Southeast Arkansas College President Steven Bloomberg has been hired as chancellor of the Kern Community College District in California.
Bloomberg is scheduled to take over in his new role March 1, ending a six-year run as leader of SEARK in Pine Bluff. The Nebraska native, who moved to California at age 18, cited a chance to be closer to family members as a reason for the upcoming move.
“I have a great love for this institution and this town,” Bloomberg said. “This was the district where I started my career, so it’s a chance to go home. My oldest daughter works at one of the colleges in the district, so it puts me within an hour-and-a-half of her, my two grandkids and an hour-and-a-half of my son as well.”
Bloomberg began his higher education career in 1994 as a workforce development director at Cerro Coso Community College. That is one of three colleges that make up the Bakersfield-based Kern district, along with Bakersfield and Porterville colleges.
The district serves more than 50,000 students and covers parts of five counties, meaning Bloomberg will serve about 50 times as many students as are enrolled at SEARK. The district has not had a full-time chancellor since the middle part of this year, when Sonya Christian was appointed chancellor of the California Community Colleges system, according to the Bakersfield Californian newspaper.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Chancellor Emeritus Thomas J. Burke is leading the Kern district in the interim.
The district, according to the Californian, touted Bloomberg’s ability to increase enrollment with a focus on key demographics such as high school students, workforce training, incarcerated students and student athletes.
“I am confident in the process to select our next chancellor and am pleased with our final selection,” district board member Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg told the Californian. “I welcome Dr. Bloomberg and look forward to continuing our work to ensure all students are afforded an opportunity to pursue the education of their choice.”
Bloomberg, who has been at SEARK since January 2018, has also focused on establishing housing for SEARK students and beginning an athletics department as a recruiting tool for the college. A former nursing home on South Hazel Street has been converted to a residential complex called The Reef.
A student union and housing complex planned on campus still needs funding, Bloomberg said.
“We’re obviously, still, in a fundraising mode,” Bloomberg said. “I would say, we’re going to have more than one phase of housing because we’re going to be, for all intents and purposes, full next fall when all sports are implemented. We’re going to have challenges looking at Phase Two, so we continue to raise funds for a student center, and as far as projects go, it’s probably the next one on the list.”
Bloomberg still has a goal of opening the student union and housing area within three years — “give or take,” he said. That would include 14 months of construction time and 18 to 24 months to make sure the college has the money for the project.
He also had to address immediate needs of students in the first 30 days of his presidency by opening a food pantry and clothing closet, citing an idea from staff members, and he guided the college through the coronavirus pandemic.
“Surviving covid was always top of mind for me, making sure we got out of the pandemic as unscathed as possible,” Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg, who previously was executive vice president at Oklahoma City Community College, completed a doctorate in higher education from the American College of Education while leading SEARK.
“No matter what job you have, no matter how high you ascend, you’re always humble,” Bloomberg said. “This was my first presidency, and one of the first things I always wanted to do was make sure people thought I was no better than them. I’m there to serve, and I’m the most proud I’ve been able to serve over this time thousands of people and work with hundreds of awesome people to do amazing things. When I think about acquiring Seabrook [a former YMCA facility] back in 2018 and our $700,000 performance energy contract that has retrofitted all of our lighting to LED inside and outside, the solar field on campus, all the things that go along with that, those are things I’m really proud of because they’re going to help grow and sustain the college.”
A final date for Bloomberg’s tenure at SEARK is yet to be determined. It is also not immediately known how the college plans to search for a successor. A message was left for SEARK board Chair Rebecca Pittillo.
“I still have work to do here,” Bloomberg said. “I’m still the president here. So, there are things I need to get done and continue to work tirelessly until that day I’m ready to go.”