Bakersfield College President William Andrews hasn’t found much time to play his favorite sport of golf during the past few months.

“This summer has almost been a blur. It’s all gone. I only played golf four times since April 1,” he said.

Andrews said he has been busy with his duties at BC.?

“The first two months, in April and May, the majority of the time was spent doing interviews to complete the hiring for 36 new faculty who are here with us this fall,” said Andrews.?

BC now has nearly 250 full-time faculty members.?

“That was a busy, busy two months,” he said. Plus he said there were three key administrative positions filled.

He said summer is usually “somewhat calm” for a college president.? “Since I am a new college president, it wasn’t,” he said.

Andrews had to get to know the ins and outs of?BC better over the summer.

“There were a lot of things to learn, visiting buildings, getting to know the layout of the institution,” he said.

“I had scheduled two-hour meetings with all the managers at the college to get a sense of their area, their concerns, their needs.

Andrews said he has been heavily involved with the planning of the modernization of the Student Services building.

“Beyond that I am going to be asking that we do some longer term planning as an institution. I prefer not to have to do short-term crisis planning,” he said.

“It will encourage all the areas of the college to give thought on where they see themselves going.”

Andrews said it is important to get to know the City of Bakersfield’s priorities. “I have spent a lot of time meeting with leaders in the greater Bakersfield area,” he said.

He tries to meet with at least one leader a week, “if not more often.”