After serving as president of Bakersfield College for nearly three years, William Andrews has declared that he will be retiring July 1, 2008.
“I started thinking about it when I turned 60. It’s an age thing, that coupled with the fact that we have two new grandchildren and both my wife and I have jobs that are very demanding time-wise,” said Andrews. “So, retirement will give me time.”
Andrews announced his decision to the school’s Academic Senate.
“We were surprised he decided to retire this soon, but not that it was going to happen,” said Academic Senate president John Gerhold. “He didn’t make it a secret that he was thinking about retiring, especially when he mentioned buying back the family farm earlier this year. There were rumors.”
In the middle of anticipated accreditation recommendation implementing, a strategic plan and plans for remodeling and building, Andrews will take his leave knowing that he has not exactly completed everything he hoped to do for BC.
“You can never accomplish everything you wanted to get done on your list,” he said. “But, that’s normal. There will always be more things to accomplish than time or money can allow to happen.”
His focuses for the rest of his time as president will be primarily to implement recommendations of the accreditation team and National Center for Developmental Education reports. He will be focusing on pre-collegiate basic skills, student success and will try to complete the strategic plan for BC.
Though implementation and remodeling will continue as planned, Gerhold feels that by Andrews leaving, the way things are conducted may change at BC.
“It will change the atmosphere,” said Gerhold. “Dr. Andrews is informal and laid back, he likes you to use his first name, and he doesn’t stand for ceremony. His attitude works well for BC. Schools tend to take the character of those people that are in charge. We don’t know how this new president may be.”
Andrews started his career in 1968 as an English teacher at Grundy Center High School in Iowa. He eventually made his way into administration while he obtained his doctorate in education in 1991 from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, N.M. Andrews became president of BC in 2005 after serving as the president for Porterville College from 2000-2005.
“I saw myself as a dean or director of learning resources in 1974-1988,” said Andrews. “Then I shifted to institutional resource and planning. Then as vice president of instruction at Saddleback College, I did what was normal for vice presidents to do. I decided to be in charge. More often then not, we evolve.”
What will follow Andrew’s announcement to retire is an application process that involves looking for candidates to fill the position from across the nation. According to Gerhold, three or four faculty members from the senate will help in the process, though the final choice for president will be made by the Board of Trustees.
“When you have people who train for a position like president, they don’t understand what it’s like to be in the classroom,” said Gerhold. “The search committee will look for someone with faculty experience.”