Bakersfield College president Sonya Christian has been offered a three-year contract, which is what many of us had hoped for.
The last three months have shined a spotlight on Christian after enduring a fight to stay on as our BC president once the Kern Community College District decided that she might not be fit to continue running the BC campus.

The truth is that many of us students didn’t really know who Sonya Christian was, unless you worked with her or attended an event where she was introduced as the BC president.

Even though the recent troubles between the BC president and the KCCD have casted unwanted media coverage, if there is one positive thing that has come from the situation is the fact that the circumstances have highlighted Christian’s successes as BC president.

After the BC faculty and student government realized that Christian’s time at BC was in jeopardy, they began to show their support for Christian by crediting her with ensuring stable educational program development, student success, and leadership.

During the Aug. 13 board meeting, the trustees learned how strong the community felt about Christian’s leadership, having many supporters crediting her with BC’s recent successes.

With slogans such as “We are BC,” the BC leaders continued their support for Christian by creating an online petition for the community to sign. The petition surpassed their goal of 500 signatures.

The We are BC Facebook page uploaded an informative graph that credited Christian’s leadership with increasing course success and transforming 68 courses to 128 with course identifiers for transfer.

Regardless of the press that this battle between the BC president and the KCCD has received, Christian should not see this as a dent in her career. The support that Christian has received has exposed not only to the Bakersfield community, but also most importantly to the BC student body, that we have a great president.

With a new contract agreement for Christian, we now wait for its approval at the Sept. 10 board meeting. Regardless of the board’s decision, one thing that will be sure is that the BC campus will know Sonya Christian’s name.