At a recent meeting, one of our deans asked: Why did we need two colleges?

The quick answer is to better serve our communities and to survive financially.

The more exact answer is that the process for our district having two colleges started in 1991 when Stan Arteberry, the president of West Hills College Coalinga, directed a group that persuaded the Board of Governors and the California Post secondary Education Commission to designate the Kings County Center in Lemoore as the Higher Education Center for Kings County, serving the cities of Hanford, Armona and Laton. With this designation came the recognition by the State Chancellor’s office of our status and the right to change our designation from center to college as we met the established criteria. These same organizations approved Lemoore’s status as a college in 2001.

Keep in mind the reason the state allowed us to have a service area outside of our district was that the district was having financial difficulty and there were active discussions about dividing our district between State Center and College of the Sequoias. The state felt that if we could provide educational services for greater Kings County our enrollment would grow and provide the financial stability to maintain the district.

There was a financial reason for the state’s decision. But more importantly, there was a human reason for their decision. They wanted us to provide higher education opportunities to a population that was historically underserved. All of us have made the state’s decision a good one. Our enrollment is growing yearly, our financial position is stable and our facilities are first class.