With the absence of Amber Chiang so far this semester, Bakersfield College had to place someone in the position of public relations and marketing manager.

Shannon Musser was chosen for the position. She said that when she was given the position, the idea was to keep it in the department because Chiang is already her boss.

Musser was previously the web content editor for BC. She explained that she will be continuing at that position once Chiang is back to work.

There is no timeline that has been given for Chiang to be back to work, and there was no information given on to why she is currently out. Chiang and BC’s administration have not responded to interview requests.

Musser began working in the public relations position in late February. Before that, the President’s Office was handling all of the media requests.

When asked what the job switch has been like, Musser said, “Right now, it’s very busy because I’m doing a lot of what Amber was doing. It’s fun. It’s challenging. It’s a 24-hour thing. There’s always something that you have to move quickly on.”

Even though Musser was the web content editor, she still has experience in public relations related business.

“Well, I was a journalism major, so that’s kind of where my background is. I took some marketing classes,” said Musser.

Now that Musser has made her way out of the web content job at BC to the public relations side, even though it’s temporary, she is not sure if she’d ever want to permanently leave the position of web content editor. She explained that she loves being web content editor and that is why it would be a difficult decision to leave that position permanently.