David Andrus said he doesn’t care why he was chosen to be the acting chancellor of College of the Canyons.
He was appointed to the role last month by the Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees after the former chancellor, Dianne Van Hook, was placed on administrative leave.
A week later, Van Hook announced her retirement from the college after 36 years in charge.
College of the Canyons officials have provided no official reason for the change, citing state law that does not allow for personnel matters to be discussed.
“My job is to keep the college running as effectively as it has been running,” Andrus said, adding that his 23 years of experience as a faculty member at COC has given him a bevy of institutional knowledge.
Andrus, a political science professor who has spent time leading the department as chair and was also formerly the president of the COC Academic Senate, has never been in a leadership role of this magnitude.
But he said that doesn’t bother him as it is clear he has been entrusted to do the job.
Prior to getting into the education world, Andrus spent time with the U.S. Army before working for seven years for the city of Pasadena. He later got his law degree and worked as an election observer in Kosovo and Belarus.
Part of his plan upon officially taking up the role on July 15 was talking to people from all across the college before reaching out to others who have an interest in the college’s success, such as the COC Foundation.
While no reason was given for Van Hook’s dismissal it came on the back of a climate survey that was conducted in the spring.
In that survey, close to 20% of employees said they did not feel welcome at the college, while others responded to open-ended questions saying there has been a culture of fear over retaliation about speaking up about problems.
Andrus, a south Pasadena native and resident, addressed that survey saying he views the college as his second home and wants to hear from the employees about what the college can do better.
“We have hundreds and hundreds of people here who have their own ideas,” Andrus said.
That doesn’t mean he’s looking to change everything, though.
“Too much change too quickly is bad,” Andrus said, adding that he can’t, and shouldn’t, do what everyone wants the college to change.
“No one should deny anyone else’s truth, but there have been people that have come up to me, in different ways, and they have poured their hearts out to me about how they feel,” Andrus said. “They were some of the people in the survey who had hoped for changes — that was very moving.”
Andrus said he started with the chancellor’s staff, a group of six people who had only known Van Hook’s way of doing things.
“I knew them casually, but they needed to hear from me, and I needed to hear from them,” Andrus said.
After that, he said he would work his way down the ladder, talking with the executive cabinet members, department heads and other college leaders.
Also on his agenda was getting to know some of the nonprofits, businesses and organizations that already have partnerships with the college that were built when Van Hook was in charge.
“The partnerships that Dianne built are the things that I want to continue,” Andrus said.
Being the leader of a community college is different than simply leading a department, Andrus said, as rather than bringing his ideas to someone, he is now the one who has to hear from those people.
He said he told his family after accepting the position — which he was offered while packing for a trip to Napa and said he thought his wife was about to faint upon hearing the news — that if he was going to do it, they would have to bear with him as he would be “all in.”
“So many people have put their faith in me — I felt duty-bound to take the role,” Andrus said. “People have been supportive. That makes me want to work harder for them.”
