{"id":22094,"date":"2022-02-10T09:00:18","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=22094"},"modified":"2022-02-10T09:18:40","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T17:18:40","slug":"camosun-president-lane-trotter-the-nexus-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2022\/02\/10\/camosun-president-lane-trotter-the-nexus-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun president Lane Trotter: The Nexus<\/em> Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 1 of this year, Lane Trotter replaced Sherri Bell as president of Camosun College. Trotter is stepping in while the COVID-19 pandemic continues, but if he\u2019s worried about it, he\u2019s not letting it show: when we meet to chat on a chilly morning in late January, Trotter seems comfortable and confident in his new position. As students wander past us in the main courtyard of Lansdowne, we talked about his approach to the job, the role of student governance in post-secondary, classic rock, and more.<\/p>\n

This conversation has been edited for clarity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re coming on board and taking over presidential duties during a worldwide pandemic. How does that make you feel? Are you nervous about that?<\/i><\/p>\n

Well, the last two years have been challenging for everybody. I was at Langara for eight years, and the last two before coming here we were dealing with that challenge. So coming to Camosun, it\u2019s learning what\u2019s the culture of the college, what are the needs of the community? But fundamentally, what I have found, is following the advice of Dr. Henry\u2019s been pretty good. I think we\u2019ve been lucky in this province relative to other jurisdictions and while we may not be perfect, I think we\u2019ve done very well, and that\u2019s because we have a high vaccination rate. I\u2019m double vaxxed and boosted, and we continue to encourage people to get vaccinated. Some have asked me about, well, should we mandate vaccination, and I think you need to be very careful on weighing those risks. But when we\u2019re looking at over 90 percent of people vaccinated, we\u2019re almost at that… I don\u2019t want to call it herd immunity because that\u2019s not quite the right term and I\u2019m not a medical doctor, I\u2019m an academic doctor. So if we follow the advice and we have this current wave happening, it\u2019s how do we reduce the risk? And what we know about people who are tending to be in hospital are people who are unvaccinated or there are other medical issues that they\u2019re having, they call those co-morbidities. So we\u2019ve been pretty safe.<\/p>\n

The other issue is that in a structured environment like education versus unstructured environments, in particular the home, the transmission rate in post-secondary has been incredibly low. It\u2019s probably been the lowest in the system, across all areas, so we\u2019ve been lucky, and we\u2019ve been able to deliver education. So, does it make you nervous? Yes, because you always want to make sure you\u2019re keeping employees and students safe. But I think we\u2019ve done okay.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lane Trotter is the new president of Camosun College (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You mentioned to me you have a student-governance background. When and where?<\/i><\/p>\n

College of New Caledonia, 1983, 1984, something like that. I had a chance to work on student government and see things from the students\u2019 side, and I did that for two years before finishing CNC and eventually going to UVic. I wasn\u2019t involved in student government at UVic; I was focused on my studies getting done.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s an interesting perspective that you bring to the presidential position.<\/i><\/p>\n

Sometimes we forget: why are we here? Students. First, last, we\u2019re here for students. As we\u2019re taking a look at how we support students, it\u2019s what are their needs? What are the things we can do to help improve things? And looking at the pandemic right now, it\u2019s made it a lot more challenging for students. There\u2019s a report on the BC Centre for Disease Control\u2019s site talking about the impacts of online learning. Now, we\u2019ve had online learning for a long time, but that social isolation that has come has really impacted young people, so that drives the need for in-person learning. In the end, what we\u2019re doing is we\u2019re offering an opportunity on the college side for everybody. And so, again, for me, seeing it from the other side, from when I was in student government, are we doing the best that we can for students? And that\u2019s always what we have to ask, every single day. How do we increase our graduation rates? How do we make sure we have supports for students? How do we make sure we make it easy for students? And I think if we come back to that as our guiding principle, I think we can\u2019t go too far wrong.<\/p>\n

Students air their grievances to us, so we hear a lot about student debt, we hear a lot about the cost of textbooks, tuition rates. What do you plan on doing to make life easier on students who might be experiencing financial strain?<\/i><\/p>\n

