Page M10 May 30,1990. This Week

PROFILE _

Student numbers doubled during
presidency of Dr. Howard Petch

BY JOHN STANTON
e’s the longest-serving president of any Canadian
university and this summer Dr. Howard Petch hands
over the baton to his successor, Dr. David Strong,
former head of Memorial University in Newfoun-

dland.

Since he took up the post at the University of Victoria more
than 15 years ago Howard Petch has presided over a period of
significant growth, both enrolment and physical expansion of
campus facilities, as well as a period of severe government

restraint.

The number of students has
more than doubled to approxi-
mately 11,000 from 5,000 un-
der Petch’s administration.

A number of buildings hous-
ing various faculties were also
constructed during his ten-
ure, and in the last three
years provincial government
funding has increased satis-
factorily, he said.

But campus life for Petch at
UVic was not always comfort-
able.

When he first arrived he
found a lot of antagonism di-
rected toward the administra-
tion.

“T had never before experi-
enced such strong anti-
administration feeling and
the lack of trust,” he said.

“I was hassled a lot. At first
I took it personally. I thought
‘why are these people at me
like this?’ ”

He had walked into a highly
confrontational atmosphere.
Finally discovering that it
was not him but the office of
president the various campus
interest groups were railing
against, he started working
with them and within 18
months stability reigned at

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There was a feeling during
the turmoil, as he put it, that
the university could not get
its act together, with the aca-
demic community perceiving

-UWVic was a minor player Gn

academia), he said.

“What I didn’t realize was
that the university had be-
come very highly politicized
and a lot of people saw them-
selves as a sort of opposition
to the president.”

“Now we are confident, en-
ergetic and innovative. I think
there is no doubt we're accept-
ed as one of Canada’s major
universities,” he said.

To become a heavyweight in
the academic world the facul-
ty members must do good
research and teaching, in fact
it should become a pre-
occupation. If people are up-
set they just cannot produce,
according to Petch.

Another unhappy period
was during the restraint era
imposed by the Bill Bennett
government in 1983 and in
succeeding years.

With his experience at
McMaster University, a Bap-
tist run school which was al-

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ways short of cash and where
he worked before coming to
the west coast, Petch was able
to balance the books at UVic,
however that wasn’t the worst
of it.

“But it was the terrible at-
mosphere in government
which I found unbelievably
bad. And there was an awful
lot of pressure put very per-
sonally on the presidents (of
B.C.’s three universities) to

try to force them to close
elements of the universities.”

He believed there was a
need for fiscal restraint be-
cause costs had risen and it
was time for belt-tighening in
government.

“It (restraint) started out
quite honestly, but then it sort
of turned, I thought, into a
sort of witchhunt .. . the
government was out to get
certain groups and the uni-

DR. HOWARD PETCH

versities were one of the
groups that were trying to be
gotten.”

“You didn’t feel you could
talk openly about what was

' going on,” he said.

“J would be totally dishon-

est, if I said I enjoyed that
period.” :
_ The positive aspect to all
this negativity was a bonding
among all employees. Woking
relations among the adminis-
tration, faculty association
and the unionized workers
was probably highest during
that period.

When asked about his ma-
jor accomplishment, he re-
flected for only a moment
then replied that the Co-
operative Education program
is among the most significant
areas of endevour.

“Co-operative education is
where the students alternate
between four months at the
university and four months in
a business and industry set-
ting where the job is very
closely related to their aca-
demic program,” he said.

Petch estimates that in
three years, 20 per cent of the
students will be working in
that environment. Be

After toiling for more than
40 years in the academic
world Petch has a few
thoughts about the qualities
needed to make an effective
university president.

“If you're looking for one
single quality (in a candidate)
you're making a big mistake.
What you need is balance.”

The biggest challenge for
anyone in that position of au-
thority is to try and resolve
any personnel problems right
away and thoroughly.

“Take all the time it re-
quires. Never deal with it su-
perficially to get it out of the
way. Make a good judgement
on it.”

As for his retirement years
that begin this summer, gar-
dening, bird watching and
reading are priorities as well
as continuing to work with
‘people.
| “T would like to do some-
thing to help people basically.
I think I still have things to
offer.”

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