About a decade before Fleetwood Mac cemented its place atop the pop music stratosphere with the release of the band's 1977 masterpiece Rumours – an album that's sold more than 40 million copies – it was a blues band.
Led by the enigmatic, and deeply troubled, guitar player Peter Green, Fleetwood Mac toured Europe incessantly in the late '60s, to great acclaim.
And Kwantlen Polytechnic University president Alan Davis, as a young undergraduate student at the University College of London, was lucky enough to see them play.
"It was very different back then. It was London in the '60s. When I was in university then, it was a party zone," said Davis.
"And I had a great time. I studied hard, but I had a great time – went to the theatre, concerts. I saw every major rock band of the era.
"The original Fleetwood Mac, they were amazing. I still have their albums. I still really enjoy listening to them."
By the early 1970s, that incarnation of the band was finished. And so, too, were Davis' days in London – he was headed west – way west – after accepting an offer to pursue graduate studies at Simon Fraser University (SFU).
At the time, Davis wasn't sure what he wanted to do for a career.
He was keenly interested in pursuing more education, and he had an aunt living on Vancouver Island, so shipping off to B.C. made sense.
A few years studying on the West Coast would make for an experience, if nothing else.
What he didn't realize was that the move would set him down a path to a lifetime in academics.
"You know, at the time, I thought 'Yeah, I'll give it a few years.' Vancouver in those days was such a beautiful place. It was a very small town, easy to get around. The hippy culture was here, and it was relaxed. It just all seemed easy. It made sense," he said.
"So I settled in for a while."
Although comfortable is how Davis felt upon his arrival in Vancouver, his career in academia has been anything but run of the mill. After completing his master's and doctorate in chemistry at SFU, he taught in the Fraser Valley for a while and then took a job with Open Learning Agency, now a department of Thompson Rivers University.
The Open Learning Agency was an innovative organization. It was focused on distance learning both in B.C. and across Canada and catered to adult learners with hectic work schedules. It was a pivotal experience for Davis, who learned first-hand the benefits and opportunities of inventive education models. Learning, as it turned out, could be defined in many novel ways.
"I enjoy being part of the underdog," said Davis.
"I remember when I first came out here, people advised me not to go to SFU because it was young and still trying to feel its way and establish itself. But it would be easy to settle in and be a part of an established university, but being on the edge is more enjoyable. That's been one of the defining features of my career."
Davis' exposure to the concepts and practices at the Open Learning Agency would prove critical in his future roles, first as vice-president of academics at Athabasca University, then with Empire State College, the distance- and online-focused wing of State University of New York.
Empire College, Davis said, broke all of the rules when it came to education. The college had no defined campuses; it had more than 30 learning centres located all over New York state. The learning centres were varied: some were small, comprised of only a few teachers and support staff while other centres, such as those in Manhattan, took up several floors of an office building.
There was no student pub, no athletics. And there was no need. What Empire State College did was cater to students of all ages, from all backgrounds – on their schedule. It was a giant undertaking, admitted Davis, as he was required to travel from centre to centre, but the achievements of the students, some of whom overcame very difficult pasts to return to school, was inspiring.
"Amazing stories of students who struggled through every difficulty you could imagine. Some had terrible experiences in high school; others were veterans wanting to change their lives," said Davis.
"They are heroes, all of them. The pride was amazing."
These days, Davis is again leading a complex, challenging position. But this one doesn't require him to criss-cross a state or a province. As the president of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Davis is intent on expanding the school and establishing Kwantlen as the "best polytechnic university in Canada."
"We're lucky because our name differentiates us. We're the only polytechnic university in Canada," said Davis, noting a polytechnic university is an institution rooted in both theoretical education and applied workforce development. "But I want that to mean something. I want to say 'we are the best and this is why.'"
If becoming an elite institution is what Davis wants, he's had a good start. This year, Kwantlen reached new heights with 14,382 students attending classes across the school's four campuses in Surrey, Richmond, Langley and Cloverdale, making it the fifth-largest post-secondary institution in the province. The school has also enjoyed partnerships with the Surrey Board of Trade and Chip and Shannon Wilson, founders of Lululemon Athletica (Nasdaq:LULU), who gave Kwantlen $12 million toward a new design school.
But there's more to come.
Davis said he plans on Kwantlen doubling its enrolment in the next 10 years, opening satellite campuses in places such as Surrey's Central City district and incorporating more technology in the classroom. Davis said he'd like to see lectures, where applicable, posted online so students can focus their classroom time on discussion of the lecture and working on assignments. The out-of-the-box lessons he learned with Empire State College and the Open Learning Agency are still with him.
By expanding Kwantlen's enrolment and transforming the conception of the classroom, Davis is confident Kwantlen will earn the title of best polytechnic university in the country, regardless of how many such institutions there are.
"Our destiny as a polytechnic university, is to be the university for Richmond. Kwantlen has to be Richmond's university," said Davis. "Then in Surrey – this is your university. The same mandate goes for Cloverdale and Langley. This is your university." •
