SANTA MARIA - The Bulldog Bow-WOW!, an annual tradition at Allan Hancock College, returned on Wednesday and brought out hundreds of people to the campus student center.
Stephanie Robb, the Coordinator Of Student Activities at the school, described it as, "This is an event we have at the beginning of every semester for new and returning students so they're aware of all the programs, and services, departments, clubs and activities and ways they can get involved in their campus."
Architecture student Camerron Barlow of Lompoc came out to the event and was surprised by what he found. "I heard the architectural club was no more and then I came in and I was looking around and I saw they were here, so I'm probably going to end up joining that."
The festivities gave the school a much different atmosphere than the one Monday at another local community college. Earlier in the week, officials at Cuesta College had to face the possibility the school may close later this year due to ongoing accreditation issues.
"We have a lot of sympathy for Cuesta. A lot of other community colleges are struggling with many of the same issues that they're struggling with. We want to be as helpful as we can to Cuesta and we want to be as helpful to their students as we can," said Luis Sanchez, Allan Hancock College's Vice President of Academic Affairs.
While Hancock may see an increased number of students trying to enroll next fall, Sanchez said the situation at Cuesta should not impact Hancock. "The state has reduced our enrollment funding, and so there's a maximum number of students we can enroll and receive funding for, so we're not unfortunately in the position to absorb addition students."
Enrollment at Hancock is actually down this spring from last year. More than 10,600 students are attending the college, which is down 5.1% from spring of 2011. In response, the college has reduced the number of classes offered by 5.9%.
