DEIA / EEO Committee

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) / Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Committee is a campus team dedicated to amplifying the voices of all students and staff to ensure support, improve feelings of safety, and provide a sense of belonging for all stakeholders. We are committed to providing professional learning opportunities, DEIA actions, and community engagement for students, staff, faculty, administrators, and community members to increase racial literacy and cultural fluency. We are committed to creating a community where all employees have the capacity, comfort, and agency to be their authentic selves at work every day and for students to see reflections of their culture, community values, and histories throughout the campus. 

To support Allan Hancock College’s commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution, DEIA / EEO Committee focuses on addressing workplace, classroom, and campus wide issues that create disproportionate impact and outcomes for those historically oppressed and traditionally underserved in educational institutions. 

Mission 

Our mission is engaging the campus community to examine perspectives, consciousness, cultivating skills, and providing resources to transform the way we serve students, employees, and the surrounding communities through culturally responsive and humanizing actions. 

Our Vision 

We envision supporting a model workplace and campuses, free from historical inequities, racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and oppression where employees and students learn, support, and trust each other while developing systems valuing diversity, building equity, and providing a safe place to live, learn, and work.

Community College through a DEIA Lens

AHC Student Equity

Mission: Allan Hancock College fosters an educational culture that values equity and diversity and engages students in an inclusive learning environment. We offer pathways that encourage our student population to achieve personal, career, and academic goals through coursework leading to skill building, certificates, associate degrees, and transfer. 

Allan Hancock College (AHC) is committed to student learning and success. In order to promote success for all students, the Student Equity Plan (2022-2025) provides the process for the college to engage in a self-evaluation to improve successful outcomes in five metrics: successful enrollment at same college; completion of transfer level math and English in one year; achieved Vision Goal Completion; retention from Fall to Spring; and transfer to any 4-year institution. 

The college’s strategic direction of student learning and success is to provide educational programs and comprehensive support services that promote student success and respond to qualitative and quantitative assessment of learning. Student success at AHC is defined by the achievement of the student’s educational goals (AHC Strategic Plan 2014‐2020). This strategic direction along with the college’s mission statement, shared values, and planning process guided the development of the Student Equity Plan. 

Hispanic Serving Institution 

A Hispanic-Serving Institution is defined as an institution of higher education that serves enrollment of undergraduate full-time equivalent students that is at least 25 percent Hispanic. AHC is proud to be recognized as an HSI, with approximately 72.5 percent of its student population identifying as Hispanic / Latino. In fall 2020, the college celebrated its legacy as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and received more than $4.2 million in grant funding to support Latinx and other students on their path to educational success. The college has worked to identify equity barriers and develop programs and services to address educational gaps for Latinx students on their path to completion, transfer, and high paying employment.  

As a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution and a Hispanic-Serving Agricultural College and University (HSACU) Allan Hancock College serves a geographically and socially diverse region located in Santa Maria. AHC serves over 13,000 students within a 3,000 square mile area (about twice the area of Rhode Island) in northern Santa Barbara County. The county is divided, with half of the population (~141,000) residing on the affluent south coast in and around Santa Barbara, with the other half in the central and northern portions of the county, in Santa Maria and Lompoc (~154,000). AHC is the only community college serving northern Santa Barbara County, including a few geographically and socially isolated communities such as Los Alamos, Casmalia, Cuyama, Sisquoc, and Guadalupe (~21,000).  

A look at the demographic data reflects the community we serve, and the financial inequality experienced within northern Santa Barbara County. (Census Data) 

Location	Hispanic Population	Total Population in Poverty
Santa Maria	77.8%	13.5%
Lompoc	61.3%	17.2%
Guadalupe	90.4%	27.6%
California	40.3%	12.2%

Another example of this inequality is reflected in Santa Maria’s local high school district, where 72.5% of the students in the 2022-2023 school year received Free/Reduced-Priced Meals (Ed Data).  

CCCCO Vision for Success

Vision 2030, developed by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO), introduces three goals which focus on equity through success, access, and support. Allan Hancock College is one of more than 116 California Community Colleges which are preparing to create an educational system which is more inclusive, ensuring that each access point leads every learner to find their path. To achieve this across all California Community Colleges (CCC), a student-centered equity path is essential. Implementation strategies outlined in the DEIA Plan, equity-centered programs, and use of disaggregated data to monitor progress and continuously improve outcomes for students are some ways we can begin to restructure each CCC to build a more inclusive campus environment. 

Chancellor's Office Equity Work and Taskforce Reports

Overview

Culturally Responsive Curriculum

Basic Needs Center

Institutional Effectiveness

Student Support Services 

Report an Incident