First, I can relate to the student-debt issue very clearly. When I was at UVic, I had one course, and this is more than 30 years ago, 35 years ago, I spent $160\u2014I still remember it\u2014on a textbook that we cracked once. $160. Even now, that\u2019s a large amount of money for a student; back then, that was a… I still have that book. I\u2019m like, really? So that\u2019s why I think the province\u2019s initiatives on open textbook has been really good. The more that we can do with that reduces the cost for students.<\/p>\n

The actual largest cost for students isn\u2019t tuition. It\u2019s living costs. We do keep our tuition affordable but that\u2019s why we also look at making sure grants, bursaries, trying to get more of those, working with the province. One of the things the province did for at least the provincial part of student-loan debt is keeping it interest-free. When I graduated from UVic, I had a debt load of, imagine this, $16,600. They say right now the average debt load when you graduate is about $25,000. My interest rate was 10.5 percent. That took me 12 years to pay off. So for our students, I absolutely get it, and we\u2019re not going to be trying to gouge our students, that\u2019s just not going to happen.<\/p>\n

When you take a look at our cost of tuition versus, say, other sectors of higher education, we\u2019re pretty affordable. And we want to keep it that way, because we\u2019re open access, we\u2019re that first chance for that first-generation learner to get into post-secondary to explore where they want to go. We\u2019re the chance for marginalized groups to look at what do they want to explore and what are the supports that they need. On the debt issue, we need to try to keep it down so when students graduate, they don\u2019t start going out to work and then they\u2019re weighed down by a debt that makes it impossible for them to find their dream.<\/p>\n

The other piece to that is we as a community sometimes send mixed signals to government. We want services at a low or zero cost, but we don\u2019t want to pay the taxes. So how do we talk to the government about that? And we need students. We talk to government all the time, but we need the voice of students there, because government really does listen to students, and so that becomes important to say: how do we continue to try to keep education affordable, or more affordable? And we need students to be working with us in that.<\/p>\n

What does that look like? It\u2019s one thing to just say \u201cwe need students to work with us,\u201d but how can they actually do that?<\/i><\/p>\n

I think the first thing is through student government, and student governments working together to speak to government to say, okay, great, we like that it\u2019s 2 percent per year, we\u2019d like it to be free like some other jurisdictions but that means then government has to allocate more money. We talk to government all the time about that, and government\u2019s actually pretty responsive at the provincial level. Keeping in mind, people say, well, the federal government should do something about it, well, federal government does transfer money to the province, but education is a provincial matter.<\/p>\n

So we need to continue to let government know these are the challenges that we have, that the colleges are here for everybody, we\u2019re not just for an elite group, we\u2019re here for everybody and we need to make sure that we keep it affordable so that when a student does their one or two or four years with us that they can get out, they can get that transfer to another institution, get that first job, do a career change, and they\u2019re not saddled down with debt.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about environmental issues. We hear a lot about environmental concerns at the college from students, particularly with single-use plastics. How much of a priority for you, coming into this job, are environmental issues?<\/i><\/p>\n

I think the college has done an incredible job with this. The board is looking at a climate emergency: how do we as an institution deal with that? So what are the practices we follow for sustainability? How do we reduce our footprint? One of the ways we\u2019ve done that is moving over to LED lighting, so, less electrical draw. As we move over to electric cars, we\u2019re going to see a bigger demand on the grid, and that means how do we reduce it so we\u2019re not damming more rivers, we\u2019re not\u2014god forbid\u2014putting in nuclear power? So we\u2019re moving forward with things like LED lighting, making sure that the buildings are following net zero or making sure that we insulate buildings appropriately. With respect to recyclables, paper, making sure that we can recycle it, looking at composting, on plastics, we can do our part to that, but the one thing is that when we have plastics, if they\u2019re going into garbage… If you look around us, we have different types of recycling bins. We need everybody to, rather than throw it on the ground, put it in the recyling bin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I noticed on the Camosun site, it said that you have given papers and presentations on many topics, one of which was academic freedom. Tell me a bit about what that means to you.<\/i><\/p>\n

