“We need to find a way to reach out to students to make sure their needs are met. We have to give students that individual attention to help them achieve their educational goals.”

while using Zoom for class.

One of the factors that reduced enrollment could have been the delay in distrubition of Pierce Lenovo and Surface Go laptops according to Gend.

With the start of the Fall semester, Gend explains many students find themselves lost in completing their online courses without the proper equipment and advised Pierce College to find a better way to distribute these laptops or this will continue to take a toll on enrollment.

“The district has in place to get computers to students and doesn’t take into account their classes,” Gend said. “If you just start promoting the first day of the semester on how to get your free computer which may not come for a couple weeks, then students go for many weeks without the technology to even complete their classes”.

Determined to keep enrollment numbers up, Gend took matters into his own hands to individually reach out to students struggling in the Performance Arts department.

This led him to loan his personal Apple laptop to Sonny Lira who was attending zoom and submitting assignments all through his phone.

From receiving Gend’s personal laptop, Lira is now able to multitask and this eased his anxiety of turning in assignments.

“With this laptop it feels like all barriers are broken,” Lira said. “I can now upload assignments with ease so I’m eager to continue to the class because now I have the equipment necessary to thrive”.

Lira explains how this personal outreach he received from professors Gend helped him stay “loyal” to the class and to continue to be enrolled in the class.

This individual attention that Lira received is what Angela Belden, Professor of Psychology, calls “attention equals retention” which is one of the solutions she proposes that could increase student enrollment at Pierce.

“We need to find a way to reach out to students to make sure their needs are met,” Belden said. “We have to give students that individual attention to help them achieve their educational goals.”

Belden advised that Pierce looks into majors and sees which students need extra guidance in completing their educational plan and by doing this she explains this can lead to higher enrollment numbers.

Amari Williams, Dean of Office of Institutional Effectiveness, explained that Pierce College should expect to see an increase in enrollment in October because of late start classes.

He adds how 70 late start classes will be available in October for 8 weeks and this will allow students to re-enroll for the Fall 2020 semester.

These late start classes are seen in other LACCD colleges as well such as LA Valley College, LA Mission College, and LA Harbor College. With these late start classes, enrollment is expected to increase but by how much is unknown at the moment.

“The Academic Affairs Office will look into which classes have more demand and offer those as late start classes,” Williams said.

Infographic by Sherazade Irani skarim.roundupnews@gmail.com