Pierce College Farm and Funding
Re Leland Shapiro’s letter on “Lessons From the Field,” July 12.
Although I appreciate Dr. Shapiro’s love of the Pierce College farm, his letter to the editor contains much misleading information.
Shapiro contends that the farm has the potential to earn income. This may be true, but the income earned is less than the cost of running the farm.
Earning $60,000 from pumpkins [and] Christmas tree sales puts a small dent into the $1-million yearly price tag to maintain the farm.
The college is preparing a request for a proposal that would include a multipurpose academic facility to house all of the needs of a modern agriculture program.
This new facility would be equivalent to the facilities found on major four-year campuses teaching agriculture and its related subjects. The need for hundreds of acres in order to graze animals has been repudiated by California’s universities.
An article in The Times pointed out that $25,000 in stock feed was produced on the farm this spring. This harvest was made possible because of the rains of El Nino and volunteer labor. Otherwise, the cost for water and labor would have exceeded the value of the harvest.
If the plans the college is considering become a reality, Pierce will have a new agriculture science building, facilities to house culinary arts and hospitality management, plus a championship golf course, other multipurpose meeting rooms and several new courses of study with great job opportunities for students. Pierce will be coordinating these new programs with Kansas State University, which has a golf course management curriculum.
In addition, the college would derive $1 million per year from the golf course that would remain on the campus under the terms of the contract the college would sign with a developer.
What is precious and sacred about the land at Pierce College is that it offers Pierce the opportunity to launch itself into the next century with an exciting new facility that would be a wonderful asset to the community and at the same time provide an improved financial situation that would be better than the college has seen in decades.
MICHAEL CORNNER, Associate dean of academic affairs, Pierce College
