PCC’s free tuition promise now more promising

Share: PCC has recently joined the LA County Promises That Count Initiative, which will unite other LA County community colleges with Promise programs, in order to learn from one another and strengthen their benefits for students. Last year, the campus was introduced to the PCC Promise, which allows for recent graduates from high schools in PCC’s district to have their first year of college be free. However, the program mostly focused on the economics of the situation, rather than taking into account the other circumstances …

New bookstore management guarantees nearly $1M in first year

Share: In exchange for a $750,000 annual fee, the Pasadena City College Bookstore will now be run by a private company for the next five years. “The purpose of a bookstore is to provide services where students can pay significantly lower rates, can lease textbooks, can purchase cheaper textbooks, or may not even have to purchase textbooks due to open educational resources that exist today,” said Rajen Vurdien, Superintendent-President of PCC. During their session on Feb. 22, the Board of Trustees approved outsourcing the management …

PCC students entangled in Trump’s travel ban

Share: Eight PCC students returned to classes this past week with support from International Student Services and the administration after being detained and banned from re-entry to the U.S. due to January’s travel ban from President Trump. On Jan. 27, Trump issued an executive order with a 90-day entry ban for citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. “We had eight students impacted by the travel ban. The travel ban was implemented on a weekend—on the first workday afterwards, the college sent …

‘Viva la raza!’ Celebrating PCC’s minority milestone

Share: The Latino community has not always been the minority group with the best academic statistics. In 2014, the dropout rate for Latino youth ages 16 to 24 was the highest amongst any other group of students with about 10.6 percent. Latino students lag behind in higher education with only 15 percent of the population obtaining bachelor’s degrees, and only seven percent of people in graduate programs are Latino. Follow:

New director to overhaul financial aid

Share: Students have expressed frustration about the financial aid filing and disbursement process ranging from lengthy wait times to receiving refunds, inconsistent information from counselors and not fully understanding the process. PCC’s new financial aid director, Manuel Cerda, hopes to remedy most if not all of these issues during his tenure. Follow: