Rundown Brahma Blotter

These incidents were reported between Oct. 14 - 20

Reported by: Arielle

10/15

•Student Injury

Zolezzi

A male student sprained his ankle and was treated at the Health Center.

10/15

•Attempted Break-In

A door handle and the surrounding wood around it was damaged. A possible break-in is suspected.

10/16

•Traffic Collision azolezzi.roundupnews@gmail.com

Yeranyhi Sermerdjian, also a math professor at Pierce, believes the pepper served no purpose to begin with. She thinks that it was unnecessary, especially for teachers who do not get peppers.

“I think it’s nice to not be judged on your looks even though originally it was meant to be used for something else,” Sermerdjian said. “Why should that be there if you are being judged on your teaching?”

Liliana Mejia, nursing major at Pierce, believes the pepper should have been removed and that the teachers were standing up for something that they believe in.

“If students are going to be using it for what it’s not meant to be used for and make a teacher feel uncomfortable then that’s not okay,” Mejia said.

Although some students believe the website did the right thing to delete the chili pepper feature, others think the problem is a matter of perspective.

Anthony Flores, a history major at Pierce, is against the teachers who took down the chili pepper because he thinks they were being too sensitive about the whole situation.

“They shouldn’t look at the pepper in a sexist way because it is based on how good they are not based on how they look,” Flores said. “I think the teachers are just assuming and they are being a little too sensitive about it.”

Other students argue that the chili pepper feature was a helpful tool that assisted with choosing a professor for a class.

Sharmaine Sapon, a nursing major at Pierce, says that she heavily relied on the pepper when picking a professor and said that she is a little disappointed that it was removed.

[FUNDING MODEL

from page 1]

“There is a study that shows that there are a lot of students who enroll in classes they enjoy and they do better,” Ryan Cornner, the Vice Chancellor of Educational Programs and Institutional Effectiveness, said in a phone interview.

Finding a career in one’s desired field after Pierce is an important part of the term success when applied to Pierce.

Another way to track ctorres.roundupnews@gmail.com accomplishment at Pierce through the new funding model is to focus on dual enrollment and adult education.

“Whenever I looked up a professor and a saw the pepper logo under their name, I immediately tried to enroll in their class,” said Sapon.

Patrick Mino, a business administration major at Pierce, offered a possible solution to the problem by changing the logo from a pepper to something else that does not symbolize ‘hotness.’ If they are able to change the logo to something less controversial than it should not matter to them as much, said Mino.

With the chili pepper out as a ranking tool, prospective students will have to rely on the number score and opinionated reviews by previous students who had that particular professor.

One way to put on emphasis on adult enrollment if through Outreach programs. By targeting high school students and getting them to concurrently enrolled in high school and Pierce, the school will receive increased funding.

“Because they took four classes here, the college will get funding, they get to count them as a transfer,” Buckley said.

If a high school student were to take 12 units at Pierce, when they

A two vehicle traffic collision, no injuries were reported.

10/16

•Student Arrest

A student was arrested for public intoxication.

10/18

•Ill Student A student at the farm felt ill, then treated at the Health Center.

Pierce College

Sheriff’s Station General Information:

Emergency: (818) 710 - 4311 graduate high school and go to a California State University, this will be equivalent to a transfer from Pierce. As a result, the school will gain more funds. dpadilla.roundupnews@gmail.com

The new funding model is structured around student success at Pierce. With this model and the launch of new programs and initiatives like AB 705 compliant courses, Guided Pathways, Outreach courses and the UHaftaFAFSA campaign, the school is aiming to help students succeed.

Unclassified/student worker shake up New employment qualifications impact jobs on campus

DANIELLE PADILLA & ALEXIS CANELO

News Editor & Reporter

@dcxpadilla

@alexiscanelo_

Both student and unclassified workers will be undergoing changes that will affect hiring and employment standards for jobs on campus.

Under Assembly Bill 2160 community college must replace all their unclassified workers and replace them with classified ones.

In an email from the personnel director from Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), “Effective immediately, the end date on all ‘new’ and ‘currently in process’ assignments impacted by AB 2160 will be Dec. 15, 2018. If an assignment is currently in our possession, we will change the end date to avoid having to return it to you. All new assignments should be submitted with an end date of Dec. 15, 2019.”

Personnel Commission will be eliminating jobs held by unclassified workers after Dec. 15 under AB 2160.

This bill states that schools and community college districts must get rid of positions that are not deemed as classified positions. The main difference between the two types of categories is that classified workers are permanent. Unclassified workers receive assignments that vary from semester to semester, cannot exceed 1,000 working hours an entire year and have no benefits. Whereas a classified worker is a person who gets paid hourly and receives benefits from the school.

For the Child Development Center, this means that the jobs of three unclassified workers will be replaced with one classified worker.

The Child Development Center currently has three levels of assistant positions all varying in pay scale and description, but with AB 2160, these job positions will change. Since the qualifications for these jobs will be modified, unclassified workers and their positions will be replaced.

All Child Development and Recreation Centers across LACCD will be impacted by the new bill.

According to Director of Child Development Center Phyllis Schneider, since the bill will remove the jobs of unclassified workers to employ classified workers, this will mean the centers will have to pay extra to cover the cost and benefits for these workers.

Although not all the details have been decided concerning this matter, the Personnel Commission will hold a meeting today at Los Angeles Southwest College to discuss and vote on the matter.

However, student workers are at risk of losing their jobs due to a draft proposed by the district to only have four job titles for student workers.

In addition to decreasing the number of student worker titles, the district has proposed stricter job requirements further limiting them.

“There are conversations at the district level about limiting the student workers or the number and capacity of student workers on campus,” Center for Academic Success Director Crystal Kiekel said.

The proposed draft places limits on the courses one is able to tutor.

One of the proposed student tutor positions requires students to maintain a 3.0 GPA. This limits students who may have previously struggled with one subject yet excel at the subject they tutor in.

This jeopardizes plans for the implementation of Assembly Bill 705. The bill requires that community colleges increase the chances for students to enroll in and complete a transfer-level math and English courses within their first year of college.

Students who may not be fully prepared for transfer-level courses, yet are enrolled in them may require outside support. Pierce plans to increase the number of embedded tutors and peer mentors to supplement the bill.

“The peer connection between students and tutors is absolutely vital,” Kiekel said. “We’re hoping to strengthen that connection, but if the district is having these conversations about who we can hire, what they can do, and so on, without our input.

Basically, we are just going to be affected by a policy that we’ve never been consulted for.”

The student workers who will be affected by this decision are not involved in the conversation.

“Student government has not been consulted,” Kiekel said. “Faculty have not been consulted. They basically have a work group that’s making these decisions and pushing these decisions out.”

The draft from the district is currently being discussed.