A SPECIAL REPORT: COMMUNITY COLLEGES

School Starts

Classes are starting this week for students attending the San Fernando Valley’s six community colleges (B1). . . . One possible choice at Los Angeles Valley College is a class on how to become a private investigator. The course, offered through Valley College’s extension program, costs $950. For their money, aspiring sleuths will do 150 hours of classroom and field work on topics ranging from interview techniques to crime-scene analysis and electronic surveillance.

Toon Time

Two Glendale Community College professors have been selected by Warner Bros. to receive special training in the latest animation techniques. . . . Glendale is one of only five schools nationwide picked by the studio--the others are the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, the School of Visual Arts in New York, the Rhode Island School of Design and New York’s Parsons School of Design. Students will learn computer skills as well as traditional pen-and-paper animation.

Brainy

In one of the more memorable job interviews at College of the Canyons, professor Rebecca Shepherd, above, brought a borrowed brain in a bucket for a teaching demonstration before faculty and administrators. . . . Shepherd, who received her master’s degree in psychobiology from the University of Nebraska, apparently impressed the audience. She got the job and will be teaching courses this school year in physiological and biological psychology.

Foreign Exchange

At Pierce College, meanwhile, officials say their school is an increasingly popular destination for international students. . . . Pierce has admitted 98 foreign students, mostly from Asian countries, a total nearly double that of last year, spokeswoman Ina Geller Yates said.