President pushes for exit

According to Pierce’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness, the college has seen a steady rise in student achievement during Burke’s term. In the 2009-2010 school year, 801 students received associate degrees and 75 received unspecified certificates. In 2013-2014, associate degree recipients numbered 1,171 and 650 received certificates. Additionally, each year 2009 and 2014 showed a consistent increase in those numbers over the previous year.

“I think [that is due to] the emphasis on completion that’ve been talking about since I arrived,” Burke said. “All I can do as the college president is talk about completion, I don’t do it. That takes the faculty and staff to do that… I take no credit for that, they did the hard work.”

Students at Pierce have shown mixed reactions to the president’s decision to seek the position.

“It’s not a surprise. I mean, I would have left after a year,” said Mortuary Science major Dolores Stewart, 23. “This school is unmanageable; it’s an animal house.”

Jared Henderson, 20, said he was upset by the president’s possible move and said he felt she has been a good leader for Pierce.

“I am curious about the cause. What could make somebody who seems so passionate about helping the students want to leave,” asked

Henderson, a behavioral studies major. “I feel like she might want to be somewhere that her opinion is more likely to be heard [by the school board] than it is here.”

Andrea Sala of the El Camino College Foundation asked about Burke’s experience dealing with other college foundations. which are traditionally separate from their respective colleges and are often intended to provide scholarships and financial assistance to students.

“I just wondered what your experience has been with the foundation at Pierce,” Sala asked.

“How you’re involved with them, how you support them, how you promote them in your community and to the campus community as well.”

Burke, whose administration has been at odds with the foundation over both the spending and raising of funds, outlined the issues she has had with the Foundation for Pierce College in her term.

“That’s one of my not-successful stories at Pierce to be quite candid with you,” Burke said. “When I arrived the foundation had a $156,000 loan, line of credit. I have never seen a college foundation that owed money.”

The Foundation for Pierce College recently finished undergoing an external review that looked back through 15 years of financial documents. The results of the review are covered on this page [see ‘Foundation audit ends,’ top-left].