A whole latte conversations

President opens doors for coffee and chat

When newly instated president of Pierce Alexis Montevirgen first took strolls across the campus to introduce himself to faculty and students, most responded by asking where the president’s office was located.

In order to familiarize the campus to his office in Alder 1019, Montevirgen began coffee with the president events where any member of the Pierce community could drop by to have a conversation on Oct. 21, Oct. 22 and Oct. 24.

“I wanted to provide this environment where it’s more casual and informal where you don’t have to be a member of the senate in order to approach the president,” Montevirgen said. “I refer to it as there’s plenty of the loud voices but I want to make sure I provide an opportunity for every voice, even the not so loud voice to also have an opportunity to be validated, to be heard, to be acknowledged.”

Malina Koani, has been an assistant to three previous Pierce presidents before working for Montevirgen. She’s worked for former president Kathleen Burke, acting president Sheri Berger and interim president Lawrence Buckley.

Koani says she hasn’t seen presidents open up their office to the general public during her year and a half as an assistant, except for Montevirgen.

“I haven’t seen this type of interaction before in the president’s office where people can actually come in and sit with the president on a walk in basis,” Koani said. “I think it’s very nice to have that communication and access available to everyone on the campus.”

Professors and students who attended were open to bring up whichever topic at the round table in Montevirgen’s green-walled office, like getting more charging stations on campus for electric cars.

Ronald Smetzer, part-time professor of industrial technology, only teaches on Saturday but drove 30 miles from his home in Newbury Park to talk to President Montevirgen on Oct. 22.

[see COFFEE on pg. 7]

Vice Chancellor of Educational Programs and Institutional Effectiveness Ryan Cornner said that the district is in favor of raising the student health fee too, but doing so is a lengthy process.

“The health fee is a board approved fee,” Cornner said.

This is because it’s the only unrestricted pot of money that the college has. Most of the funding is restricted and can only be spent in a certain way. Therefore, subjects that cannot be covered by restricted funds must all compete for that 10% of the college’s tutoring budget.

Categorical funds cover English, math, English as a second language and gatekeeper courses, which are courses that have high enrollment and low success rates. All other subjects must come out of that college budget.

“As a board approved fee, what we have to do is go through the consultation process to make sure that the entire district addresses the fee the way it needs to be addressed.”

Cornner said that before the fee is brought to the board, it must be discussed by the Student Affairs Committee (SAC). He also mentioned that raising the health fee presents several problems.

“One of the problems with the revenue that comes in is that not all the fees are collected,” Cornner said. “There is a significant group of students that don't actually pay their fees.”

Corrner said that once the overall analysis of the fee has been completed, and that the next step is to coordinate with the colleges in the district to see what they would use the money for. Cornner said this might take between four-tofive-months.

“In anticipation that everything goes well, we’ll likely be bringing a recommendation in early spring and implementation in fall 2020,” Cornner said.

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Having tutors accessible to the students is important because CAS sees every student as being capable of success with the right kind of support that they may not receive in class or be able to conjure on their own.

Parisa Borzouei, one of the tutors at the CAS, says students know students better and this contributes to students being able to digest the content better when another student explains it to them.

“Tutors usually know what parts students have troubles with because they have been there,

Bryan Walsh suggested that the district triage money to help cover the health center in the meantime. Cornner said that an allocation of funds is an issue that has to be taken up with the budget committee.

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“[The budget committee] controls the allocation of funding that goes through the colleges. They have made recommendations in the past for line-item issues,” Cornner said. “Believe me, it's something that can be discussed.” so they can explain everything in an easier way, rather than the professors version,” Borzouei said.

Benne said that the health center intends to use the increased fees to hire a fulltime psychologist and to increase hours of operation.

Bruce Rosky, associate vice president, broke down that the budgeting process takes place six months before the annual year begins. Due to the $4.5 million deficit the school is facing, some of the programs had to make cuts.

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