to schools by the sea

NADINE GOSTANTIAN Reporter ngostantian.roundupnews@gmail.com

Thirty-seven students huddled into a bus at Pierce College to participate in a college tour, focused on coastal campuses in Southern California on March 10. The tour visited California State University Channel Islands, California Lutheran University and University of California Santa Barbara.

Arranged by the Pierce College Transfer Center, the tour gave insight

Three Pierce College transfer mentors, Akadina Amrekhasadeh, Rosa Medrano and Nicole Goddard, guided and assisted students during the tour. The mentors answered questions regarding transfer requirements, application deadlines, scholarships and tuition.

The first stop of the tour was California State University Channel Islands. Students got to explore various areas of the campus, such as the library, cafeteria, bookstore and the buildings where classes were held.

Amy Wallace, CSU Channel Islands dean of the library, answered questions and gave information about the services that were offered at the university library.

“One thing unique about our library is that we are open 24 hours a day on the week of finals,” Wallace said.

“The other big thing that we do is check out any sort of equipment for classes, such as digital cameras, video/audio recorders, laptops and a

KELLAN BRADLEY Campus Lifestyle Editor kbradley.roundupnews@gmail.com

The Accreditation Steering Committee delivered a positive exit report Thursday, March 10 in the Great Hall after last accrediting Pierce College three years ago.

During the exit report meeting, Pierce College Accreditation Team Chair, Joel Kinnaman, gave a final summary of their observations of the college and what Pierce needs to improve on.

“Overall, the exit report meeting went well,” said Sheri Berger, vice president of academic affairs. “A lot of the recommendations the committee gave weren’t really a surprise.”

If you plan on transferring from Pierce to another school, then credits from a nonaccredited college will not transfer appropriately. Course credits only transfer from institutions that are nationally accredited. It is important for community colleges to be accredited because of the financial aid students can obtain and even the jobs they will get upon graduating, according to Lyn Clark.

“If the college is not accredited then the students would not be able to transfer anywhere. All of the classes you take would not count and it would be as if you did not have an education,” Clark said.

Los Angeles Pierce College began preparations for the 2016 accreditation cycle in the spring of 2014 by preparing a 350-page self-evaluation report. The selfevaluation report can take over a year to be put together. The report presents each standard that the community college has to demonstrate and what the college needs to complete.

The Pierce College Council approved the self-evaluation report during the Fall 2015 semester after a presentation given by faculty accreditation coordinator Margarita Pillado.

“It is very important to show the accreditation committee the accredit information has been discussed at the campus level throughout all committee groups,” Pillado said.

The Accreditation Steering Committee must thoroughly describe what Peirce College has done to meet the accreditation standards. The accreditation commission also added standards in the middle of the year, lengthening the process.

Accreditation is an evaluative process and seal of approval for institutions of higher education and it ensures that you are obtaining a quality education and for your future employers and graduate programs to recognize your education.

“If the college isn’t accredited nobody will come here because they cannot get an AA degree that has any validity,” Clark said.

“The whole process went well. The last meeting was great. I heard the accreditation team give us commendations for the library

“We match the same scholarship amount awarded by a UC school if a student has been accepted by one,” Nguyen said. “For example, if a student gets accepted by University of California Los Angeles, and is offered a scholarship of $20,000, we would match the same amount.”

Nguyen also gave information on the application students need to fill out.

“We are a Common Application exclusive university. Meaning that the only way [students] can submit their application is online,” Nguyen said. “With the Common Application, we do ask for a personal statement and two questions. Why you want to transfer to California Lutheran and what you want to study. In addition to your application, we do require one letter of recommendation.” and for our planning. They thought that those areas were outstanding. I can’t wait to see the school’s final report.” said Jose Luis Fernandez, Dean of Academic affairs. students needed to do in order to get accepted.

The compliance recommendations that the accreditation committee gave are related to the following topics: evaluation of personnel, the search for and selection of adjunct faculty, calculation of future liability and faculty load-banking, development of a business continuity plan, external audit findings and consistent review of Board of Trustee rules.

“It is likely that this recommendation will say “in order to meet the Standards the College should undertake a series of actions.” We will not know the specifics of that until we see the draft report, which will still be confidential and will remain so until the ACCJC acts on the report at their meeting in early June 2016,” stated President Burke in an email sent to out to Pierce faculty.

“I love that students come here to visit,” said Flores. “It’s definitely one of that campuses that you need to drive out here and see. You actually have to feel the energy of it and the peacefulness and get that feel that it’s a homely type of environment.”

Andre Tabnak, 30, nursing major at Pierce, thought the school should be hosting more tours from now on.

“It was very informative, exciting, interesting and motivating for me to bring up my GPA,” Tabnak said. “The food, the ride, it was all awesome. There was nothing bad about it and the mentors really went above and beyond to help students. It was really well organized.” lot of different media. Our collection is mostly electronic because it’s a newer library and we have one of the best collections in the CSU system because of the small area,” Wallace said.

The next stop of the tour was California Lutheran University, a private university located in Thousand Oaks.

Linh Nguyen, Transfer Admissions Counselor at California Lutheran, gave information about various topics like living on campus, acceptance rates, transfer requirements, majors offered, and the activities held on campus.

Nguyen emphasized that Cal Lutheran matched scholarships offered by other schools.

The final stop of the tour was the University of California Santa Barbara. Students attended a meeting and watched a slideshow introducing the school and went on tours guided by student tour guide.

Marisa Flores, Transfer Admissions Counselor at UCSB, was at the meeting and gave information about the majors offered and what

Things student do during break or spare time.

“Iliketogooverclassnotesand getsomethingtoeat.IfIhave timeIliketogetsomerestbefore classalso.”

-Eduardo Martinez, 22, Sophomore, Animal Science major.

“Iwouldgetsomethingtoeat.I alsoliketostudymyhomeworkor foranyteststhatmightcomeup duringtheweek.”

-Monica Cruz, 20, Freshman, Undecided major.

“Iwouldstudyandcatchupon homework.Iwouldtrytorest betweenclassestostayfreshfor thenextclassIamgoingtohave.”

-Zaida Perla, 18, Freshman, Psychology major.

“Iliketostudyorlistento musictogetmymindoffof schoolforalittlebit.Ilike togotothelibraryandread aheadforthenextclass.”

-Kobie Si, 18, Freshman, Biochemistry major.

”Igotothelibraryandstudy myhomeworkorforatestthat iscomingup.Ialsoliketogoto thelibrarytocatchuponsome sleep.”

-Christopher Sotelo, 20, Freshman, Psychology major.

“Iliketostudy,hangaroundthe cafeandlibrary.Itʼsgoodtotake breaksinbetweenclassessoyou canclearyourmindandprepare forthenextclass.”

-Kati Gonzalez, 19, Freshman, Psychology major.

Pierce College is, and has always been, a cauldron where people of different ethnicities, heritages and circumstances meld into a solitary community. We are home to clubs that celebrate different cultures and programs that open the eyes of students to the world beyond the American borders.

Even so, we do not offer the classes students need to speak the languages that they will encounter.

Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish and American Sign Language. These are the choices students are given to choose from to fulfill their foreign language requirement—five to equip students for the futures they face.

The global economy is splitting at the seams and numerous power players have risen in the last six decades or so. Among the emerged are Germany and Korea. Russia and China have always had a hand at shaping the global workplace, but now more so than ever. None of these nations are represented in the foreign languages department.

The goal for students attending Pierce is to transfer to a four-year university or to find employment after earning an associate’s