Marshall resigns as president
By Kelsey Hipkin
Dave Marshall in his office. Marshall has resigned after eight years as President of MRU. Photo by Kelsey Hipkin
Education is in Dave Marshall’s blood.
He’s been a dean of education, a professor of education, a director of the Government, a high school teacher, an educational consultant and, for the last eight years, Marshall has been at the helm of Mount Royal University.
The current president announced May 10 that he would be resigning as of June 30, 2011.
“You know I think, I’d say after 21 straight years as a president and 40 years as an educator I think it’s maybe time for me to take a pause and reflect a little so I’m certainly going to have some more family time,” he said from his office at MRU.
After helping to convert an Ontario college into a university Marshall was approached by the then named Mount Royal College to do the same here in Calgary.
“We’re tremendously grateful for the inspired leadership and vision Dave offered the institution at a crucial time,” said Cathy Williams, chair of the Mount Royal Board of Governors in a press release.
“Mount Royal’s transformation into a scholarly informed university required an equal blend of perseverance, collegiality, tenacity, advocacy, persuasiveness and dogged determination, as well as someone who was an exceptional communicator,” she said.
Marshall attributed a lot of the success behind the university conversion to the staff of the university itself.
“Mount Royal is just full of wonderful people, enthusiastic, hardworking. I mean everybody at Mount Royal did this work over and above their day job they still had to run a great, great college and at the same time complete the transformation to a university they did that all basically on overtime,” he said.
Marshall said that life after MRU could include a foray into writing as he has a couple ideas for two books, one about how to change an organization (from a college to a university) and another on undergraduate education.
“I think those are my two passions, I’d like to write a little more about it,” he said adding that he’ll be able to, “take time to do things you don’t have time to do when you’re running a university.”
Media Relations Officer, Fred Cheney said that he is looking forward to seeing who can fill Marshall’s big shoes. According to the press release MRU’s Board of Governors will be establishing a committee to conduct an international search for a new president.
Dave Marshall definitely did what he promised, turning Mount Royal into a university. And, yes, he was a great figurehead for the school; however, I believe sometime over the past 2-3 three years Mount Royal has strayed from its roots and lost sight of the individual student. Let’s hope his replacement can combine the concept of MRU with the attention to quality exemplified by MRC.