After 17 years at Allan Hancock College, vice principal of student services Roger Welt is retiring. Welt oversaw the college’s financial aid, counseling, and disabled services department. He also played a significant role in designing and developing the Lompoc Valley Center, and establishing centers in Solvang and Vandenberg.
Welt said bringing the other centers to fruition required considerable fundraising and planning, and couldn’t have been done without ample support from the community.
“They love their Lompoc Valley Center,” he said. “It’s a beautiful center.”
But Welt isn’t partial to just the Lompoc center.
“Hancock College is a very important player in the education of our community, and it adds greatly to the cultural dynamic,” he said.
Welt acknowledges that obtaining a proper education in today’s economy is becoming more difficult, but offers this advice to Hancock students: “Register as early as possible for classes because the college is being forced to cut back on the number of sections offered because of a lack of funding.”
That lack of funding—something Welt likens to a guessing game—will no doubt be first and foremost on the minds of
college staffers.
“But until Sacramento gets its act together, we won’t have the answers to [a lot of questions],” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge to everyone: faculty, administration, and staff.”
But Welt has never been one to ignore a challenge, and plans to stay on as a consultant with the college after his retirement.
Welt is a Vietnam veteran and holds degrees from Idaho State, Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, and the University of San Francisco. As a college student, he served as a park ranger at Yellowstone National Park and later went on to serve as a college administrator in Micronesia and Tahoe.
Along with consulting for Allan Hancock College, Welt plans to spend his retirement teaching social sciences classes part-time and traveling with his wife, Catherine, a teacher in the Orcutt Union School District.
This article appears in Jul 23-30, 2009.