Healani Brennan
Staff Writer

For many students and faculty members, the retirement of math instructor Randy Leifson is a sad one. After 40 plus years of teaching, Leifson decided to set aside teaching as a result of his wife’s illness.

He also picked up the habit of worrying about his completion rates and felt that when he started worrying about that, it was time to pack up and go.

Other faculty are sad to Leifson go as well. “Randy has been the foundation supporting the Math Lab at the Ft. Steilacoom Campus for over 20 years,” said Ronald May, the Dean of Applied Technology and Allied Health. “His warmth and compassion allowed thousands of students over the years to overcome their fear of math. His contribution to math instruction and his work for the college at large will be greatly missed.”

Students were the priority for Leifson and teaching them was one of his greatest achievements. He said, “When [some students] first came in I, didn’t think they were going to [succeed] but they put so much effort in that they did.”

He described awards he received, such as the Extra Mile Award and the Faculty of the Year Award, as “minor” to him as their importance weren’t as great as his work with students.

Steve Jaech, an English professor, recognizes Leifson’s accomplishments as well, saying, “Randy Leifson has done more for this college with less thanks than anyone I know. He’s a terrific guy.”

State legislature getting involved was one downside to teaching, according to Leifson. “Their worry is about completion rates and they aren’t looking at the students themselves and then we [professors] start worrying about that,” he said.

Momentum points and completion rates were used to fund programs and Leifson thinks they affected classes in the process. “[As] soon as you do that you water down courses just to get people through and then people feel threatened if they don’t have good completion rates,” he said. Through his time here he’s seen the class material offered decrease significantly.

Though some negative things have come about in his years, the positives he brought about changed Pierce quite a bit. Leifson and his colleagues’ idea to do World War Two Week one year expanded into an annual one-week event.

Every year during a week in May, Leifson and many others involved get speakers to talk to students, and obtain museum items to put on display in honor of the end of the war. Multiple places such as the Fort Lewis Museum, the Museum of Flight in Seattle, private collectors, and an auto museum bring in artifacts to demonstrate history.

Each year has focused on something different. A few weeks ago World War Two Week occurred and the Living Voices group came down and did a one act play on the Anne Frank story. A Holocaust survivor also came out to talk.

The idea originally started out just with Leifson meeting some vets here at Pierce and asking them to speak in a history class. After Leifson arranged an event with multiple speakers, he had help from Duncan Stevenson, the head of the student programs at the time, to get a stipend and hold the event annually.

Leifson shared advice with students, saying, “Become pre-responsible for yourself. You’ve got to ask questions. Don’t expect people to show you the whole way and ask for help. If you don’t, you can get lost in the crowd.”