Opinion

-Pro-

Roundup reporter

Gabrielle Hutchinson ghutchinson.roundupnews@gmail.com

Students may crash a class at some point because there are too many students and not enough classes, but nothing happens to serial crashers who drop before the withdraw deadline.

With the demand for classes high and seating low, crashers strip away and delay the learning opportunities of students with the drive to finish a course by taking their enrollment.

Crashers should have an academic penalty if they drop, which may seem harsh but it’s about being fair to students who have lost out.

Yes, there are times when life delivers a surprise and students drop classes they’ve crashed. So, common sense should prevail in policies.

Also, student populations have grown and courses fill up fast or are not offered in the volume needed to

-COMIC STRIP-

satisfy the demand.

If students knew that there were actual consequences for wasting class time and resources, they may take courses more seriously and may perform better. Perhaps, too, they might not add more than they could finish. With enrollment down slightly and an upcoming winter intersession, it would be a great time for campus leaders to consider a restrictive class-crasher policy. Admissions and Records can run a report to highlight students who have added basic and prerequisite courses. The Office of Institutional Research can run a report on students who have dropped the same classes.

Administrators can establish an excessive level of drops per adds based on the reports. A wellformed recommendation could be presented to the Academic Senate and eventually given to Pierce President Kathleen Burke to sign within a semesters time. A policy to penalize students who habitually add and drop classes is fair to the students who complete classes. It also complements the mission of the college, which is to move students on to a four-year degree.

Lauren Vellvé / Roundup