In 2015, Camosun president Sherri Bell was sitting in her office with with Camosun vice president of education John Boraas and vice president of communications, advancement, and planning Joan Yates and a large stack of poster paper. The three were thinking about what they wanted portfolios for different positions to look like in coming years. Bell got up from her chair and went over to the poster paper. She drew a picture of a student.
“I said, ‘Let’s start here. How do we come out of a conversation around different portfolios with the student at the centre?’” Bell says today.
Out of that conversation eventually came the position of vice president of student experience, and the student experience portfolio. It’s one of the things that Bell is most proud of accomplishing with the team she assembled since she became Camosun’s president in 2015.
Yesterday, after 40 years of working in education, Bell announced that she would be retiring on December 31 of this year.
“It feels real,” says Bell. “I, of course, had been considering retirement, but I never knew exactly when it would happen.”
A few years ago, Bell took a presidents seminar at Harvard University. She says the narrative around retirement at the seminar was that you probably won’t know when the time is right to retire if you’re that dedicated and passionate about your job. Finding the right time for your institution that is also a time that works for you personally is key.
“This year is the last year of our Strategic Plan, so a new one has to be developed,” says Bell. “It’s our 50th anniversary, and we’re coming to—hopefully—rounding a corner with the pandemic.”
All of those things led Bell to announce her retirement over 10 months before she actually leaves, which will give the college a lot of time to allow for a smooth transition of power, she says.
“It takes time to recruit, interview, and select a new president,” she says.
But it was also the right time for Bell personally, she says. She’s feeling great—she’s healthy and full of energy. Retiring with a future ahead of her is important to her. She has kids, parents, and a granddaughter who she hasn’t been able to see as much as she’d like to, she says.
“I love what I do, but it’s also good to leave when you’re feeling that way, I think,” she says. “It felt like the right decision, but I think it’s going to get harder and harder as the date gets a little closer. This life—Camosun—it just… It gets to your heart, and what we do is so important. I’ll miss the people more than anything.”
This past 12 months has been the year with the most changes and uncertainty in Bell’s entire career.
“Because of that, you have to depend on relationships that you’ve built over five or six years, and our infrastructure as far as relationships is pretty strong,” she says. “This past year has been isolating and tough for everybody.”
Handing out ice cream cones during CamFest, working with donors, going to student award ceremonies, or speaking with a group who wants to know more about Camosun can’t happen in the same way when things aren’t done face to face.
“I miss the parts of my job that gave me the most joy,” says Bell. “I can’t just walk out of my office at Lansdowne and run into faculty, staff, and students… It’s that, you know? It’s been a year of constant change and you’ve got to be able to just roll with it.”
On Tuesday, February 16, the college had Conversations Day, virtually, to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Even though things are a bit different, Bell calls it a huge highlight for her.
“It actually really worked well,” she says. “This is the world we’re in; let’s change it and make it as best we can.”
For Bell, who admits she will probably have to figure out what retirement’s going to look like, it’s always been about making sure students have the best experience possible. In her office, she has a framed poster on the wall that a friend made for her back when she was teaching K-12. It’s about bringing people together, engaging them, then making magic happen for students.
“It’s that collective vision to know what the outcome is. Our vision at Camosun—inspiring life-changing learning—it’s not just a bunch of words, I actually believed that we’d do that everyday,” she says. “I feel really blessed. Right now, the decision feels right.”