Last Friday, inside Gavilan Community College
’s gymnasium, Steve Kinsella presented graduating students with
389 degrees and certificates. Just as the commencement ceremony
represented each graduate stepping into the future, it also
symbolizes a crucial time the president faces in guiding the
college through an uncertain period in its own
evolution.
Last Friday, inside Gavilan Community College’s gymnasium, Steve Kinsella presented graduating students with 389 degrees and certificates.
Just as the commencement ceremony represented each graduate stepping into the future, it also symbolizes a crucial time the president faces in guiding the college through an uncertain period in its own evolution.
When he took on the role of Gavilan’s president 17 months ago, Kinsella faced many tough questions. Among other significant issues, the college is dealing with severe budget cuts from the state, buildings on Gilroy’s main campus are in need of major repairs and upgrades, and the district’s rapidly growing population is changing from an agricultural culture to a computer-age one.
“I have all the respect in the world for Steve,” said Marty Johnson, dean of instruction. “I think he’s the right president for the right time because of all the ongoing financial issues that all the community colleges are facing.”
Kinsella’s background as a certified public accountant, his doctorate in accounting and his people-management skills will serve the college well in getting through the current budget crisis, Johnson emphasized.
Kinsella has been ingenious in tackling Gavilan’s financial woes. A budget work group he helped create found innovative ways to cut $1.2 million (about 5 percent of the college budget) without Draconian measures like the layoffs suffered by other California community colleges.
Kinsella’s open and straightforward leadership style also helped raise morale among Gavilan’s faculty, many of whom were frightened of potential layoffs because of the current state budget crisis, said Ken Wagman, math instructor and president of Gavilan’s Academic Senate.
“I think things have gone surprisingly well given the challenges that community colleges are facing,” Wagman said. “We’re in great shape compared to most community colleges in the region.”
Kinsella’s job performance in managing Gavilan’s current financial crisis was a “big morale booster,” said Robert Rinck, Gavilan job counselor and representative for the professional sports/classified staff on the President’s Council.
“He’s so smart with the budget and good with working with people,” he said. Rinck described how friends at other community colleges have faced layoffs due to far greater budgetary “disasters” on those campuses. But Kinsella’s expert management of the Gavilan budget has allowed the college to operate relatively smoothly in the current fiscal crisis, keeping staff and faculty spirits up, he said.
And Kinsella’s leadership also played a crucial role in the narrow passage of Measure E, a $108 million bond Gavilan College District voters approved last March. The bond money will be used to upgrade facilities at Gilroy’s main campus. It also will purchase land and build new classrooms in Hollister as well as in the Coyote Valley, where a projected community of 80,000 people is planned north of Morgan Hill.
The development in Coyote Valley will be a key part of Gavilan’s long-term success. A campus in the planned new community will tie the South Valley to Silicon Valley.
“It’s a strategic location for Gavilan because I believe it will really enhance the image of the school,” she said.
Forty years ago, when voters in the Gavilan College district approved a bond to build the main campus in the Gabilan foothills, Gilroy’s population stood at just more than 7,500 citizens. Today, Gavilan serves about that many students at its main Gilroy campus as well as satellite sites in Hollister and Morgan Hill.
No one can predict what problems and issues the district will face in the next four decades or how much more the various communities will grow. But with Kinsella’s leadership and financial talents, faculty, staff, students and board members believe the college already has taken solid footsteps into the future.
