Health Center adds staff

Hires fill gap left by 2012 cuts in hours

ETHAN ROMAN Reporter @ethan_romanoff

Three years after cutting nearly half of its staff’s hours, the Pierce College Student Health Center has fully recovered, and is operating as it did in 2012.

Incident Report

9/18—Petty Theft

A student who is on campus from noon till the sun sets knows the value of a parking space, regardless of where it is.

All the while, staff members skip the virtually endless stream of cars filled with students who need to find a spot, and proceed to pass the threshold that reads “STAFF PARKING ONLY” to enter that nice shady spot they favor.

Some staff members have the luxury to literally have a parking space right next to their classroom, and yet instructors still find ways to be late. When they finally arrive they are greeted by their class surrounding the building, and off in the distance, are students who are running towards the crowd surprised because they thought class had already started.

Why should students pay for parking passes, when a space isn’t guaranteed?

These are the fundamentals of higher education. How can students be expected to achieve academic success when they’re still circling the lot?

How can a commuter college like Pierce, with more than 20,000 enrolled students, dismiss the horrendous parking situation, or try to explain it away by blaming the start of a new semester when it is a well known fact that people struggle to find parking?

Pro Con: Does a Professor’s Age Effect Ability to Teach?

growing.

MIRANDA LOPEZ mlopez.roundupnews@gmail.com

@miranda_rpnews

When a professor has taught for over 20 years, their abilities to teach a class are definitely affected by their age. The age of a professor not only will affect the direction of their course, but also the way that they will teach it as years go on.

As they begin their career, professors are fresh out of school and are loaded with information that they just received. They are ready to pour their education into potential students, who are eager to learn, but all of this can soon become outdated and the students will be less interested.

One can only wonder if they will remember their abilities 1520 years from when they began, if they will still have that same passion and drive to share their wisdom to students. It will become more difficult to connect with students who are barely entering their 20s.

As the professors continue to teach the same course that they have been teaching for years, their information will grow old and repetitive, as education keeps

With education advancing on a day to day basis, with support from technology it’s easy to feel skeptical about professors who are reaching more than 30 years of teaching, and how they will keep up with such a fast pace environment.

Most classes ware half in class, half online, requiring professors to have experience with different websites and software. These ways of teaching are known for making courses easier, and more simplified for students, but it will only become a challenge for the professor who has little to no experience, because they have always printed out their materials, and tests that are years old.

Students are used to being surrounded by technology, whether it’s their cellphone, laptop, or TV.

It’s the ultimate comfort zone for most students and now, classrooms are becoming part of that.

New technological aspects are now being brought into classrooms such as projectors, smartboards, and sometimes, a computer on every single desk.

With advancements like that in an educational setting, students will be much more eager to learn, but a professor who is used to sticking to the old notebook and pen, along with a two hour lecture, will have their abilities to teach tested.

@StoberMarielle

There are a great deal of treasures in this world that get better with time; none such like an experienced professor with a passion for what they do.

It can be argued that younger instructors and administrators bring a certain zeal to the classroom experience. Fresh out of graduate school and ready to expand the minds of their students, these wide-eyed administrators pour their enthusiasm into each and every lesson.

However, this is not to say that their more seasoned colleagues are any less vibrant. If anything one could say that their words pack a stronger punch because there is heft behind it.

As a veteran of Pierce College I have come to value the worldliness of administrators and professors that have long since graduated from university. Energy and enthusiasm is key to be an effective lecturer, so is hands-on experience and wisdom that can only be achieved after serving a fair amount of time in the professor’s field.

One such example is those within the anthropology and archaeology department at Pierce College. They spent the better half of their college years digging-both literally and figuratively-for glimpses into the ancestry of humans. Traversing the globe, shaking hands with tribe leaders in foreign lands, and learning the culture from the people themselves is something that cannot be taught from a textbook.

What veteran professor’s bring to the classroom is a combination of youthful vigor and wisdom that only time can achieve.

Despite the stigma of age placed on modern American professors, their position in the academic hierarchy is immeasurable. A recent study conducted by Fidelity that was released on the CNN website states that 75 percent of college faculty and professors plan to retire after they reach age 65. The study also reports that 80 percent of polled faculty members and professors want to stay.

Baby boomer professors and administrators hail from a time when experience and passion was key. They do not teach for sport or a paycheck. They do not do it because “there will always be a need for teachers,” as the popular mantra says.

They do what they do because they recognize the need for certain knowledge. Knowledge that they happen to hold and are more than happy to share.To imply that their ability to teach is inhibited by their age is an outdated Victorian notion.

The center was put under a great deal of strain from a combination of budgetary factors, which resulted in the loss of 40 percent of the staff’s hours, according to Beth Benne, the center’s director. Benne said the cuts seriously damaged the center’s ability to serve students, and that it has only just returned to its former strength.

“We lost every morning [shift],”

Benne said. “There was nobody here in the mornings except Friday.”

According to Benne, the center’s budget can be as high as $480,000 per year depending on enrollment, and comes solely from the health services fee each student pays when they sign up for classes. However, its expenses regularly exceed $500,000.

The fee, $11 in fall and spring and $8 in winter and summer, hasn’t changed in years, according to Benne. While the budget was never cut, it stagnated while operating costs rose.