Hawk Has Soaring Goals for SMC

Adapting to a new job can often be difficult, especially when your old job was over 300 miles away. Yet Jeanine Hawk, Santa Monica College's new vice-president of
business administration, makes it look easy.

"My last day at De Anza was January 21 and I drove down here in the afternoon and started here on January 22," said Hawk. And so it was on that Thursday morning that Hawk filled the position at SMC which had been vacant for over two years. In her new role, similar to that she had at De Anza College, Hawk is responsible for budget planning,
facilities and construction planning, and
fiscal management.

One of the things that Hawk plans to do is make improvements at SMC where deemed necessary. "I think we all need improved
systems," Hawk said. "I think they're
something that we all work with. As students you use it for registration, as administration we use it for our payroll system. I think right now we have a bunch of different systems that don't talk to each other and from a technology standpoint that's not a good thing. We want to have an integrated administrative system," Hawk said.

Hawk's diligence has already made an impression on her colleagues. "Jeanine definitely has great ideas that she wants to move forward with," said Chris Bonvenuto, SMC's Director of Fiscal Services. "She's definitely a mover. She's not accepting the status quo. She's pushing everyone to go to
the next level," Bonvenuto said.

One of Hawk's ideas includes a change to the location where students buy textbooks. She proposes moving the campus bookstore to Drescher Hall. "The location is great but the building is awful," she said. "I think we need a new facility for the bookstore, we
need a new vision for the bookstore operations."

Bookstore improvement is nothing new for Hawk. While at De Anza College, Hawk oversaw the implementation of textbook rentals and
digital textbook sales, something she hopes to see at SMC. Over the years, Hawk has compiled an impressive list of accomplishments in her career which has had her serve capacities in Northern California, as well as Oregon.

Hawk served as vice-president of educational resources and college operations at De Anza College in Cupertino, California, from 2004 to 2009. During her time there, Hawk was responsible for instructional technology, the child development center and professional workforce development.

Hawk also supervised numerous construction projects at De Anza College, including the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design platinum building on a community
college campus in California. This experience will serve Hawk well as she oversees the various construction jobs at SMC, including the construction of 300 parking spaces under the new student services building.

Prior to her tenure at De Anza College,
Hawk worked at Rogue Community College in Oregon for seven years. She received her undergraduate degree from University of California at Irvine. Hawk also received her masters in business administration from Southern Oregon University. At De Anza College, Hawk's already strong affinity for student leadership intensified, saying that interaction with student government is important.

She became a regular face at student government activities. "I think students can learn a lot about the world by actually being leaders themselves on a college campus," Hawk said. "The reason we're all here is for students, so students should have
a strong voice in what we do instead of
what we think you want us to do."

With all of the remarkable undertakings
that Hawk had accomplished at De Anza,
one might speculate as to why she would
leave. Hawk says she still saw the chance
for personal growth. "I was coming from a good place and I wanted to be going to a good place, and I think I accomplished that."