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West Hills District chancellor brings a lifetime of community college service to job
And, as the district’s new chancellor, responsible for maintaining and improving upon the district’s amazing growth, emerging state and national recognition, and burgeoning student enrollment, he’s fully aware of the responsibility his new job entails.
Despite the magnitude of the job before him, he indeed comes to the post well prepared – a community college junkie of sorts – who for nearly all of his adult life has immersed himself in everything positive about the community college experience – from his days as a California state championship community college basketball player to the chancellorship of the West Hills College District.
One could assume his lifelong pursuit of a community college career and its ultimate prize, was merely a part of some grand plan. But that’s too simple. Instead, the talented educator has spent the last 39 years preparing, living the community college experience, learning the ropes, and discovering the tools required to provide learning opportunities to thousands of community college students.
They call guys and gals like that life-long learners. He’s the kind of educator other educators call when someone’s needed to fill a critical job or provide significant insight. Van Horn is the kind of guy who is asked to apply for a job. Just ask Gornick, a 30-year acquaintance, who sought out the longtime educator when he needed someone to fill a critical post.
“I’ve known Stu Van Horn for about thirty years,” recalled Gornick. “While working at Bakersfield College as dean of students, Stu and I met when he worked as an assistant director for the California Commission on Athletics for Community Colleges.”
When Gornick went looking for a vice chancellor, he knew whom to call. “When West Hills was looking for a vice chancellor of Educational Services and Workforce Development, I called Stu and told him about the position,” remembered the longtime college chancellor. “I wasn’t sure he would be interested because it was away from family and moving from the Los Rios District to West Hills was going to be a cultural challenge, in a productive way, in my opinion.
“The right applicant would be successful if they saw it the same way. We were smaller; no one outworked us, we had a great reputation for innovation and being competent. I needed someone who understood that we were focused on the valley. We wanted to provide careers that led to a good wage, used technology wisely, and that we could adapt to the ever-changing environment in California.”
Van Horn was his man. “Stu was doing an excellent job at his current position when I contacted him. I told him about the challenges and the opportunities. He was eager to apply.”
As vice chancellor to longtime Gornick’s No. 2, Van Horn learned from the best. The West Hills College District, thanks to an administration and a forward-looking board of trustees, these hallowed forces have allowed the local college district to blossom into one of California’s most productive schools, no longer a secret in community college circles.
And indeed, West Hills’ transition from also-ran to a major player, has been nothing short of remarkable.
In years past, when the mention of West Hills College might generate a collective ho-hum from local high school graduates – attending West Hills was a last resort for many high school seniors. Times have certainly changed, as locals, in large numbers, are choosing Coalinga and Lemoore as the preferred places to continue their higher education.
The affable yet focused Van Horn is a product of the community college experience, and much of his life he’s been surrounded by the tools of his trade. His parents, Ezra and Rita Van Horn, were both educators; he a thriving community college basketball coach (he was the head basketball coach at Fullerton College from 1970-82) and she a talented choral music instructor.
The former basketball player was a jock, no doubt about it, but there was more to his persona than three-pointers and free throws. He was also an excellent student and a voracious reader who excelled in high school academics. He played four sports his senior year. He is the second of five children in the Van Horn family.
His post-high-school academic career didn’t exactly get off to a great start. The grueling tasks of athletics and academics in high school took a toll on him. “When I graduated from high school I was burned out,” he remembered.
Instead of taking his 6-3 height, 180-pound frame to the nearest community college basketball program, he instead decided to work for a couple of years and took a job with Mikasa, a sports manufacturer. His job? Making red rubber balls, the kind used in “four-square” games in elementary school. “I made 642 balls per shift,” he recalled. “My parents were fully supportive of me.”
He admits the time off from academics and athletics may have been good for him. “I physically matured,” he said. “I was a late bloomer,” adding two inches to his height and about 35 pounds to his thin frame.
And it was at the age of about 20 that a young Van Horn developed his love affair with the community college system, a relationship that eventually leads him to his current position. Following his two-year work-experience sojourn, he enrolled at nearby Orange Coast College joining then-Coach Tandy Gillis’ basketball team. Van Horn wanted to play for his father, but the old man had other ideas. “He told me I wasn’t good enough” to play for him, said Van Horn.
It turns out his new team won the Community College State Championship that year. Van Horn, a freshman, didn’t start but he did start the following season. By the way, Coach Van Horn later admitted that he erred in not recruiting his son.
His skills on the court eventually earned him a spot at the University of Great Falls, an NAIA school located in Great Falls, Montana where he earned all-conference honors. As a senior, the transplanted Californian led the nation in free throw percentage (91.5%). His junior and senior years (1981-81) he helped the team compile an impressive 51-11 record, winning the Frontier Conference championship and earning all-conference recognition.
