Jeffrey Stephenson took over the position of Vice President of Student Services from Pam Walker at the beginning of the Fall 2014 semester.
“Big shoes to fill is what I would say,” Stephenson said. “It’s very difficult to fill those shoes because she definitely left a very positive print on the college.”
Stephenson is overseeing the implementation of the Student Success and Support Program, formerly known as matriculation.
“The Student Success and Support Program, which is our plan on orienting, assessing, getting students into counseling, getting them into education plans, completing their education plans, that is a plan we have to create as a college so I’m very involved in that and making sure our students are successful,” Stephenson said.
As of this semester, students new to American River College are mandated to take assessments, complete online orientation, and see a counselor if they want to keep priority registration. Before, these steps were only optional for ARC students.
“Any new student starting in this cycle, if they don’t complete those three steps in the next registration cycle they’ll go into open registration,” Stephenson said.
Before becoming the interim Vice President of Student Services, Stephenson was the Dean of Counseling and Student Services for three years and the Funeral Service education coordinator for eight years.
Stephenson oversees four main areas in his new position: enrollment services, counseling, student support services, and student development.
“There’s four deans of those areas and those deans report to me,” he said. “I’m kind of like the big picture.”
Manuel Perez, Dean of Student Development, said that he has been working with Stephenson since 2009.
“He was the sole full time faculty member in funeral services so he loaned ASB a casket for Halloween,” Perez said. “He’s a big support. He is our Vice President. His oversight is essential to the functions that student services completes on campus. Student development is a big part of that, so we talk daily.”
In his free time, Stephenson spends time with his dogs Gianni and Isabella and likes to travel.
“We like southern California, we go to Palm Springs a lot,” Stephenson said. “We want to start some international travel, to Mexico, to the Caribbean, to Europe.”