Academic freedom and higher education go hand in hand. I can get into all the technical stuff and you\u2019ll probably be bored to tears, but it goes back to the creation of what\u2019s called the German Humboldt research university model, and you had a concept called lehrfreiheit<\/i> and lernfreiheit<\/i>. I\u2019m not German and I\u2019m probably mispronouncing those names, but lehrfreiheit<\/i> was the ability of the teacher to teach the materials based on their research and transmit that information to students, and lernfreiheit<\/i> was the ability of the student to learn unimpeded from the teacher. Germany used that in the 19th century to drive for economic development. That then modelled a change that was adopted in western universities in the United States, in the UK, and the rest of the world, where academic freedom came in as the ability for the researcher to ask difficult questions, to pursue the truth, regardless of where it went, and not have to worry about consequences.<\/p>\n

The obligations that went with that was when you were publishing those papers you could show that you had done your research, that you could show that you had your research materials on that. It wasn\u2019t a blank cheque to say or do anything, because in some circles there\u2019s a belief that academic freedom means that as an academic I\u2019m learned about everything. So academic freedom as we\u2019ve looked at is that ability to make sure that we can pass on knowledge from one generation to the next generation and not have to worry about external factors coming in to say, \u201cFire that person because they said something we disagree with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which you see happening more and more.<\/i><\/p>\n

That is one of the challenges that we do see, and so what\u2019s the balancing act on that where you have academic freedom and, in some cases, you have individuals who have been terminated for publishing their research? That\u2019s not what it was about. But there are areas in academic freedom, within a Canadian context, within our charter and within the laws that we have, that we absolutely comply with, and that\u2019s around hate speech. It doesn\u2019t say as an academic I can start spouting off nonsense. So that\u2019s a responsibility piece. It\u2019s trying to find a balancing act, and also making sure the focus is on education for students.<\/p>\n

Tell me a bit about your approach to the job in general. Sherri, for example, was very personable, all about the relationships, whereas other presidents have had different approaches. What\u2019s your approach in a nutshell?<\/i><\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s a difficult question because what I think it is may be totally different than how other people perceive it. I\u2019ve been told that I\u2019m very approachable, and I try to be. I like to do walkabouts. It\u2019s a little cool right now, but I like to do walkabouts. I want to get to know the community, and walkabouts is one of the ways to do it. It also lets me start learning the culture, and lets me start to get to know the people and what are people\u2019s aspirations. Because while I was president for eight years at Langara, so I have experience, and five years senior vice president before that at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, and ten and a half years before that as a dean at BCIT, so I have experience, but every institution\u2019s unique. For me, the only way you get to know the institution is to meet the people and the students. So the opportunity to speak with you this morning is fantastic because it\u2019s how I learn, as well. As you\u2019re asking me these questions, it also lets me know what\u2019s being talked about within the student community, and those are the things that then I can pay attention to and look for.<\/p>\n

The one thing that I ask for, with anybody, if people disagree with me, tell me why. That\u2019s how I learn. All I ask for is civility. You don\u2019t have to like me, you don\u2019t have to agree with me, but we need to be civil in how we engage in our discussions. Especially in the academy or in higher education, so we can look for common solutions, to deal with these tough questions, and some you\u2019ve already raised, around tuition, around how do we deal with the environment. So, if we can\u2019t be civil with each other, then how do we solve issues, because I learn from what I don\u2019t know. Help me learn what I don\u2019t know. Or correct any errors in some of my assumptions. If we can do that together, we\u2019re all going to be further ahead.<\/p>\n

Another tough topic: reconciliation. I know this is important to you, it was very important to Sherri. You hear people talk about it, but what\u2019s it really look like to you? Day to day here on campus, what does it really mean, as opposed to just saying \u201cIt\u2019s important to me.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a checkbox. First, I think we have to expand that to say not just reconciliation, but truth and reconciliation. And the reason we have to do that is that given what we just found out coming out of Williams Lake, what we found out last summer coming out of Kamloops and other provinces, we\u2019re going to find a lot more in the next couple of years, and, again, unless we talk about that and unless we\u2019re absolutely honest, we\u2019re not going to make progress because the only way you can move forward is by addressing what has happened.<\/p>\n

