WOODLAND HILLS : Pierce Panel Votes to End Trade Classes

A Pierce College advisory committee voted 6 to 3 Wednesday to recommend elimination of four industrial arts programs, despite protests from teachers and students who say the programs provide badly needed job training.

The college Planning Committee was acting at the behest of school administrators, who say the programs are out of step with the college’s academic mission.

The plan to eliminate the woodworking, welding, machine shop and metallurgy programs now goes before the Pierce College Council, which will vote Tuesday. College President Mary Lee has the final say.

Wednesday was the third time the committee had voted on the matter. The school’s legal counsel ruled that a vote taken earlier this month was invalid because it was done by secret ballot. The first vote taken was ruled null and void because the committee had no quorum.

School administrators say studies show that many students enrolled in the school’s industrial arts programs are not taking any academic courses. Such students, the administrators say, could take the same classes at trade schools, freeing financial resources for other educational programs.

They have promised to help teachers in the programs find other teaching jobs, and to phase out the programs so that students already enrolled would be able to finish their studies.

Cory Fulton, a student who sits on the committee, voted against eliminating the programs. He said those who drew up the plan failed to recognize that some of the classes are in great demand.

“I’m concerned that we are using this blanket approach to this whole procedure, without looking at the merits of individual programs,” he said.

Carmelita Thomas, the school’s acting vice president of academic affairs, defended the plan. She said the students would be better served at other schools such as College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, which she said has more modern equipment.

Meanwhile, at a Los Angeles Community College District Board of Trustees meeting in Los Angeles, the proposal to drop the programs drew fire from both the heads of the district’s teachers union and Academic Senate.

They complained, respectively, that the board should get involved because the issue affects students in the entire Valley and because Pierce’s Faculty Senate has yet to consider it.