HEERF it comes

WALTER ORELLANA Reporter

Infrastructure, technology and hybrid classes spearheaded the topics at Pierce College Council meeting on Sept. 23. The council met to discuss budget reports, Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) spending and the future of in-person and online teaching.

In 2020, COVID-19 was in full effect, shutting down businesses and schools. Many of the budgets throughout the Los Angeles College districts took a hit with losses of incoming revenues to help support campus maintenance, academic programs and new technologies to help teachers with online classes.

And while there’s a fund to help in the rebuilding and keeping up with maintenance and technology, some faculty felt the money wasn't being used enough or fast enough to get classes in tip-top shape to present a good product to the Fall semester students.

Pierce’s Chapter president Brian Walsh said that the funds should be utilized towards technology and safety on campus.

“We started this semester willfully unprepared when it comes to technology, cleanliness of classes and teaching online,” Walsh said. “It’s great to think long term, but we had students come this new semester and we did not put our best foot forward in terms of presenting them a product that they would enjoy coming to on a daily basis.

"I think we need to put as much HEERF funds into these classes and technologies. Let’s think about the spring, I don't want to repeat what we are doing in the fall. I want us to be more prepared.”

Vice President of Administrative Services Rolf Schleicher said that the college plans to use the HEERF funds as effectively as possible.

“We don't have the best budgeting system in the district but we get around that by having good protocols and methodologies,” Schleicher said. “HEERF funds are on everybody’s mind but these are funds we need to use effectively because again in the end this money is just to get us back into a normal business mode, which is not normal anymore.”

Associate Vice President of the Business Office Ron Paquette said that the HEERF funds have been helping Pierce regain lost revenue.

“The Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) fund has allowed colleges to recapture revenues that were lost due to COVID-19,” Paquette said. “ So losses in instructional fees due to loss of enrollment, bookstore losses, cafeteria losses, facility rentals and parking fees losses, can all be recaptured using the HEERF fund that the district helps supplement.”

With an ongoing drop in enrollment since the start of the pandemic, Media Arts Department Chair Jill Connelly said that students have been more present online than in-person, and feels that this might be where things are moving towards.

“I thought my students would be flocking back to the classroom this semester and they’re not,” Connelly said. “A lot of our students are signing up online and we put a lot of classes in person. They’re not getting the same kind of numbers as online. So I think this could be the new way of teaching whether we like it or not if the students don't come and the demand isn't there for in-person.”