Development at Pierce College

I am the president of the Associated Students Organization at Pierce College. However, first and foremost, I am a student at Pierce. I have attended classes at the college since 1995 and have seen a lot of things change. I have watched as enrollment has dropped and classes have been cut as students leave Pierce for more “attractive” area schools. Why? Because our infrastructure is falling apart and because we cannot afford to offer classes that are not filled. Why? Money.

Pierce offers a first-class education; our professors are highly professional and qualified. Our academic standards are higher than any other community college in the area. And yet, because of the financial quagmire that Pierce and the Los Angeles Community College District have been in, students are leaving.

On March 10, at the bimonthly meeting of the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees, a solution will be presented. It would provide a constant source of revenue directly to Pierce over the next 20 years; it would create new corporate partnership programs and support and enhance the existing pre-vet and agriculture programs. Students would have a better chance of transferring to the leading four-year agricultural school in the area, UC Davis. Inner-city children would have a better chance of competing with students at four-year programs to be veterinarians, with our new and improved facilities and curriculum.

Yes, this is about money--money and students, and how money can better serve students, better than an open brown field with deteriorating buildings and equipment on it.

I appeal to all of our local representatives to help Pierce College become, once again, our local treasure--a place where students of all communities can come to receive a first-class education in a modern and attractive environment. Support the open land development or we might lose our community’s most precious resource: accessible and quality education at Pierce College.

HEATHER R. PUTNAM, President, Associated Students Organization, Pierce College, Woodland Hills

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I refer to the appeal by Leland S. Shapiro on Feb. 21 (Letters to the Valley Edition).

My schooling was essentially in the New York City public school system in the 1920s and ‘30s. At a very early age I was introduced by my teacher to the Botanical Gardens in Cental Park.

Construction of Central Park was started in 1857. The area of 840 acres remains the property of New York City, despite the effort in the early years and subsequently by private interests to gain control. To this day, millions of people enjoy this jewel in the center of an area of stalagmite buildings that border the perimeter of the park. It is here where 200 species of birds, including the perigrins, are migratory and year-round residents.

The Pierce College farm is located on land that belongs to the people of Los Angeles city--all the people, not a limited number who do not think of the interests of future generations. The college is an institution at which students are able to receive an education that will prepare them for training and advancing in agriculture and veterinary sciences. The public, young and old, will always gain by having such a unique facility in its midst.

I appeal to all legislative bodies to vote against self-serving interests that will reduce the size and the mission of Pierce College farm. I hope and pray that the generations that follow will have the opportunity to enjoy seeing Canada geese visiting the land on which Pierce College farm is located.

M.L. “WHITEY” KUTCHER, Reseda