September 2015
Colleagues,
Thank you for a great All Staff Day today. It was truly a team effort and I am grateful to everyone who
helped plan, produce a facilitate the program. Special thanks to our Jeopardy players (and to Carmen for
creating it!). We will post the Jeopardy game to myHancock or SharePoint next week (it’s a PowerPoint
file) and share the link for those of you who would like to see the remaining questions.
I was able to step into several rooms where the discussions were taking place and was pleased with the
level of engagement. At lunch I must have had a dozen people come up and say how much they
enjoyed the breakout sessions. Great thanks go to Dr. Railey, the deans and facilitators and Jessica
Parra for creating an engaging discussion.
If you were unable to attend All Staff Day and want to see what you missed, or you just want to relive
the excitement of exploding hoverboards, you can locate it
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyPoYhoqM3Y.
During the presentation, I mentioned a new report from the United Way. It really shines a light on the
needs of our community and the challenges faced by a significant portion of our neighbors. The report,
located at http://www.unitedwaysca.org/realcost, is called Struggling to Get By: The Real Cost Measure
in California 2015. It is an amazing piece of work that lets you build scenarios based on family size,
makeup and location. I hope you will take a chance to look at it and to read the profile for Santa
Barbara County.
Other quick notes to share with you:
Monday Parking – students will need a parking pass on Monday, but we are still asking that you make
use of the staff spaces to allow full access for our students. The first week is always crazy, and our
efforts to make as many student spots available as possible really helps.
New Faces and Places – I am pleased to announce that we have two new permanent administrators on
board this month. Kelly Underwood was appointed by the Board to the position of Human Resources
Director this month after doing an outstanding job as interim over the past several months. At PCPA,
Jennifer Schwartz started this week as Managing Director and we are pleased that she has jumped right
in as part of the team!
We have a couple of interim deans as well – Dom Dal Bello and Sofia Ramirez-Gelpi have stepped into
leadership positions and are quickly integrating into the team.
As the semester begins, we will be hiring more than a dozen faculty members, a new student services
dean, an executive director for college advancement and a new director of business services. We are
fortunate to have an HR team that is up to the task!
Police Chief Update – After a technical problem with the chief search in the fall, we will be reposting the
position and interviewing again this spring. In the interim, we are working with the Santa Maria PD to
provide us with an interim chief. On February 1, Chris Nartatez will step in as acting chief while we go
through the search process. My great thanks go to John Staugaard and the AHC public safety
department for their management over the past several months.
Hoverboards – you will notice signs around campus banning “hoverboards” from the inside of our
buildings. These are the self-balancing scooters that were a popular gift item last year. It turns out that
they have a tendency to ignite and they pose a threat to the safety of those who might be in a room
with them. This is a temporary policy to give the facilities council time to come up with a permanent
policy on the devices. As an aside, a new California law requires riders to be 16 years or older and to
wear a helmet while using one of these.
Food Bank on Campus – Arrangements have been made to provide food from the county food bank to
our low-income students. The cost to provide items such as peanut butter, bread, Pop Tarts, granola
bars, Top Ramen noodles, canned tuna, and other non-perishable items is nominal. Funds from the
President’s Circle have been set aside to pay for items that students who do not cook, do not have
access to a kitchen, or are homeless, can eat. Produce such as apples, pears, oranges, avocados,
broccoli, potatoes, etc. are free. This is a team effort as our office orders and pays for the food, our
maintenance staff picks it up, and ASBG students assist Stephanie Robb in distributing it. We plan to
help feed students on the first and third Thursday of the month.
Accreditation – the draft standards are posted for you to review
at http://www.hancockcollege.edu/accreditation. Over the winter break, cabinet members,
administrators and faculty leaders reviewed the current document. It is in pretty good shape, but we
still need your help to make sure we are ready for our visit in the fall.
Thanks again for a great kickoff event for the semester. See you on Monday!
Kevin G. Walthers, Ph.D.
Superintendent/President
Allan Hancock College
800 S. College Dr.
Santa Maria, CA 93454
805-346-1001
805-868-9651 mobile