Camosun has been a leader for the past 30 years in Indigenous education. So I\u2019m going to be learning a lot over the next couple of years. I\u2019d like to be here for a while. And I\u2019m not going to be the expert. I think I\u2019ll take my lead from working with Indigenous leaders here, with the 11 First Nations, with the Metis community, with the urban Indigenous community, about how do we move forward?<\/p>\n

We need to work on our Indigenization and ways of knowing and build that in, and we also have to talk about what has happened. How do you justify unmarked graves for children? It\u2019s reprehensible, it\u2019s wrong, and how we move forward is we need to address that and we need to recognize that happened, because if we don\u2019t recognize it, it will happen again. We humans are very malleable, very fallible, so we need to talk about things.<\/p>\n

So what do I see Indigenization looking like? I think I\u2019ll take my lead from the Indigenous community, but it means that when somebody who is from an Indigenous background comes to this college, they feel very comfortable. It doesn\u2019t feel like an alien experience. But that should be for all our learners. It should be welcoming for all our learners. And, again, going back to that issue of academic freedom, this is a topic that for faculty who are talking about this, they should be able to speak about it freely, so that we can engage in honest conversations about what\u2019s happened and how do we address it?<\/p>\n

What, for you, are going to be some challenges going into this job? What\u2019s kept you up at night?<\/i><\/p>\n

The biggest challenge is always getting to know the culture. [Management consultant and writer Peter Drucker] says that culture eats strategy for breakfast. So you can come in with your best plans, your massive strategy, but if it\u2019s alien to the culture of the organization, it\u2019s not going to be successful. So it\u2019s learning the culture. It\u2019s also what are the things that are included or not included, because people will say, \u201cit\u2019s this,\u201d but it\u2019s not really that. And it\u2019s how do you accidentally step into areas where people say, \u201cThat just does not fit within our culture.\u201d You can say there are commonalities across our society, yes, and across institutions, yes, but every institution, at least the ones I\u2019ve been at, has unique things, so that\u2019s what I have to spend the next little while learning and taking the time to do it appropriately.<\/p>\n

Is it difficult coming from Langara, BCIT, and coming to a new institution?<\/i><\/p>\n

Yes, you\u2019re drinking from a firehose and learning about the institution, but then you\u2019re also looking at what are the things that the institution values, what are the things that everybody who has been here for a while just knows, but somebody coming in who\u2019s new just doesn\u2019t? You have to take the time to do that before you start saying, okay, we\u2019re going to change this, we\u2019re going to change that.<\/p>\n

Sherri did an amazing job, so I\u2019m so lucky to be stepping in. She left very big shoes to fill [laughs], which is a bit intimidating, but Sherri was one of the people I looked to when I was at Langara, and there were two others I looked to as well, we talked to each other about the difficult conversations we have internally. And so I\u2019ve learned a lot from that, but I just need to be patient to get to know the institution, not to say I\u2019m going to wait two years, because there are some things we do need to do, but I need to spend the time to get to know people and not just tell people what to do. That\u2019s not my job. People say as the president what you decree is law. That\u2019s the farthest thing… I\u2019m a steward, and my job is to take an amazing institution that was passed on to me and, at some point, my successor, I want to make sure that I do the same for them, in a respectful manner that fits with the direction of it.<\/p>\n

An immediate challenge, of course, is funding. That for us, as an institution, is a challenge. We have a structural deficit that we need to address. So we\u2019re starting to have discussions about how do we do that. But that\u2019s not just Camosun\u2019s issue, that\u2019s across the board. But it is one that we need to address.<\/p>\n

