Butte College president announces retirement
BUTTE VALLEY » Butte College President and Superintendent Samia Yaqub announced Tuesday that she will be retiring effective June 30, 2022 after 37 years of serving the Butte College community.
Yaqub began as an instructional aid at the school’s learning center and in classrooms for English as a second language as well as assisting students with writing. She quickly fell in love with the work at the community college level, helping students discover a first, second, third and sometimes fourth chance in education. Yaqub taught English as a second lan- guage and developmental reading and writing for 15 years, later serving as the vice president for student learning and economic development.
For the last six years Yaqub has served in her current role as president and superintendent and served as interim president for one year prior to being hired permanently. Yaqub said retirement has been something on her mind for a while and right now feels like a good time.
“I had a timeframe in mind and I certainly did not want to leave when the college was going through a crisis. That was very clear to me,” Yaqub said Tuesday. “We’re completing our accreditation, our self study, we’ll have our site visit in March and I’m anticipating a smooth process there. We’re at a good point.”
Yaqub added Butte College is in a “hold harmless agreement” in terms of funding with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office which will last 3 to 4 more years, providing the next president with a period of time to work before needing to make some “difficult financial decisions” in 2025-26.
“We have this time to rebuild our enrollment, connect with the community, it’s a good time for somebody new to be coming in,” Yaqub said.
However Yaqub stressed that her retirement is still nine months away and she is making the announcement early solely for the fact that it takes a long time for an institution to choose a new president and she wants to ensure the process is inclusive and Butte College gets a good person as its new leader.
When asked about her plans for retirement, Yaqub hinted at travel plans with her husband once times become safer, but she insisted she hasn’t given that much thought with one and a half semesters still as president.
“I’ve got so much to do before then no time to think about that right now,” she said. “I’m not planning to go for another nine months, almost a full year. There’s a lot to do and that’s what I’m focused on. I’m not focused on leaving at this point I just had to announce it early. I hope that message comes loud and clear.”
In her time at Butte College, Yaqub said the growth both physically and academically has been most noticeable. She said at her start Butte College was a small college and felt like a very small community. When she began, many classes and campus operations were in trailers and no solar panels were present. There was no Chico location, and recently the college broke ground on a new location in Orland.
“We’ve got so many new programs, so many new services for students. We’ve really matured as an institution,” Yaqub said.
In an interview Tuesday, Yaqub said she will miss the people on campus most.
“I love the people out here. We’ve got a great faculty and staff; we have great students. It’s such a pleasure to walk around and talk with people, see how they’re doing and see the changes we make in peoples’ lives everyday,” Yaqub said. “I’m going to miss that.”
Butte College said in a press release the Butte College board of trustees will begin a formal and comprehensive search process for the college’s new president in the upcoming months, with plans to announce the next president by summer of 2022.
Yaqub will not be involved in the hiring process of the new president. The board of trustees will have a committee which will include a large amount of faculty and staff from the college.
The trustees is comprised of seven publicly elected officials and one student elected by the student body. A list of board members can be found by visiting https://bit.ly/3aabD24.