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Allan Hancock College touts Hancock Promise, concurrent enrollment and new local partnerships
Summary
Dr. Kevin Walters said Allan Hancock serves over 20,000 unduplicated students, highlighted the Hancock Promise ($10 million for the first two years), growing concurrent enrollment in Lompoc, workforce partnerships (radiography with SBCC) and a $75,000 Metallica foundation gift for the college’s fire services program.
Dr. Kevin Walters, president of Allan Hancock College, told the town hall that Hancock’s unduplicated headcount exceeds 20,000 and that the institution is designated a Hispanic‑Serving Institution. He framed completion rather than raw graduation rates as the metric of interest and described programs to get students to enroll full time and complete credentials.
Walters said the Hancock Promise raised $10,000,000 to support students’ first two years at the college and credited that program with boosting full‑time enrollment and completion. He also described concurrent enrollment expansion in the Lompoc Valley Center (about 700 students on that campus) that allows high‑school students to earn college credit and emphasized the need for high‑school instructors to meet college minimum qualifications before offering college courses.
On workforce and partnerships, Walters described a radiography program being offered on the Santa Maria campus in cooperation with Santa Barbara City College, and noted a $75,000 contribution from the Metallica foundation to support the college’s fire‑services program. He said CSU Channel Islands will begin offering a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at a Santa Maria campus beginning fall 2026, and Cal Poly’s phased expansion will add degrees in later years.
Walters also addressed program capacity constraints—particularly for nursing—saying the Board of Registered Nursing approval process and nursing faculty shortages limit rapid expansion, and that the external RN wait list has been reduced in recent years.
