PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College’s new president, Luke Robins, was welcomed officially at a reception attended by more than 100 members of the staff, faculty and community members last week. Fall classes begin today.
The Thursday reception was in the amphitheater outside Keegan Hall, held under blue skies, with music from the Peninsula College Jazz ensemble and Twisted Roots, an acoustic duo.
Attendees — including college trustees Julie McCulloch, Mike Maxwell and Erik Rohrer as well as state Rep. Steve Tharinger of the 24th District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula, and Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeffery Robb — chatted with Robins on the patio or lounged in the sun on the grassy hillside.
“We brought this weather from Louisiana,” Robins joked. “We’re holding on to it with both hands, but you better hurry and enjoy it because we are losing our grip.”
Robins and his wife, Mary Jane Robins, arrived in Port Angeles in July.
He takes the helm after Tom Keegan, who was president of the college from 2001 until March 2012, left to lead Skagit Valley College.
“This is the beginning of the second 50 years,” Robins said, adding he intends to help make them just as successful as the first.
Summer was quiet on the campus, Robins said, a respite that lasted until the past few weeks.
Mary Jane Robins said she and her husband have been able to visit local landmarks, including Hurricane Ridge and Lake Crescent.
That early quiet time made the transition easier and gave them time to settle in and get to know the community and the staff, Luke Robins said.
McCulloch said Robins is fitting in well at the college and in the community.
“I’ve been very pleased,” she said. “Since his arrival here in July, he has been meeting with as many people and many groups as possible.”
A good listener, Robins has taken what he has heard from those meetings and is making use of it, she said.
Robins was chancellor of Louisiana Delta Community College — a two-year college in Monroe, La., with 2,700 enrolled students — from 2006 until he resigned to take the Peninsula College position in June.
More than 6,000 students were enrolled at Peninsula College in 2011-12.
During Robins’ tenure at Louisiana Delta — which opened its main campus in 2001 — the school received full initial accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and admitted its first nursing program class.
Robins has served as executive vice president and chief academic officer at National Park Community College in Hot Springs, Ark., and as dean of instruction at Eastern Idaho Technical College in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
He received his doctorate in educational administration with a specialty in community college leadership from the University of Texas at Austin; his master’s in English, community college teaching track, from Illinois State University in Normal, Ill.; and his bachelor’s in Christian education from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill.
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