The other one, longer-term, and it\u2019s not a problem but this is one reason why I\u2019m excited to be here, is the signature student learning experience. So let me just expand it without a lot of detail, because the detail will fill in later. When the colleges were created, we were created with education, so we\u2019ll give you some education and you\u2019ll either go on for further studies or you\u2019ll get a job. In the 1980s, we started adding in co-op. Isn\u2019t that an amazing thing? Work experience to go with learning that you have, so you get applied learning experience. So we do that, now that\u2019s been expanded and now the concept is called work-integrated learning. So, internships, externships, volunteer opportunities and all that which can enhance the learning that that student has.<\/p>\n

The next one that we\u2019re now starting to look at which is going to make sure that our students, when they leave, are ready is applied research or innovation. So, in applied research, the term \u201cresearch\u201d causes so much confusion. In a college setting, we\u2019re not talking about innovation and knowledge, that\u2019s what the universities do, they push the boundaries of new knowledge. We\u2019re innovation in practice. We push the bounds of existing knowledge and how do you do it better?<\/p>\n

So the universities might say, look, we\u2019re going to solve this problem, quantum computing, in 10 years or fusion in 10 or 20 or 30 years. What we do is we have local employers or we have community groups that have a problem, how can we help solve it? How can we get our students involved so that they can take their education, they can take their applied learning that\u2019s come through co-op or other forms of work-integrated learning and then we apply the applied research, that innovation, so they\u2019re combining all three together? So when they\u2019re leaving here, they\u2019re thinking about things they can do to make a difference, whether it\u2019s to the environment, whether it\u2019s to sustainable practice, whether it\u2019s keeping our communities healthy and safe, whether it\u2019s the creation of new jobs. So that\u2019s what we\u2019re looking at for the future.<\/p>\n

So how do we do it? What does that look like? Those are some of the discussions I want to engage in to make sure that Camosun becomes that college of choice. It\u2019s this amazing institution, and that\u2019s what brought me back. My wife and I moved away 24 years ago with two young kids, a four-and-a-half year old, and a nine month old. And now we\u2019re back. And there are only a few institutions that I would want to be at, and I\u2019ve worked at those institutions. So I have to tell you, I\u2019m very lucky to be here, and what I\u2019d like to do is continue to build on what Sherri, faculty, staff, and students have done to make sure that, again, students are the focus of why we exist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell me a bit about Lane the person. I know you\u2019re a Mustang guy. What are you all about?<\/i><\/p>\n

[Laughs] Yeah, I love my Ford Mustangs. Since I was a kid, it\u2019s just something about the design and shape of a Ford Mustang. I\u2019ve had six of them. There\u2019s just something mystical or mythical about the car. I\u2019m in the car, top is down, stress goes away. I just like them. Mustangs are great, I know some people would love their Ferrari or whatever; I\u2019ll stick with my Mustangs.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re in the Mustang, cruising around with the top down, what\u2019s on the stereo?<\/i><\/p>\n

AC\/DC.<\/p>\n

Good answer.<\/i><\/p>\n

Back in Black<\/i>. Highway to Hell<\/i>.<\/p>\n

What are some other bands in your collection?<\/i><\/p>\n

So other bands, if you go into the \u201880s, I\u2019ve got lots of the \u201880s music… There\u2019s this interesting new wave versus the harder rock. But more recently, the new stuff I\u2019m getting into is Theory of a Deadman, I actually saw them in concert, which I really liked. But if you go into my albums, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers or just Tom Petty, The Law, really old album so that\u2019ll be obscure. Jack Green, British rocker, had four albums out, so I have all those albums. You could call it power-pop. Of course, Canadian: April Wine. Now I\u2019m really dating myself… Tom Cochrane and Red Ryder. Some of the Aussie bands\u2014Angel City. Then I have some Mozart and some other things; it\u2019s eclectic. But when the top\u2019s down in the Mustang, it\u2019s AC\/DC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 1 of this year, Lane Trotter replaced Sherri Bell as president of Camosun College. Trotter is stepping in while the COVID-19 pandemic continues, but if he\u2019s worried about it, he\u2019s not letting it show: when we meet to chat on a chilly morning in late January, Trotter seems comfortable and confident in his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-february-9-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22094"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22135,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22094\/revisions\/22135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}