Gavilan College’s Hollister Campus to mark first year in operation

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January marks a year since Gavilan College began providing classes at its new Hollister campus, with student enrollment and the number of classes being offered increasing during that time period.

In celebration of the one-year milestone, Gavilan is hosting an informal open house on Jan. 15 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Hollister campus located at the corner of Hwy 25 and Fairview Road.

Director of Marketing and Communications Tanaya Stumpf said the event will include speakers, live music and tours of the campus. 

Stumpf said the tours, starting at 6:45 p.m., will be guided by student peer mentors and can last up to 20 minutes.

“A lot of what we heard from the community is that they weren’t sure we were offering classes yet so we wanted to open up the building,” she said.

Among the speakers will be Gavilan College Board Trustee Alicia Cortez, Superintendent/President Pedro Avila and Associated Student Body President Britney Chavez.

Stumpf said since opening its doors on Jan. 15 last year, 1,223 unduplicated students have enrolled in classes offered at the campus.

Overall, enrollment has increased from 545 in the spring semester to 714 in the fall. She said 229 students took classes during the summer of 2025.

“The growth is remarkable,” Stumpf said.

The number of classes that are offered has also increased. Stumpf said the first two semesters at trhe new campus there were 40 and 50 classes offered, respectively. That’s compared to the last two semesters at the Briggs Building in downtown Hollister when Gavilan offered 29 and 30 classes, respectively.. 

The new semester, which begins Jan. 26, offers 51 classes.

In regards to students’ reaction to the new campus, she said it’s been positive and that they are impressed.

“It’s nice to have something dedicated specifically to San Benito County students,” Stumpf said. “It feels like they are walking into a college campus.”

The first phase of the campus was built with the $248 million bond measure funds approved by voters in 2018, of which $60 million was allocated for the project. 

In 2018, the bond was opposed by residents who were wary of the district.

The 2021 Santa Clara Civil Grand Jury noted a “lingering mistrust felt by some district residents was revealed” in a 2017 survey commissioned by the district in which 61.5% of respondents indicated the district could not be trusted because it managed the last bond—Measure E in 2024—and didn’t build what was promised. 

In that survey, 60% of respondents also agreed that there was no guarantee the money would be distributed fairly and that some areas would get more than their fair share.

Measure E included funding to provide permanent classrooms, labs, a library, job training and college transfer counseling in San Benito County. Nothing was built locally, though $8 million of those funds were used in 2007 to buy the property where the college campus now stands.

Gavilan previously provided instruction at the Briggs Building, located on the corner of Fourth and San Benito streets, which is owned by the City of Hollister.

Founded in San Benito County in 1919 as San Benito Junior College, the school became the Gavilan Joint Community College District in 1963 and was moved out of the county. Though it was originally located in Hollister, the main campus is now in Gilroy, with satellite sites in Morgan Hill, Hollister, Coyote Valley, and an aviation maintenance site in San Martin.

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