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If PCC decides to give high school graduates and international students priority over continuing students, some people will be angry. As reported in the last issue of The Courier, the Ad Hoc Enrollment Priorities Task Team has proposed to give these high school graduates guaranteed enrollment. Would this mean PCC is putting its current students on the backburner?

According to Bob Miller, interim dean of educational services, PCC will first look at how shifting the registration priority would impact currently enrolled students before making any final decisions.

“[Lowering registration priorities from returning students] would not be unfair if we provide enough sections, which boils down to better enrollment,” Miller said. “Instead of cutting more sections, classes with low enrollment would be shifted to try to accommodate the increase in number of students.”

It seems the proposal has been made with a kind of moral obligation and fair treatment in mind.

A March 31 article in the Los Angeles Times reported that 400,000 students would be denied enrollment to California’s community colleges next fall and thousands of classes would be cut to cope with the possible $800-million funding reduction for the coming school year.

One of the signature goals of PCC’s Educational Master Plan (EMP) in the coming years is to guarantee enrollment for in-district high school students and international students.

Project90, which is central to the EMP, emerged through talks between members of the PCC community and the city.

The project’s name represents what will be the campus’s 90th anniversary in 2014. According to the summary found on pasadenavision2020.org, “The college has challenged itself to become the premier community college in California by that time.”

In this regard, the college is simultaneously setting high standards for itself while fulfilling a moral obligation to the community. According to the Chancellor’s Office website, 70 percent of California’s higher education students are currently enrolled in a community college.

Furthermore, 25 percent of community college students nationwide are from California.

PCC would be making a wise investment while giving these international students and high school graduates a chance to higher education.

The proposal should be fully supported if PCC succeeds in keeping the impact on current students low.

Regardless of the details of the registration priority changes, what matters is that it should benefit the community by keeping PCC accessible and giving local residents the chance to obtain an affordable education.

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