The team lost in the district finals both years, but on a more positive side, Van Horn earned a degree in social science, which he intended to put to work in his native California.
The original plan was to return to Southern California where maybe a career in teaching or business beckoned, but his plans went array when a Montana State booster, obviously a fan, offered the likable youngster a job at a television station in Great Falls. Ed Coghlan, the station’s news director at the time, needed an anchor for its daily news broadcast, and he thought the former California boy, with literally no experience in television, just might fit the bill.
“I was on the job just one week later,” recalled Van Horn, who stayed with KRTV-3 for two and a half years. “The challenge was something I really liked,” he said. “I liked that it developed my communication skills.”
However, California, its beaches, white sand, and a change of scenery pulled the lanky former basketball player back to his roots. “I missed California,” he said and took a job in education, with the Sacramento California Association of Community Colleges where he worked with community college administrators and trustees as the director of public information services.
“That’s when I started a long career in California community colleges.”
Somewhere along his life’s trajectory, he got married. He and his wife Sandy currently live in Lemoore. They have two sons and four grandchildren.
He was four years in that job before accepting a position as a community relations director with Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California.
Along the way, the studious would-be college administrator earned a masters’ degree in 1991 from Azusa Pacific and then a doctorate from the University of Phoenix.
In 1992, the affable Van Horn found himself as a vice president with The Resource Group, a consulting firm catering to community colleges. “We consulted for community colleges, did labor market research.”
In was back to Sacramento where he rejoined the California Association of Community Colleges as the associate state commissioner for athletics. It was in many of these community college jobs that Van Horn associated with various college administrators, presidents, and board members. That’s where he met a younger Gornick for the first time when the future West Hills College president was with Bakersfield College.
“I’ve known Frank since his days at Bakersfield College, in the mid-80s,” said Van Horn.
Before signing on with Gornick as vice chancellor in 2013, Van Horn was the dean of instruction at Folsom Lake College.
“I thought it (WHC) was an impressive, stable district,” he recalled upon taking the job with West Hills. He certainly credits Gornick but was quick to attribute West Hills success to others. “All of that (success) can (also) be attributed to an incredibly stable board of trustees,” he said.
Indeed, Van Horn inherits a community college district comprised of two main campuses and a learning center in Firebaugh that attest to the district’s impressive growth. Currently, about 7,200 students take full-time and part-time classes at the district’s three locations – and the growth continues.
What’s in store for the West Hills District? It’s simple: more growth and more educational opportunities. “This is no longer a small college,” said Van Horn who insists the West Hills District ranks with the major community colleges in California.
West Hills has implemented programs that have earned it national and state recognition, including the innovative Reg365 program, enabling local students to enroll in year-round classes. West Hills was the first. Now other colleges are implementing the unique service. In other words, a West Hills College student can enroll in a year’s worth of classes, knowing that they’ll be available for the next semester.
“It’s an innovation … and we’re seeing it being scaled up in California,” said Van Horn.
West Hills has decided that learning isn’t solely confined to the classrooms. “Another recognition is that learning can occur outside of the classroom,” said the new chancellor. Hence a Learning Prior Assessment program, aimed at offering credit to those students who have accumulated knowledge outside the classroom, say for example in his or her job.
Other ideas swirl around the classrooms and boardrooms of the West Hills Community College District: bringing down the cost of textbooks and creating technology partnerships. “We’re willing to talk to anybody,” promised Van Horn.
The possibilities for growth and innovation are endless, and Gornick thinks Van Horn is the man to continue West Hills’ consistent growth.
“Stu is easy to get to know, and over the years we stayed in close contact,” he said. “At Coalinga, while President, I led the COA at the State and had an opportunity to watch Stu up close. He is the consummate professional, dedicated, creative, great attitude, and someone who wanted more out of life. When Stu wanted to transition out of his position with the COA, he sought the advice of many people on how best to accelerate his quest to work at a Community College in California.
“I remember telling him that if he wanted to aspire to the CEO level, he first needed to work at a CC (community college) then obtain his doctorate. He had a successful career at Los Rios, earned his doctorate, and as they say, the rest is history.
“In the past four or five years Stu has done an outstanding job,” said Gornick. “He genuinely cares about the work we do, and the people who do it. He is aware of the challenges and the opportunities. He was ready to apply for the position. He will bring his positive attitude, work ethic and his creative skill set to management to this job and we will all benefit from his leadership.
“The West Hills College Board of Trustees made the right choice.”
