Golf Driving Range at Pierce

* As chair of the Los Angeles Pierce College Council, I wish to respond to the letters regarding the proposed Pierce College golf driving range (“Pierce College Driving Range,” Sept. 7). There seems to be some misunderstanding of what the council has done.

As your readers may know, Pierce College, along with most of the other eight colleges in the Los Angeles Community College District, is facing very severe budget cuts. At our meeting Aug. 26, the council, which is composed of all the constituent groups on campus, voted to ask the district to issue requests for proposals so we can see if a golf course driving range, which was originally proposed in 1993, would be feasible for us. That is all the council has done at this point.

The council, not just the administration, believes seeking information from contractors is prudent to see if we should go forward with this form of income generation. Wouldn’t your readers agree that we would be remiss in our duties if we didn’t request information? That is all we have done at this point.

When the proposals come in, I assure you they will be examined very carefully, and the entire campus and the community will have input on them. Let’s collect information now and help Pierce restore our financial stability.

We sincerely appreciate the community’s suggestions for ways to generate income; we especially appreciate it when students enroll in our high-quality programs. Pierce offers excellent education at very low costs.

DR. RICHARD J. FOLLETT

Professor of English and Chair, Pierce College Council

Van Nuys