Mesa Community College’s newly appointed Vice President of Student Affairs marks two weeks on the job
On January 19, Jeannetta L. Hollins entered her second week as the newly appointed Vice President of Student Affairs at Mesa Community College, a role she took on with the hope to advance student interest as much as to challenge herself professionally.
Hollins sat down with The Mesa Legend the day before for a one-on-one interview to understand what she hopes to accomplish at MCC and how she became qualified for the vice president role.
In late October, MCC announced Hollins was selected for the role after a months-long search for a candidate, noting Hollins experience as the Interim Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Success at Virginia Peninsula Community College.
Hollins reflected that after an exciting interview with MCC staff, she took the trip to Mesa to see MCC campuses for herself along with face-to-face meetings with college administration.
“I just fell in love, I said ‘oh my goodness this is really truely it now, I know I really want to be here’,” said Hollins of the campus, sitting in her office that was still taking shape on the MCC administrative floor.
Hollins said one of the immediate things she noticed on campus was the diversity amongst students and the active organizations supporting them like the American Indian Institute, which offered Hollins opportunities to learn from unique experiences.
Hollins also noted she was excited to learn about Arizona based Hispanic culture, of which MCC serves approximately 34% of students in 2023 that identified as Hispanic or Latino, according to Maricopa County Community College data.
“When I started my Ph.D program, they said ‘if you really want to advance in your career, you also need to be willing to move around’,” said Hollins.
In 2009, Hollins received her Ph.D in Community College Leadership from Old Dominion University.
“I like to experience different things and I believe that I owe it to myself, as well professionally, to have experiences beyond one state,” Hollins added.
Possibly above all, the new vice president expressed that she saw MCC students happy and in an environment where their educational goals seemed well within reach.
As she continued understanding the role and its capacities, Hollins reflected on her experience that she plans to transition to the new Arizona based role.
“Number one, increase in enrollment and that’s every college’s goal, to recruit, retain and complete,” said Hollins, speaking of her previous executive role.
Hollins knew that MCC like other community colleges had to be prepared for an enrollment cliff, an anticipated decline in college enrollment numbers linked to declining birth rates.
“Community colleges in particular will need to become very creative in terms of the student population that they recruit, you’re not going to have enough of your 18 year olds graduating from high school,” said Hollins.
To counteract the enrollment cliff, the new vice president said her role means she will work to find target populations outside of the immediate high school graduate population to help reach MCC’s enrollment goals.
Hollins said another significant accomplishment at her previous role was restructuring the divisions she worked in, skills that would transfer as MCC’s started a broader vice president search.
Hollins said it was important for her to use the latest technology to the college’s advantage, citing experience implementing Microsoft Teams and Zoom to adapt to distance learning during the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m still getting to know the different uses of technology that we have here,” said Hollins.
“One of the things that we want to do is to begin to really look at the data to inform our decision making in terms of moving forward. I still have a lot of questions just in terms of our practices, how effective those practices have been and developing target enrollment numbers,” said Hollin.
Hollins appeared to become more settled into the role each day after her first on Jan. 8, now focusing her plans in the vice president role and familiarizing herself with the campus, students and her fellow college administrators.
The Vice President of Student Affairs role encompasses working closely with the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Vice President of Information Technology, two positions that Hollins said were going to be critical to fill for MCC administration.
As Hollins looked ahead, she considered what might be the hardest challenges ahead. “Learning the acronyms,” laughed Hollins, her sense of optimism in the new role defining itself as a core characteristic.
Hollins planned to spend the immediate next days getting to know her colleagues and “learning who the elected officials are, what are some of the you know, the written and unwritten rules within the community, I see those more as opportunities more than a challenge,” said Hollins.
“I’m excited and look forward to getting to know MCC and to ensure that we are we’re working at our best, highest potential. I’m equally concerned about the division, the staff, as well as the students, I believe I have a responsibility to take care of both,” said Hollins.
Correction 1/26/2024: This article was updated to fix a misspelling in Ms. Hollins first name.
