Lane Trotter

President & CEO

Langara College president and CEO Lane Trotter's cardboard cutout outside of his office. Jey SHANNON PHOTO

Langara College community wants the next
president to be interactive and transparent

ByJEN SHANNON

ith the departure
of Langara College
president and CEO
Lane Trotter, the
search to replace him is heating up.

Trotter announced his depar-
ture in July, after nearly eight years
at Langara. He will be moving to
Camosun College in Victoria to be
closer to his family.

During his time at Langara, Trot-
ter has overseen the development
of two academic and two strate-
gic plans. Under his leadership, the

college worked on interna-

theatre student at Langara, said he
wants the incoming president to
get to know the students and their
needs.

“An ex-student would be
awesome,” said Martinez, who
thinks the president should under-
stand the busy schedule students
have and the breaks students need.

Jordan Schoenenberger, a fifth-
year political science student, said
he wants the next president to make
classes more affordable.

“Ideally [they'd be] an outsider
who will run it as a place to educate
rather than to make money,”

ara since 2009, and during that time,
she said she’s noticed a pattern of
Langara presidents failing to inter-
act with people across the college.

“Talk to some people around you,”
she said. “That makes a huge differ-
ence with people, because then they
begin to feel that there’s a connec-
tion.”

Darren Bernaerdt, acting dean of
arts at Langara, wants a president
who connects with the external
community.

“People want to be involved. They
want to be heard,” he said. “And I
think, like a lot of areas of society ...

people want transparency.”

tionalization and enhanc- “People want to be ; Bemnaerdt is also look-
ing programs and services . ing for Langara’s next
for Indigenous students. involved. They want to president to prioritize
Mees his presidency the be heard and I think, rangara’s commitment

usqueam Nation gave . to the recommenda-
Langara the name snaweyat like alot of areas of tions from the Truth and
‘elon, which translates to society... people want Reconciliation Commis-

ouse of teachings. " sion.

Trotter said he believes PHOTO COURTESY OF transparency. “We have been chal-
his successor’s biggest chal- DARREN BERNAERDT ~ DARREN BERNAERDT lenged to respond [to the]

lenge will be overseeing the

new normal in the college’s
operations since the COVID-19
pandemic began.

“There will be differences in how
society, including post-secondary
institutions, operates,” Trotter said.
“What this looks like is still to be
determined.”

Trotter’s advice for his successor is
to take the time to learn the culture
and meet the people of Langara
before making any assumptions.

“This is critical if you are going to
be successful,” said Trotter, adding
that he hopes his replacement will
be a good communicator.

Brian Martinez, a second-year

LT: "That it continues to be a suc-
cessful college and the number one
transfer college in Canada."

Schoenenberger said.

Some college administration
members also want a president who
interacts with the college commu-
nity.

Marianne Gianacopoulos, Lang-
ara’s division chair of management
programs, said visibility is critical for
a president.

“And by that I mean being seen,
interacting and getting involved
with what’s happening around the
campus with different groups and
getting away from time spent with
the senior leadership team,” she said.

Gianacopoulos has been at Lang-

LT: "One of the challenges when |
joined was finding out there was a
projected deficit in the development
of the budget."

calls to action. I think we
need to deliver on those
actions,” he said.

Trotter’s last day as president will
be Friday. The search committee is
currently interviewing candidates
to fill the position. Vice-president
external Yusuf Varachia will be
taking on the role as acting presi-
dent in the interim.

The search will end with the selec-
tion of Langara’s next president in
December. The presidential search
committee is composed of Langara
staff, a student representative and
ministry-appointed members.

“I just wish the students and
employees all the best,” Trotter said.

LT: "A person with a broad range
and depth of experiences ata
senior level who can provide leader-
ship."

TBA math prof
a turn-off when
registering

Unlisted teachers
during sign-up
angers many

By ALAINA SAINT AMOUR

A by the Langara mathe-
matics and statistics depart-
ment not to list instructors
during registration has upset some
students.

During registration for spring
2022, more instructors than usual are
listed TBA, or “to be announced,”
for some multi-section math courses.

The change hasn't gone unnoticed
by students. Jesse Rose, a student in
the computer science program, has
taken many math classes. He said
the change frustrates him. He said
students may be compelled to take
classes with teachers they don’t
prefer.

“I feel like they finally realized
that they can’t force students to
take courses from these teachers
that nobody likes,” Rose said.
“So this is their way of dealing
with that.”

Listing some instructors
as TBA during registra-
tion is normal due to
scheduling conflicts,
but the number
of unlisted math
instructors is
higher than in
past years.

Melisa
Lavallee,
math-
emat-
ics and
statistics student adviser, said the
change is being made to see if it eases
congestion as students queue up for
certain classes, leaving others with
empty seats.

“We are finding an uneven distri-
bution in our class lists where some
classes are full with full waitlists
while others still have seats avail-
able. We are going to see ifthe TBA
helps alleviate this or if it’s more
time dependent rather than instruc-
tor dependent,” Lavallee said in an
email statement to The Voice.

Department of mathematics and
statistics chair Eugene Li said he is
waiting until the end of November,
well into registration, to post the
instructors’ names. He said that the
change in registration policy may
mirror the job industry after school.

<> “i

“College and university life should
[be] a little bit [of] a reflection of
the real world, right,” said Li. “You
cannot always have the same boss.”

A common way students choose
instructors is through websites like
Rate My Professors, which lets
students anonymously review and
comment on past instructors who
have taught them.

Sepideh Zaeri, a bioinformatics
student, said it’s very common for
students to rely on the reviews before
registering for classes.

“I can assure you 99 per cent of
students use [Rate My Professors],”
said Zaeri, based on conversations
she'd had with her peers.

Rate My Professors won't come
in handy for Zaeri’s spring classes.
She said all of her math courses are
listed as TBA.

Maja Grubisic, a Langara math
instructor, said reviews on Rate My
Professors are biased by nature.

She said ratings are influenced
by voluntary response sampling,
which is when someone chooses
to respond because they have a

strong opinion on the subject.
“It's usually going to be
students who had a really
good experience and those
who haven't. So it's the
two extremes, usually,
that kind of tend to
§ post opinions,” said

Grubisic.

But Grubisic
said she under-
stands why
students use it,
because it’s
one of the
==— only tools
they have.

“That is sort of the only avenue
that they can go down to at least give
them some sense of what they might
expect. Which is fair,” Grubisic said.

Rose said selecting an instructor is
one of the few choices students can
make about their courses.

“Knowing that I have to take this
class, and I have to take it this semes-
ter with a certain instructor or with
who-knows which instructor, it feels
like that takes power away from me
in the choice that I do have,” said
Rose.

For now, the registration change is
a trial run. Li said he wants to see if
it alleviates any issues and will follow
the format again depending on how
it goes.

— With files from Emily Lyth, Christi Walter

and Jan Bevilacqua

A student uses a calculator on her math homework. AL4iNA SAINT AMOUR PHOTO