Walking through campus, you might not notice that there are many new students around you and you might not realize there are many new instructors as well.

The campus has welcomed 33 full-time faculty members, hired in the summer to replace retirees and expected to bring new ideas to campus.

The new faculty include 30 instructors and three counselors.

“This is one of the largest pools of new faculty that the college has hired in a long time,” Francisco Arce, interim vice president of academic affairs, said.

One reason for hiring a large number of faculty members is that state law requires the campus have at least 75 percent full-time faculty and 25 part-time faculty.

“Part of the number was to ensure that we are moving toward our goal of achieving that,” Marcia M. Wade, director of human resources, said..

Meeting the ratio consistently is important; otherwise, the campus is penalized monetarily with reduced fuding allocated to the college, Wade said.

“It impacts the operating budget that the district has to work with,” Wade said.

Many of the positions went to fill vacant spots or because an extra instructor was needed within a division.

Even though a large number of faculty members was hired, there is still a need for more instructors, Wade said.

“Our budget was only able to accommodate thirty-three new hires,” Wade said.

“The new instructors are important because they will add new and different courses that will benefit students and add more choices,” Wade said.

Arce began his new job at EC in the summer.

Although the campus has a faculty that is “very rich in information and knowledge,” new instructors are a good idea, Acre said.

“It’s always good to renew the ranks of the faculty with new ideas, new energy and new approaches,” Arce said.

“I like this school very much,” Rodolfo Otero, anthropology instructor, said.

Otero said he likes the general population of the students because of their ethnic and economic diversity, which can bring a lot to the classroom.

“We went above and beyond the target intentionally this year,” Dr. Thomas Fallo, president of EC, said. “We probably didn’t have to hire all thirty-three faculty members. We probably could have hired somewhere in the twenty-five range.”

“We decided to really see what we could do about innovating our faculty, and I think we hired some really good people,” Fallo said.