Happy Fall Semester!
As we settle in to week three, I have been thinking about a few things...
Home Football At Home!
Thanks to the incredible work of the athletic department, the facilities and grounds crew and the AHC
Booster Club, we will play our first-ever football game at home this Saturday at 2:00. Admission is free
to any student, staff or faculty member – but you need to have your ID card to get in (available for free
at admissions and records). Tickets for guests are six dollars, tickets for children under 17 and senior
citizens are three dollars. If you would like to purchase guest tickets in advance, you can pick them up at
the cashier window in Building A. Feel free to bring some lawn chairs to the game as we expect the
stands to be full!
Coast Hills/Presqu’ile Wine Event Supports AHC Ag Program
The Coast Hills Foundation is hosting its Rancho Vino fundraiser at the Presqu’ile Winery in support of
our agriculture program. This is a unique event, and not just because there is no auction… Coast Hills
and Presqu’ile have made sure that all proceeds will benefit the college by donating both labor and
wine! Each person who attends will get a specially produced bottle of wine provided by Presqu’ile
winery along with fantastic heavy hors d’oeuvres and wine pairings. Even if you can’t attend, feel free to
forward the link to someone who might want to go!
Bow WOW
Don’t forget that Bulldog Bow WOW is coming up. This is a great opportunity for students to get
involved in clubs and other student activities. The first Bow WOW will be Wednesday from 9:30 to 1:30
on the Santa Maria Campus. This year’s Santa Maria campus event will include the Bulldog Blitz at
12:30. Students will be able to meet players and coaches, as well as win T-shirts and tri-tip sandwiches.
The next Bow WOW will be on the Lompoc Campus on September 9, also from 9:30 to 1:30.
All Staff Day
We had one of the most energetic All Staff Days ever – and we had a great turnout for the morning. The
cheerleaders brought energy and fun while Ann Lucas, David Passage and Kim Sargen provided
inspiration. Add a few football players throwing foam footballs and it seemed most were having a good
time. I managed to remember to thank almost everyone at the event – but I left off our student worker,
Kenia Perez (among other things, she put the cups together!), along with Espie Valenzuela, Kathy
Buckey, Toni McCracken and Annie Looysen who helped sign you in. Most importantly, I did not
mention the incredible work that Melinda Martinez does to make sure All Staff Day goes
smoothly. Melinda is the organizational force behind the whole day and she starts months in advance
getting everything set up. Next time you see her, tell Melinda “thanks!”
If you missed it and want to check out the presentation, we have loaded it here. We are working out a
technical issue and hope to have the video posted soon. We had a lot of fun that day, but we also
tackled three very important topics: enrollment, instructional faculty and accreditation.
Enrollment
We continue to see enrollment lag behind our funded target. We have been discussing this
since Spring 2014 and we are now at the end of our “roll forward” enrollment that we have
carried over from past years. Our actual annual enrollment is stable – the difference is in our
ability to carry forward FTES for a higher reported enrollment. The good news is that we have a
balanced budget to present to the board next week and we have a plan to address the impact of
lower reported enrollment. These conversations will move forward in our enrollment
management committee, budget council and student services council.
Instructional Faculty
If you look at the All Staff Day PowerPoint, you will see two slides that show the change in
instructional faculty during the budget crisis. Not only do we have fewer instructional faculty
now, the instructional faculty share of total faculty has also dropped. With enrollment
challenges, we need to increase the number of instructional faculty quickly. Fortunately, the
state has provided funding for additional faculty and the Board of Trustees has expressed
support for adding faculty. The conversation is underway with deans and department chairs to
update our prioritization process so that we can proactively recruit new faculty members.
Accreditation
We are in the home stretch of preparing for our accreditation visit next fall. You can read our
draft report for each standard here (use the links at the top left). This is the institutional selfevaluation, so every member of the institution is encouraged to take part by reviewing the
reports. We need your feedback to ensure we are on target with the report. Over the course of
the fall semester, the Institutional Effectiveness Committee will closely review each section of
the report and feedback from a broad group will make our effort stronger.
New Faces In Leadership
This fall we welcome three new faces to the executive team. Dr. George Railey joins us as Vice President
for Academic Affairs, Michael Black takes over as Vice President for Finance and Administration and Dr.
Paul Murphy moves into our newest position, Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness. Each of
these professionals are already making a huge impact on campus and I hope you have had a chance to
work with them. We hope you will join us for a formal welcome next week. At 3:30 on Tuesday we will
have some light snacks and coffee to give faculty, staff and students a chance to personally welcome our
new vice presidents.
In Conclusion
If you are like me, you are asking “how is it September already?” With all that we have going this year,
we need to start quickly or we will be at the end of the year asking “where did the time go?” I know
that we have a plan in place and the team to implement it – I am looking forward to a great year and I
hope you are as well!
Go Bulldogs!
Kevin G. Walthers, Ph.D.
Superintendent/President
Allan Hancock College
800 S. College Dr.
Santa Maria, CA 93454
805-922-6966, ext. 3245
805-868-9651 mobile