Pierce College Farm a Drain on Taxpayers

* Of the 427 acres on which Pierce College sits, more than 300 are devoted to 10 extremely diverse agricultural and horticultural programs described in the catalogue: everything from horse science to landscape planning and design.

The catalogue also describes 127 courses offered in the Agriculture Department, everything from Ag. 620, Basic Equitation (horseback riding), to Ag. 701, Retail Floral Design and Practices (how to be a florist). But of about 16,000 students at Pierce, only about 200 are taking agriculture courses, and they account for less than 3% of the students. Ridiculous!

If the college administration had made a small working farm at Pierce 20 years ago, it would have served the entire area if nothing more than as a marvelous field trip for every elementary school in Los Angeles County. As it is, Pierce is stuck with a seven-or-so-member agriculture faculty who, counting salary and benefits, cost the taxpayers almost $500,000 per year.

Unfortunately they teach only subjects that few students care to learn. When one adds the cost of animal feed, care and upkeep, the so-called “farm” is costing the taxpayers more than $1 million each year for the partial education of a very few students.

Previous Pierce College presidents haven’t had the chutzpah to face the obstreperous people such as the agriculture faculty or the local residents, all of whom care only about their own selfish interests--the faculty their jobs and the residents their property values. I know the new president of Pierce College, Mary Lee, will have the courage to deal with the facts about the farm rather than the fantasies, and to do what is appropriate for the huge majority of Pierce College students and the California taxpayer.

M. STEPHEN SHELDON

Studio City