William Andrews is Bakersfield College’s president and is going into his third year of office. He has been working with the California Community College system since 1990.
Andrews is a community college graduate himself, making it easy for him to relate to students.
“I graduated from Marshall Town Community College in 1966,” he said. “I know what it’s like for students. I’ve been a community college administrator in four different states since 1974. I think I understand what community colleges are all about.”
According to Andrews, he has an open door policy.
“The only time it’s closed is during a meeting. Other than that people can get to me,” he said.
Although the school president’s job keeps him at his desk or away from school, making himself more available to students is something he is working on.
“The first week of school I’m hoping to get out during the early evenings to try and help students find their way around campus,” he said. “I fully realize students coming to BC is a big deal.
“Students don’t know what can happen but we have a lot of good people working with us that want students to be successful.”
Andrews has lots of plans and priorities for the coming year. His priorities include placing a major emphasis on doing a better job of assisting first-year students in being successful.
According to Andrews, last year two major efforts occurred. The first is known as Foundations of Excellence, which involved over 90 faculty and staff members reviewing every aspect of what BC does with first-year students.
The committee has developed action items that will be presented to the community college, and they will be implementing a number of them this year.
The second was a composition analysis of BC’s basic skills, or pre-collegiate programs.
According to Andrews, the National Center For Developmental Education was contracted to do an analysis and will be presenting their findings in late September.
“It will give us an opportunity in implementing some if not all their ideas this year,” he said.
Besides everything that is occurring regarding student success, the BC administration will also be developing its first strategic plan which will link with the Kern Community College District’s strategic plan.
Facility planning is also under way. By summer 2008, the ground breaking to modernize campus will be underway and by summer 2010 modernization should be under way for the Speech Art and Music Building.
“It’s going to be an interesting year of planning and implementation which will be followed by ten to fifteen years of facility modernization projects,” said Andrews.