Campbell and McClatchie will return for second five year terms
Board of Regents approve administrators’ contract renewals
In less than a month, the Mount Allison Board of Regents announced the renewals of Dr. Robert Campbell and Dr. Stephen McClatchie’s university contracts. Both will begin a second five year term on July 1, 2011 as Mt. A President and Vice Chancellor, and Provost and Vice President of Academic and Research respectively. Both administrators welcomed the renewals with gratitude and optimism.
“I couldn’t be happier to have a renewed mandate at Mount Allison,” said McClatchie in a recent interview. “It’s a great place, I really love being here, and I look forward to the next years.”
Campbell echoed his colleague’s statement by saying he was “delighted by the Board [of Regent’s] confidence” in him. “It’s an honour to be a university president,” said Campbell, “and it is an honour to be the president of this university.”
The reappointment process involved feedback from Mt. A students, staff, faculty, and the surrounding community. Board of Regents Chair, Bruce McCubbin expressed the Board’s satisfaction with both reappointments, indicating that the overall feeling called for renewals of each administrator. Campbell referred to the process as “unreal,” though said it remained "positive and a time to reflect on what one’s been doing.”
When asked if he could name the major accomplishments, McClatchie paused saying that it was hard to know which to talk about since the last four years for him have been a large team effort. “I think in some ways, one of our biggest accomplishments has been to create a well-functioning leadership team under the President’s direction, where we all work together really well.”
He also named the long-term sustainability of Mt. A, the implementation of the strategic statement, the Academic Renewal process, the continued increase in research funding, and the Ron Joyce Centre for Business Studies as prominent developments in the last four years.
Campbell explained his satisfaction with the development of the Student Life department at the university. “From the creation of the Vice-President Student Affairs, the opening of the [Wallace McCain] Student Centre, residence life, new programmes on the international front, leadership...it’s all very satisfying,” said Campbell.
Echoing McClatchie’s statements, the President spoke to the organization of the last four years, saying that despite previous struggles, he feels the university sits in a good plan with financial and fiscal sustainability.
“[I] can’t help but think about legacy, what will I leave behind to this university? If I do last till the end of a couple of terms...on the one hand I would leave the [university] in a much more viable situation. Small universities are venerable; I want to leave the university with a framework and structure for sustainability going forward.”
“There’s still a lot of work that remains to be done,” admitted McClatchie. “The Academic Renewal Plan is a five year plan...there’s a lot more work that needs to happen there, plus there’ll be some adjustments [...] it was always intended to be a sort of evergreen document that would constantly be updated. I’m thinking over the summer of [...] a strategy, a plan, a something for year two...what we want to try to accomplish.” McClatchie said there is a lot of “un-sexy but important” work to be done, mentioning policy developments, financial sustainability, and the development of the second strategic statement.
Campbell explained that the next few months would be about evaluating what has been done so far. “I like our plan, [but] we’re going to go back through it and audit it." Campbell said they will look at “what have we actually done that we’ve said we’re going to do, what haven’t we done, and what do you think we should be doing.”
Similarly, Campbell stressed the need to continue looking at the cost and quality of the university. “We’re an expensive school...because we offer a certain quality,” explained the President, “I want to continue to explore what we can offer, [especially] from where we sit with sustainability.”
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