Making sure students can take the classes they need and making them affordable will be the main goal of Bakersfield College’s newly selected president, William Andrews.
The Kern Community College District board of trustees voted unanimously Thursday to offer the current president of Porterville College the job at BC.
At a news conference Friday in the Administration Building, district chancellor Sandra Serrano praised Andrews and said she had confidence in his ability to lead BC.
“We are very familiar with his work. He has a proven track record, and we know he will work very well with our community of faculty, classified staff and administration,” she said.
The four finalists were Rosa R. Carlson, 48, vice president of Academic Services at College of the Sequoias; Karin Pettit, 54, senior vice president of Corporate, Economic, and Work Force Development at Louisiana Community and Technical College System; Henry Zimon, 56, former president of Albright College in Reading, Pa.; and Andrews, 58.
They were nominated for interviews with the board of trustees after recommendations from the search committee. Public forums were also held last week for each candidate.
During Andrews’ forum, which was attended mostly by faculty, Andrews said he was attracted to BC because of its size. He is familiar with the district, he said, and he’s ready to lead the largest campus in the district.
“I looked for a college I could get my arms around. I understand the size and the challenges of this college, and I don’t want to start over,” he said.
Asked specifically what those challenges would be, he said the most important one is access, followed by rising tuition.
A major problem for students is “getting classes when you want them,” he said. In regard to the costs of education, he said community colleges offered students an opportunity to save on their education, although he acknowledged that some students find even community college tuition hard to pay for.
“It’s still a burden,” Andrews told the audience.
To help more students take the classes they need, administrators need to encourage students to be more flexible about when they take classes, he said.
“I understand that for some reason students like to take classes in the morning or in the evening,” he said, “but if we’re going to make this work, we need to ask our students to look at that time block … in the afternoon.”
Andrews gave an animated presentation, causing laughter from the audience, as he talked and walked around the front of the room.
This atmosphere was typical of the rest of the sessions, with the exception of the quiet and tense climate felt during part of Zimon’s presentation.
All candidates touched on the issue of tuition and the need for funds in general.
Andrews, however, was far more blunt when it came to money matters.
“The long-term money problems are a big issue, because the area is growing quickly,” he said.
Andrews said he will work to minimize the effect but acknowledged the problems will not disappear.
“I can almost guess we won’t do it 100 percent,” he said.
To ease money troubles, he said officials need to be more comfortable asking for money, prioritizing programs and creating partnerships with community businesses.
Andrews said he believed BC will need to continue to play a leadership role as the largest community college campus in the district.
“Bakersfield College is always going to be the biggest college, so it has to play leadership roles with Cerro Coso and Porterville College. BC has things that can help the other colleges,” he said.
But the other colleges can also help BC, Andrews noted, citing as an example the Psychiatry Technician program Porterville College offers and BC lacks.
When asked by professor Chuck Wall what he would do about faculty “breaking down into factions,” he said that would be unacceptable to him.
“I won’t put up with it,” he said. “They can disagree, and they should, but we’re still working here together, and we need to be getting along. I expect people to work together. You don’t have to love everyone, but you have to be able to work with them.”
Andrews also touched on the subject of students who come to BC and take too long to transfer or put the skills they earn to work.
“We need students to take the classes they need and leave after a while so they can pay taxes and let someone else sit there,” he said.
Prayas Patel, vice president of the Student Government Association, asked Andrews during the forum what his role would be in relation to the SGA.
He answered by saying he would encourage students to participate in activities sponsored by the SGA. He also said he would work with the student government leaders to put together a budget that favored the student body. “Dollars that are collected [by SGA] should be used for the benefit of students in many ways,” he told Patel.
At the news conference Friday, board president Dennis Bebee congratulated Andrews and said he felt comfortable with the board’s decision.
“All the candidates were very qualified, but Dr. Andrews has experience with this district. He also has experience with state issues and with the educational code of the state of California, which is quite different. So all these factors made it a really easy decision,” he said.
Andrews, who will be the ninth president in BC’s 92-year history, is scheduled to start April 1.