”"& UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
_— of the FRASER VALLEY

Volume 11, Number 10

June 12, 1997

Witter takes new role as president of Douglas College

If you had asked Susan Witter two years
ago whether she’d like to be president of
Douglas College, the answer would
probably have been no. In fact, when the
job was up for grabs in 1995, she didn’t
apply for it.

When it became available again a year
later, however, she decided the time was
right to go for it, and after a five-month
selection process, she emerged as the new
president of the Lower-Mainland—area
college. ESL program head Katherine
Perrault will be replacing her as Dean on
a temporary basis while UCFV searches
for a permanent Dean.

‘Douglas’ gain is our loss,” said UCFV
president Peter Jones upon hearing the
news. “Susan has made a unique and
superb contribution to our management
team, our institution, our communities,
and the post-secondary system.”

Witter has been a member of
management at UCFV for 14 years, most
recently as Dean of Access and
Continuing Education. Before coming to
UCFV (then Fraser Valley College) as an
associate dean, she worked at Kwantlen
and Vancouver Community College.

Becoming a college president was

never a concrete goal for Witter. It’s more ©

the culmination of a series of moves made
to present herself with “new challenges”.

“T’ve always believed in taking on new
challenges and opportunities, and pushing
myself,” says Witter. “I knew that, as a
woman in my early fifties, I had the
choice of making one more major move
or staying here until the end of my career.
Two years ago, I was immersed in family
problems. My father was ill with
Alzheimer’s, and the time just wasn’t
right for me to try for such a major

Susan Witter prepares to leave UCFV.

change. Now, he’s settled in an extended
care home, and in the last year I’ve started
to pay a lot of attention to my own
well-being, getting into yoga and
meditation for example. Personally, I’m
in a lot better space to be taking on new
things.”

Witter has seen a lot of changes during
her time in charge of CE, particularly in
the last five years.

“When I started, I think there were five
employees in the Abbotsford CE office,

plus some in the other campuses. We’ve
grown enormously. With the emphasis on
workplace and contract training and
certificate programs, our contact with the
business community has quadrupled in
three years.”

The growth has been accompanied by
some controversy and regrets, however.
In 1993, the Continuing Education
department dropped general interest
courses and began to concentrate solely
on training for the workplace. It also
centralized its approach, so that instead of
being responsible for geographic areas,
each director covers several programs and
categories across the region. Concerns
have been raised that these changes have
taken CE away from its community roots.

“The most difficult decision I made
was getting out of general interest. Every
month, even now, I hear from someone
who’s still upset about that. But the
bottom line that was presented to me was
that we had to turn our finances around
and generate more revenue, and we have
done that.”

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