Just a week after being placed on administrative leave, Dianne Van Hook penned a retirement letter to tie a bow on her 36 years in charge of College of the Canyons.
“As I am retiring from my 36 years at COC, I want to convey to you that it has been the honor of my life to work alongside you, get to know you, and see the amazing things that can be accomplished when people put their minds, hearts and hard work into collaborating, inspiring creativity and staying focused on what helps students develop the confidence in themselves to explore their potential and achieve their dreams,” Van Hook wrote in an email sent to college staff late Monday evening.
The former COC chancellor was removed from that position through a unanimous decision by the Santa Clarita Community College District board of trustees, which oversees the college. The board named David Andrus, a longtime political science professor and former president of the Academic Senate at the college, as her interim replacement.
No reason was given for Van Hook’s placement on leave. Board President Edel Alonso asked college staff at a meeting with Andrus last week not to ask her or the other trustees about the decision, saying it is a personnel matter that would be illegal for them to discuss.
First hired to lead COC in 1988, Van Hook told The Signal last year that she had always envisioned the college as being a challenger to the local California State University and University of California campuses.
And while COC is a community college — albeit one with 248 degree and certificate programs and two separate campuses taking up nearly a million square feet in the Santa Clarita Valley — it serves nearly 30,000 students, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office website, close to double the average California State University’s student population and less than 3,000 fewer than nearby Cal State Northridge.
Van Hook credited the “Better Together” theme that was introduced at the college for helping to get it to where it is today.
“College of the Canyons is a model institution of higher education today. Why? Because people at COC bring magic with them and, as a result, this is a place of higher education that inspires those who dare to dream and has redefined what community college can be for its students,” Van Hook wrote in her retirement letter. “Because of the selfless work that so many here do every day, over many decades, College of the Canyons has grown into a top-tier institution at which hundreds of talented people have chosen to work. That certainly was why I wanted to work here. It was always my dream to work at COC. When I first ‘met’ COC in 1983, it was a very small community college. When I returned in 1988 as president — after applying three times — because I wanted to work at this community college, it was a high-quality institution, but only 19 years old and with still much growth, development and potential ahead.”
Since taking over the college, Van Hook has seen the budget grow from $8 million to $270 million and the number of faculty rise three-fold to 220. Her work with the COC Foundation has also led to a rise in fundraising, from $109,000 annually to $1.4 million, while grant funding has also increased annually from $100,000 per year to $16 million.
Van Hook wrote that she and her late husband, Roger, both considered themselves fortunate to work with people who wanted to see COC grow like they did.
“Few people have an opportunity to work in a place that they truly like. Few people have an opportunity to build things from scratch. Few people have a chance to help build teams that become better together than they were alone, and few people have an opportunity to design, and dream, and DO,” Van Hook wrote. “I count my blessings every day and consider myself privileged to have been able to work with incredible people to create opportunities for our students and our community at every turn.
“Please accept my sincere gratitude, respect and appreciation to all of you who have brought joy into my life, who have invited me into yours, and who have made me so proud of being associated with College of the Canyons,” she continued. “It has been an honor and a privilege, and I wish you only the best.”