Fiestas Patrias: Celebrating Latin American Independence
Katja Liebing/Courier
Dancers of the Aztec dance group Yankuititl perform at the Villa Parke Community Center in Pasadena on Sept. 16. The City
of Pasadena invited the public to celebrate Latin American Independance Day at Fiestas Patrias at the Villa Parke Community
Center.
Give and take of canceled classes
Rachel Ho
Staff Writer
A total of 1 26 credit sections
have been given the axe by the
PCC Academic Affairs office this
semester, rendering more than three
thousand previously available seats
unavailable to students.
Insufficient enrollment was the
reason for the cancellation of 71 of
these classes, which ran the gamut
from Marine Biology to Jazz Dance
to Television Production. In addi¬
tion, nine classes — seven of which
were mathematics classes — were
nixed as the school was unable to
find instructors for these classes.
Contrary to popular belief, bud¬
get cuts are not necessarily the driv¬
ing force behind the cancellation of
classes, which is a decision that the
school officials say they do not take
lightly. Instead, it is resource alloca¬
tion that forces the school to scrap
courses with low demand, according
to Paul Jarrell, dean of instructional
support.
With this give-and-take shift in
resources, the school was able to
create 66 new sections this semester
for in-demand courses such as En-
glish, Political Science and Psycholo¬
gy. Out of the 66 new additions, 19
are Large Group Instruction classes
that accommodate approximately
a hundred students each. Many of
these additional classes filled up in a
matter of days and most, if not all,
of these classes are late-start classes.
A total of 3,023 new seats were
added to replace the 3,284 potential
seats that were removed.
The fate of a class is dependent
upon its context, where factors
such as if it’s offered on a regular
basis and if there are many more
sections that offer the same class
affect the decision whether to keep
or scrap it. There is a benchmark
of a minimal enrollment rate of 60
percent, which is also taken into
consideration.
When a class is on the brink of
cancellation, the procedure is not as
simple as scratching a timeslot off a
schedule.
“The dean of the instructional
area will talk to the instructor and
they will discuss what will be the
implications if they [were to] cancel
the class,” Jarrell explained. Among
topics that are typically discussed in
this situation are alternatives for stu¬
dents and if there would be a better
timing later in the term to offer
the class again. Should the class be
canceled, the school will encourage
professors offering the same class
to open seats to students who have
been impacted by a cancellation.
“None of these was driven by
a budget from the standpoint of,
‘we’re running out of money, we
have to cancel those classes,”’ Dr.
Jarrell said. “It’s really about making
the best use of the money we have
ENROLLMENT page 2
126 sections axed
(3,284 potential seats were removed)
Classes need
to meet the
60% margin in
order for the
class to avoid
cancellation
Insufficient
enrollment
(below 60%
enrollment)
No instructor
available
- 66 new
sections were
added
- 3,023 new
seats were
added
Rescheduled
/
not needed
Graphic by Daniel Valencia
PCC expands free adult education
Keely Damara
Managing Editor
Pasadena City College, as a member of the Pasadena
Area Consortium, created 27 new noncredit adult edu¬
cation programs this fall after receiving a grant from the
state for just over $1.5 million.
The state appropriated $500 million in the 2013-
2014 budget through the AB 86 Adult Education Block
Grant to the California Community College Chancellor’s
Office and the California Department of Education
to allocate funding for adult education. Of this, $1.5
million was allocated to the Pasadena Area Consor¬
tium — which consists of the Pasadena Area Community
College District, Pasadena Unified School District, Ar¬
cadia Unified School District and Temple City7 Unified
School District.
The grant funded the creation of new courses be¬
ginning this fall in career technical education, English
as a second language, workforce preparation for the
developmentally disabled and elementary and secondary
education - which includes GED courses and adult
basic education courses.
All of the new program offerings are entry-level, with
the main goal of either preparing students to transition
to credit programs at PCC or into entry-level jobs.
Ofelia Arellano, dean of academic affairs, said that
these noncredit courses are a starting point for adults
in the community to start a new career path or build on
prior experience.
“The big difference between noncredit and credit
programs is that we design very basic introductory train¬
ing for entry-level jobs,” said Arellano. “If you want the
more advanced training, you come to credit.”
Catherine Cheng teaches the Basic Graphic Design
CTE class, which consists of two, eight-week sections
that cover everything from the history of graphic
design to learning software programs used by working
professionals. She has 13 years experience as a graphic
designer, seven of which she spent working for PCC
until she was offered a position teaching this fall.
“I’m basing my curriculum and my methods of
FREECLASSES page 2
Courier photographers document all
mediums of art around campus
band puts their own spin on music
SEPTEMBER 24, 2015
VOLUME 112
ISSUE 03
First steps
toward
accreditation
Kristen Luna
Editor-in-Chief
Soon after school officials
received news in early July that
the Accrediting Commission for
Community and Junior Colleges
(ACCJ C) placed PCC on probation,
members of shared governance
came together to try to form a solid
plan to avoid the loss of accredita¬
tion.
The ACCJC included nine recom¬
mendations in their external evalua¬
tion report. Each recommendation
addressed areas within the school
that have been problematic. These
recommendations include areas of
shared governance and communi¬
cation, implemented planning, ad¬
herence to institutional policies and
overall institutional effectiveness.
Kathy Scott, associate vice
president of academic affairs and
accreditation liaison officer, worked
with accreditation faculty leaders
Stephanie Fleming and Kris Pilon
over the summer to form the Ac¬
creditation Task Force (ATF), which
has approximately 10 members with
Scott leading the committee.
“[It] was created to deal with the
accreditation recommendations,”
Scott said. “[We] met three times
and put together work groups to
deal with each of the recommen¬
dations . . . We worked and created
some initial steps for each recom¬
mendation.”
According to Scott, those
work groups are currently being
populated with members of the
faculty, classified staff, managers
and students within the Associated
Students.
The ATF has also created a “ten¬
tative calendar” for how to fix all
recommendations so they are able
to meet the October 201 6 deadline.
Each group will be required to put
together their own tentative plan
with steps targeting the specific
recommendation they are managing
by September 25 and form a draft
ACCREDITATION page 2
ahead
Paralegal Association and mother
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