After three months of probation by the Higher Learning Commission due to poor academics, Pima Community College apologized. The apology was issued on Saturday by PCC’s provost.

However, it’s rather difficult to sympathize with PCC due to recent mishaps and incidents. The apology seems more like a too-little-too-late type of stunt. The entire situation could have been avoided if the college had acted promptly and efficiently. Instead, it seems as though it took the careless, things-will-fix-themselves-strategy, which obviously did not work out so well.

On April 16, PCC was put on probation for two years, under the conclusion that if it doesn’t resolve the concerns of the HLC by September 2014, its accreditation will be revoked.

Losing accreditation will cause an insurmountable strain on the Pima & UA partnership. Some students attend Pima to take advantage of the cheaper tuition for general education classes or take a easier class to help their GPA.

Pima provost members Jerry Migler and Dolores Duran-Cerda said the reason it took three months to issue the apology was due to the extensive amount of drafting, researching and writing the monitoring report took.

Duran-Cerda, one of the writers of the monitoring report, said the school took immediate action after being put on probation.

The college is still fully credited and a draft of the monitoring report has been released for the public.

Nonetheless, the college has several issues to work on, including concerns with financial management after an audit was done by the Arizona Auditor General. There were also some violations outlined by the HLC that concerned the college’s former chancellor Roy Flores.

In the letter sent out by the HLC, it repeatedly ties the college’s failure to Flores stating, “The college has not operated with integrity in that it failed to conduct timely investigation of numerous serious allegations related to the former Chancellor and his conduct.”

Even though the college can try to pin most of its problems on one person, it still does not justify the lack of urgency displayed.

This has the possibility of jeopardizing and hindering thousands of student’s education. PCC must establish and actually exercise vigorous policies in order to keep Tucson’s student-community alive.

— Marisela Siqueirois is a senior studying english. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu or via Twitter @WildcatsOpinions.