incident report New degrees to aid in transfer

This confirms that they have priority standing over all other applicants when applying.

Nov. 10 - Nov. 16

– Compiled by Genna Gold

11/11 - Suspicious person - Two people were on campus at the Learning/ Library Crossroads while the school was closed due to Veterans Day. They were escorted off campus.

11/12 - Student incident -The campus Sheriff sent a courtesy report to the city’s Transit Services Bureau for a student’s car that had been burglarized while parked in the Orange Line parking lot. The suspect stole a laptop and GPS from the trunk.

11/13 - Traffic collision with unknown injuries - A two-vehicle collision occurred in Lot 1 with no injuries reported.

11/13 - Suspicious person - Officers were contacted for a suspicious male in the pool area who later checked out to be a registered student.

11/13 - Hit and run parked vehicle - A student witnessed a hit and run involving a parked vehicle and was able to write down both licence plates.

11/13 - Vehicle theft - A female student came into the sheriff’s station looking for her car keys and assistance with finding her car which she parked in Lot 7. Officers escorted the student around campus to locate her vehicle, but it was never found.

11/15 - Disturbance -An intoxicated male was escorted off campus after causing a disturbance in the Great Hall and refusing to leave.

“The idea behind them [AS-T/ AA-T degrees] is for students who know what they want to major in to follow one of these TMCs,” said Sunday Salter, Transfer Center director. “They can take their general requirements, take their major prep requirements. They’ll get to a Cal State and they’ll only need to take 60 more units to graduate.”

Issues may arise if President Burke’s understanding of SB 440 is correct, which could possibly force the school to create numerous new degrees even if there is not enough student interest.

But Atondo disagrees. Pierce is already in compliance with both pieces of legislation (SB 1440/440) and is only responsible for adopting TMC degrees for which the school offers an associate degree, Atondo said.

Regardless of what developments come from SB 440, the transfer degrees could possibly come with more concerns, according to Salter.

“SB 1440 was a law that wanted to reduce the number of units that students were completing in community college in order to transfer,” Salter said. “The kicker with these degrees is that the CSUs can determine individually whether or not they will accept this Associate Transfer Degree. So not all of the CSUs have to take our degrees.”

Pierce is currently only able to offer an AS-T in business and mathematics and is awaiting final approval from the state for the other AS-T and AA-T degrees such as early childhood education, journalism, music, studio arts, theatre arts, Spanish and others.

The college is currently waiting for more statewide development for the degrees emphasized in SB 440 before they are able to take any further action.

President Obama aims to make changes to financial aid system College scorecard raises potential concerns

Todd Rosenblatt Roundup Reporter

President Barack Obama’s administration has launched a program ranking colleges in the United States that critics say could result in less federal financial aid being available for students at lower scoring colleges.

In February the College Scorecard was released by the president’s administration as part of the president’s plan to “hold colleges accountable for cost, value and quality,” according to a whitehouse.gov press release.

Part of the purpose of the Scorecard is to enable the Department of Education to collect accurate performance ratings and “transform the way federal aid is awarded to colleges,” according to a fact sheet posted to the White House’s website on August 22, 2013.

Joseph Roberson, a counselor and instructor at Pierce, believes a student’s federal aid should not be linked to the performance of the school they attend.

“I don’t want my opportunities in life impacted by ethnicity, by my age, by the geographic location where I live, or the school I attend,” Roberson said.

-Joseph

While Roberson uses the College Scorecard and sees value in it he does not support the idea of using it to determine a school’s success rate.

“How do you define success rates?” Roberson asks.

The Scorecard allows you to get an estimated annual cost of attending school. The cost of attending Pierce is estimated at $7,970 per year and the cost of California State University, Northridge at $9,339 per year, according to the Scorecard.

One potential outcome of changing the financial aid system is giving students at higher success schools more financial aid. CSUN has nearly double the graduation rate of Pierce according to the Scorecard. Because of this the