As a teacher and administrator, Scott McAlpine has sat on many a stage as wave after wave after wave of students walked by to collect their diplomas.

There’s one ceremony, however, that stands out for the new president of Douglas College.

It was at Grande Prairie Regional College in Alberta. A mature nursing student spotted McAlpine as she crossed the stage. She had been part of a program that allowed her to go to school when previously, for various family and work reasons, she wasn’t able to attend. McAlpine, during his 20 years at GPRC, had helped negotiate many such collaborative agreements. This student, however, made him burst with pride. McAlpine says, “without a word of a lie she was my best student.” He stood up and she gave him a great, big hug.

“When you see the students crossing that stage after four years, when many of them would have been unable to leave Grande Prairie or get out of the north and earn a degree, it is very, very moving,” McAlpine says.

Since Douglas College prides itself on being accessible, negotiating collaborative agreements is an attribute McAlpine believes he brings to his new position. In fact, Douglas is on the verge of announcing an agreement with Simon Fraser University that allows SFU students to take courses at Douglas while providing access to courses for DC students.

McAlpine arrived in August and since then, he has taken a crash course in all things Douglas. He oversees an $80-million budget and a growing student population of more than 9,500 at its campuses in Coquitlam and New Westminster.

“There are days when there is so much information coming through that it takes me a little bit of time at night to process,” he says. “But on the other side of it, it’s absolutely exhilarating, not overwhelming.”

Before replacing Susan Witter, who retired after 12 years at DC, McAlpine, a political scientist by training, held several positions at Grande Prairie, ranging from instructor to vice-president.

Even though he loves teaching, going from the classroom to the administrative boardroom means he can make a difference with his passion for publicly-funded education on a larger scale.

One of his first tasks at DC is developing a three- to five-year strategic plan for the college. It’s important for Douglas to find ways to attract and retain students in an increasingly competitive marketplace, he says, and to help lead in the economic recovery and restructuring of British Columbia.

“We don’t know exactly where it will end up but we do know nation states — such as China, such as Korea, such as India — we cannot compete with them on the basis of low-cost labour. We may be able to compete on the basis of resources, but even then it’s doubtful. So we’re going to have to compete on the basis of knowledge and know-how,” says McAlpine, who left for China on Sunday to hand out scholarships.

The struggling economy has actually meant an increase of 7.3% enrolment this year as adults, young and old, try to take advantage of opportunities.

McAlpine points to the diverse demographics, both in background and age, of the communities Douglas serves as well as Canada’s declining birth rate and decreasing enrolment in the area’s high schools as important issues for the college.

Public and private post-secondary education is a competitive business these days. While many B.C. community colleges have become universities in recent years, McAlpine takes exception to Douglas being labelled “just a college.” He feels Douglas, which has eight degree-granting programs, is in a better position to attract students as a college than new universities such as Capilano, Fraser Valley and Kwantlen Polytechnic.

“I think they have a bigger problem. Why would you go to Kwantlen versus SFU?” says McAlpine. “Are we worried about being a college? No, we’re excited to be a college.”

While the New Westminster campus is bursting at the seems, there’s unused capacity at the David Lam campus in Coquitlam. The planned Evergreen Line would help fill it up as well as relieve a huge traffic congestion problem at the campus.

That’s why DC administrators are showing up at some of the Evergreen Line presentations currently underway.

“It’s really going to matter in our ability to, in fact, use that capacity at David Lam, and it’s going to also assist in terms of offering a larger variety of courses because we can program courses up at David Lam that we are offering [in New Westminster] and have our students commute between the two campuses in relatively short order,” McAlpine says. “Moreover, people from outlying regions in Coquitlam and Burnaby and other communities can come to Douglas.”

• McAlpine’s recent speech on Douglas College’s strategic planning can be found at www.douglas.bc.ca/about/presidents-office.

THE PREZ FILE

Scott McAlpine

Age: 52

Born: Waterloo, Ont.

Current position: Appointed president of Douglas College in August 2009.

Resume: Served for more than 20 years at Grande Prairie Regional College in Alberta as political science instructor, chair of department of arts, commerce and education, dean of arts science and upgrading, acting vice-president (academic), leader integrated research unit, and managing editor of GPRC’s interdisciplinary journal Lobstick.

Degrees: BA economics and political science, Wilfred Laurier University (Waterloo); MA political science, WLU; PhD political science (Canadian politics and international relations), University of Calgary.

ggranger@tricitynews.com