April, 2022.

Robert Suppelsa prepares for a virtual public forum to determine the Vice President of Administrative Services at El Camino College. The countdown is on.

Ten minutes. Five minutes. Two minutes.

Suppelsa sits down with his glass of water. He’s ready to go.

Ready that is until a fourth-month-old, all-gray rescue kitten named Onyx jumps up on the table and spills his glass of water over his computer.

The mishap didn’t phase him from becoming the new Vice President of Administrative Services.

Robert “Bob” E. Suppelsa was selected as the new Vice President of Administrative Services last spring, beating out his opposing candidate Daniel Villanueva. Suppelsa officially began his position on June 13 and has worked on projects such as the 2022-2023 budget for El Camino College.

Before Suppelsa accepted the position at El Camino, he was the Vice President of Administrative Services at Los Angeles Harbor and West Colleges, according to the vice president’s website.

Shobhana Warrier, assistant to the vice president, said she is glad that Suppelsa is at El Camino.

Suppelsa has been living in the South Bay area since 1963. Growing up, Suppelsa took a liking to golf and finds fun in the game even when he fumbles.

“The funny thing about golf is that golf is one of those games that if you tell people that you’re really good, and then you go play with them, you’ll always play bad,” Suppelsa said with a chuckle.

Suppelsa also started the South Bay Public Links Golf Club, sharing the love of golf with his friends for over ten years.

“Our mission with that club was basically, we will take anybody into our club. All you have to do is want to play golf. You don’t have to be good, bad, or indifferent,” Suppelsa said.

Today they have over 1,500 members.

Suppelsa played golf in college. He went to California State University Dominguez Hills and received his master’s in finance. He later attended Pepperdine University where he received a second master’s in school business administration.

Suppelsa’s degrees didn’t prepare him however for El Camino College. Suppelsa was required to take part in a public forum as a part of the interview process.

“To do a public forum for a VPAS is fairly unusual. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen it done,” Suppelsa said.

According to Suppelsa, public forums are common for presidents and vice president of academic affairs, but a rarity for the Vice President of Administrative Services.

Although it caught him off guard initially, Suppelsa said that he enjoyed the experience overall because the community was interested in the process of learning about their potential leaders at El Camino.

After completing the process and becoming the new Vice President, Suppelsa now has settled into his role, which is supporting the objectives of President Brenda Thames and the Board of Trustees.

“[He] is doing a good job,” Thames said.

One of Suppelsa’s biggest accomplishments so far was completing the 2022-2023 budget, which was approved at the Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 6. He wanted to make sure that the budget prioritizes college initiatives that help to improve student and employee success.

“The fiscal state of the College is healthy and sound,” Suppelsa said, quoting from the opening letter for the new budget written by President Thames herself.

Suppelsa talked about institutional resource allocation requests, which help fund projects that can help student success, recruitment, retention, and engagement.

The list of projects includes more evaluators and advisors for transcript evaluation, modernizing the Writing Center, updating the furnishings in the library, getting 175 more student loan computers, and more academic and lab resources.

“Things like high-value microscopes [that are more than] just the basic utilitarian Things that y’all use but get depleted, like dropping beakers on the floor,” Suppelsa said.

Suppelsa said that he wants El Camino to be the best experience possible for all students, faculty and staff.

“I’d love to be able to look out at the campus and never see anything from a distance [that] I can say ‘we need to fix that’,” Suppelsa said. “I’d like to have everything fixed.”

Suppelsa said that he is happy to be working at El Camino.

“I’m thankful for being here. My office door is always open. Even at 9:30 after a Board meeting,” Suppelsa said.