Pierce College

Unhappy with persistent budget deficits and declining enrollment at Pierce College, the trustees of the Los Angeles Community College District have voted not to reappoint President E. Bing Inocencio to another three-year term when his first one expires in June. "Last year Pierce had the largest deficit of any college in this system and the year before it was one of two colleges with the largest deficits," said Elizabeth Garfield, president of the board of trustees.

Pierce College acting President Mary Lee, who learned recently that she had been passed over by a selection committee seeking a permanent president for the school, has asked to be reassigned to another job and is not expected to return to work at Pierce, officials said Thursday. Neil Yoneji, chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District, has asked that Jack Fujimoto, a former president of Mission College, be named acting president in Lee's place.

Pierce College officials hope to raise more than chicken feed at a July 4 walkathon. It's goose feed they're really after. The first such fund-raiser for the Pierce College farm will, among other things, help pay for the reseeding of pasture areas where each winter everything edible is gobbled up by hundreds of Canada geese that make Pierce their temporary home. "We want to make sure there is food, so the geese continue to land on the farm," Pierce President Mary Lee said.

Pierce College will host a number of HIV / AIDS-related discussions and events this week to educate and update students and the public on issues relating to the disease. "HIV-AIDS Education Week" begins noon Tuesday with a discussion of "AIDS: Why There is No Cure" by Cary Savitch, UCLA assistant clinical professor of medicine. A second lecture, "AIDS Update: The Worldwide Spread of HIV," given by Pierce College microbiology instructor Bernardine Pregerson, is scheduled for noon Thursday.

HIV testing will resume at Pierce College after a five-month cessation due to the Los Angeles Community College District's request for a contractual change limiting its liability. Testing was stopped in October when the district requested that the Northeast Valley Health Corp.--a private nonprofit organization that offers anonymous HIV testing as part of its services--accept full responsibility for potential lawsuits stemming from the testing.

At least five finalists are in the running for the presidency of beleaguered Pierce College, and a replacement could be named this week, Los Angeles Community College District officials said Monday. Darroch "Rocky" Young, vice president of planning and development at Santa Monica College, has emerged as the strongest candidate, according to several sources. "I've heard people talk highly of him," a district source said. "Santa Monica College has a good reputation."