PIERCE COLLEGE : President to Re-Enter Classroom

For the first time in almost 25 years, Pierce College President Lowell Erickson will enter the classroom next semester as an instructor.

He will teach Political and Social History of the United States on Monday evenings.

Although he hasn’t taught at an undergraduate level since 1968, Erickson said going back to teaching “has been an interest of mine for a long time.”

Erickson’s chance to return to the classroom came last month when Pierce history instructor Patricia Siever gave up two of her classes to work with the Los Angeles Community College District Academic Senate.

Erickson said he did not have an opportunity to teach at Mission College, where he was president from 1982 to 1989, because “there were not enough history classes, and there was no hourly rate for instructors. The few history classes were strictly for the full-time instructors.”

Eugene Larson, acting chairman of the Pierce history department, said that several of the school’s other administrators teach a class at the college, “but it’s a first for an administrator to teach in the history department.”

The president “seems to be very enthusiastic about it,” Larson said. “I think it’s a good thing when administrators have the experience of being in the classroom. It can only better the college.”

Erickson agreed. “I feel that administrators should teach, so that they’re in the classroom with students and involved in the process of teaching, learning and keeping up with their field,” he said.

Working as an instructor will “enrich my job as president because you never really know students as much as when you are teaching a class and have direct involvement with students and the learning process,” the educator said.

Larson said it is possible that Erickson will continue teaching in the history department after next semester.

However, he added: “It depends on whether the president wants to . . . . and also on economic factors.”

Erickson said he hopes to teach more than one semester.

He described his teaching style as being similar to his management, which he called participatory.

“In management, I want people to be involved in the decision-making process,” Erickson said.

“As an instructor, I want students to be involved and actively engaged in what’s going on in the classroom.”