4-Year Degree Program to Start at Pierce

Pierce College and Cal State Los Angeles are launching a new program in January that will enable local community college students to earn four-year bachelor’s degrees in business administration without leaving the San Fernando Valley campus, officials said Tuesday.

The program, aimed at working adults who need flexible class schedules, is part of a trend among colleges and universities seeking to accommodate busy students.

Pierce and Cal State L.A. officials say they designed the program with convenience in mind. Cal State L.A. instructors will teach at the Woodland Hills campus on Thursday nights and every other Saturday, allowing students to earn bachelor’s degrees in just over three years.

“When you are working full time, you have to study, keep your family going, keep your job and get your degree,” Pierce associate dean Mike Cornner said. “This is the way to do it.”

Pierce and Cal State L.A. are the latest campuses to join forces. Cal State Northridge and Santa Monica College have been offering a similar program for business students for three years at the Santa Monica campus. CSUN business professors teach upper-division classes to students who have already completed their basic course work.

“It makes a lot more sense for us to send one instructor to Santa Monica than to have 40 students coming to this campus,” said William Hosek, dean of CSUN’s College of Business Administration and Economics.

Hosek welcomed the new program at Pierce, saying CSUN’s own business courses--including night and weekend classes--already are overcrowded.

“We’ve been getting more students than we can handle,” he said. “If Cal State L.A. helps take some of the pressure off, that’s fine.”

Classes in the new program are scheduled to begin Jan. 8. The program is expected to begin with a minimum of 25 students; about half that many have been accepted to date.

Students will pay the same fee as other Cal State students--about $600 in registration fees each quarter, plus the cost of books, said Paul Rosenthal, a Cal State L.A. professor who is coordinating the new program. Participating students must be completing their basic course work to be eligible for the program.

Courses will be offered three quarters per year, with no classes during the summer.

Cal State L.A.’s School of Business and Economics chose Pierce because the college already had a program in place for adult students, including those studying business. The adult program is known as the Program for Accelerated College Education, or PACE. The new program is known as PACE II.

Cal State L.A. will pay Pierce several hundred dollars per quarter for each classroom it uses, said Rosenthal, a professor of information systems.

“It is a complete night program for full-time employed students,” he said.