For the 12 years Kevin Walthers has been with Allan Hancock College, he has tried to work with the California State University System to make obtaining four-year degrees an opportunity for students on the Santa Maria campus.
He’s so close to making that long-awaited dream a reality.
Hancock recently received provisional approval from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office for a new Bachelor of Science degree in applied professional studies—a career technical education degree that prepares students for professional roles in agriculture, manufacturing, professional services, space launch enterprises, and health care.
“It’s certainly exciting in our community. … A lot of our students are excited because they can’t afford to leave for a bachelor’s degree,” said Walthers, Hancock’s president and superintendent. “This is designed to get people into the workforce, with the help of our local industry who said, ‘This would be a valuable degree we look for when hiring people.’”
Students would be able to start on an associate degree track and move on to the bachelor’s degree or hop onto the four-year track right out of the gate. Human resources for small businesses or sales, real estate, contracts, and logistics jobs in the agricultural industry are a few opportunities Walthers imagines students could pursue.
Although the community college hopes students will be able to start the four-year track by fall 2027, Hancock still has some hurdles to clear.
State law says that community colleges can offer bachelor’s degree programs as long as it doesn’t duplicate any programs in the California State University system. Walthers said that Hancock’s faculty spent hundreds of hours poring over every single California State University (CSU), University of California (UC), and private college program to make sure that Hancock’s program would be unique.
“What we’ve seen in the past is there have been objections to other colleges’ baccalaureate degrees,” he said.
Sacramento State objected to a bachelor’s degree in applied science in building performance from Santa Clarita’s College of the Canyons, saying that it had a similar program and believed its enrollment would decrease as a result.
“Even though the schools were 300 miles apart, Sacramento State said that it would impact our programming. How can a school 300 miles away object to a program a community college is offering?” Walthers asked. “I don’t know the politics of CSU and what’s going on in the California State University system, but we were very diligent to make sure that it doesn’t compete with any of their [universities].”
During the 2024 legislative cycle, lawmakers attempted to green-light 10 community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees in nursing, but Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill in September, saying in his veto message that it could “inadvertently undermine” collaboration between segments of higher education.
There used to be a distance component in the legislation, but “that has disappeared, unfortunately,” Walthers said.
Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo is the closest CSU to Santa Maria, but students often can’t afford the drive, or the tuition, to attend the univesity, Walthers said.
A study conducted by the RP Group—a nonprofit that does research for California’s 116 community colleges—found that colleges outside a 25-mile drive to the nearest CSU or UC campus had lower rates of transfers from two-year to four-year institutions. Hancock sits 33 miles away from Cal Poly and 64 miles away from UC Santa Barbara.
In the meantime, to try and meet students where they’re at, Cal Poly recently partnered with Hancock and Cuesta College to allow students in specific programs to earn a bachelor’s degree from the CSU on Hancock’s or Cuesta’s campus through a 2+2 program.
Instead of transferring to the university’s campus to earn their bachelor’s degree sociology or in liberal studies, Hancock and Cuesta students, respectively, will stay on their community college campuses, be considered Cal Poly transfer students, and be taught by Cal Poly professors.
Cal Poly Vice President of Strategic Enrollment Terrance Harris said that students will be able to apply for financial aid and be given access to Cal Poly facilities, including the Recreation Center and future library. Virtual resources will also be available for those who can’t make it to campus.
At Hancock, 20 sociology students started taking classes toward their bachelor’s degree on the community college’s campus this fall quarter.
“Twenty students is great, but that doesn’t solve the problem,” Walthers said. “I mean, that doesn’t address the need that we have in our community for additional programs.”
Anais Diaz graduated from Hancock with two associate degrees, one in sociology and the other in liberal arts. She applied for Hancock’s first 2+2 program but was not selected as one of the 20 students.
The Santa Maria native works as the outreach program manager for the Good Samaritan Shelter and is vice president of the House of Pride and Equality, which creates safe spaces in Santa Maria for LGBTQ-plus community members.
“It just doesn’t make sense to move somewhere else, when I was born and raised in Santa Maria,” Diaz said. “I’m a local. I’m a native. I’m very embedded in my community.”
If given the opportunity to speak to a Cal Poly admissions officer, Diaz said she would tell them that she hopes they make the cohorts bigger, add more majors to the program, and really consider local students in neighboring towns who are invested in their education but can’t relocate.
Harris with Cal Poly said they “hope to continue to grow these opportunities, and potentially have some additional 2+2 programs” in the future.
As transfers, the students on Cuesta’s and Hancock’s campuses will be expected to pay Cal Poly’s full tuition and fees, which vary depending on residency status and the program. According to Cal Poly’s undergraduate costs website, in-state transfer students will pay at least $12,000 for the academic year.
Hancock’s potential bachelor’s degree would cost $46 per unit for the first two years and $130 per unit for the final two years, bringing the total cost of the four-year degree to $10,560. For Hancock Promise-eligible students, the first two years’ unit fees will be waived, reducing the total cost to $7,800.
“They’re different programs, and our struggle has been not having control of what we know our community needs,” Walthers said when comparing the 2+2 program to Hancock’s potential bachelor’s degree offering. “We’re a community college, and having to wait for the CSU System or Cal Poly to offer programs they deem appropriate just isn’t fair to the underserved students in our region.”
CSUs get to object to the degrees that community colleges hope to offer, but an objection wouldn’t necessarily cancel the program entirely. Rather, it would send it to a separate round of negotiations overseen by a third party.
“Let’s assume that it gets through the whole process with CSU. After that, it’s really a matter of us putting together the classes, the junior- and senior-level [classes]. We have to send those to the state and get those signed off,” Walthers said.
The CSU system has until November to get back to the community colleges. Hancock will know if it gets the green light by December.
“Our hope is that the CSU is not going to push back and say somebody needs to serve this community and not try to put [in] a roadblock,” he said.
Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor contributed to original reporting done by New Times editorial intern Emma Montalbano, from the Sun’s sister paper. Reach Taylor at toconnor@santamariasun.com and Emma at ntintern@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 10, 2024.