Pierce College Farm

Re “Pierce Farm a Growing Dilemma for College, Community,” July 6.

I fully agree with Marla Scripter that Pierce farm is a crucial opportunity for the San Fernando Valley to establish leadership in education, high technology and sustainable development for the 21st century. The farm provides a vital link to the history of the Valley and a valuable resource for future integration of new forms of agriculture and urbanism. M. Stephen Sheldon observes that Pierce has strengths in nursing and computer science, yet fails to see that these disciplines in conjunction with agriculture may provide the impetus for the future development of Pierce farm. Computer science is developing toward incorporating biological processes, and the future of health sciences is connected to new agricultural practices and computer modeling of natural systems.

P. ALEXANDER TESTA

MIT Department of Architecture

Cambridge, Mass.

* On July 6, Eric Slater reported in a Valley Perspective piece three conversations he had about an area of Pierce College called “the farm.” I, as institutional research coordinator at Pierce from 1975 to 1983, was selected as one of his interviewees. Slater reported that I thought too much effort and money were being spent. That is accurate but the reasons he gave were not what I thought I had said. Rather I thought I had told him:

* Calling it the farm is a misnomer. It is about 250 acres devoted to about a dozen agricultural programs that used to include everything from floriculture to equitation.

* Pierce enrolls about 15,000 students each fall semester. A few hundred enroll in any ag course. All of the ag enrollments amount to less than 4% of total enrollments but use about 65% of the campus.

* One program, animal health technology, graduated 20 to 30 women each year and all had jobs as veterinarians’ assistants because the previous semester they had served as interns to the veterinarians who hired them. While I was there, no other [ag] program had even five graduates a year.

* The Woodland Hills property association loves “the farm.” They fear that those very valuable acres now going to waste will be sold and perhaps become a center for clean industry, not nearly as desirable for their property value.

Do not think I am against teaching people to ride horses, arrange flowers or prune their lemon trees. Helping students with their hobbies is a marvelous thing for a community college to do. But only if the taxpayers supporting the college can afford it. We cannot. We in Los Angeles should spend our education dollars where they will do the most good for the most students.

M. STEPHEN SHELDON

Studio City