The college’s namesake, Capt. G. Allan Hancock, did many of his achievements even into the later years of life. So, it is with disgust that the college condones the hidden discrimination of ageism! To still employ the offending dean of “Academic Affairs” casts doubt upon leadership’s claims of harboring contrary beliefs.
Her taxpayer-paid-for emails included ageist discriminatory comments, disparaging “the blue haired mafia” students to Hancock College administration staff (“Allan Hancock College students and faculty allege instances of age discrimination,” May 12). If they had used racially derogatory comments, there would have been moral outrage to the high heavens! Yet, instead the college’s lawyer, staff, and elected board members accepted that deriding happy, lifelong learners, full of a quest for knowledge, even in the field of sewing—a culturally time-honored craft and profession—was to be protected and the allegations dismissed. So what—it was simply just a bunch of seniors who take it for noncredit and probably don’t pay for the courses? Which could reasonably be said about a larger segment of the Hancock student body in general, if anyone has seen the “free education signs” Hancock has had up until recently.
Local business leaders, who would be castigated if this were to be reported in their business to the state, should probably reconsider their donating generosity when the college deems itself above their lot when it comes to outright and blatant ageist language and actions.
Robert Scott
Santa Maria
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 2, 2022.