Peter MacDougall, Santa Barbara City College’s Longest-Serving President, Dies at 85

Peter MacDougall — the longest-serving superintendent/president of Santa Barbara City College history and in many ways the embodiment of the Golden Age for community colleges — died at age 85 on July 30. 

Preternaturally endowed with the retail skills of an old-school politician, MacDougall sent all of his employees notes on their birthdays and worked the room like no one else. A gifted listener with an exceptional memory and an ability to synthesize complex communications, MacDougall was clear about what he expected, and he made sure everyone else was too. 

“He was the velvet glove,” remembered current campus president Erika Endrijonas, who was hired by MacDougall in 2000. Her first day on the job was September 5. Her second day, September 6, happened to be her birthday. In her campus mailbox that day was a card from MacDougall (which he pronounced “Mack-Dougall,” with a very strong emphasis on the first syllable). 

“It makes a really big difference,” Endrijonas said — so much so, she added, that she’s made a point to replicate it in all three executive posts she’s held since. 

When MacDougall disagreed with you, she said, he was willing to explain his reasons. He was also open to persuasion. “But you better be prepared,” she said. 

Since MacDougall stepped down in 2002 after a 21-year run, nine presidents — six permanent and three interim ones — have filled his shoes. While his reign was remarkably stable and long lived, he served during a time when community college financing was remarkably stable as well.

City College emerged as a statewide magnet for students looking for a backdoor into the UC system; transfers from City College to UCSB were automatic. Adult-education programs flourished. The school’s culinary arts program boasted lunches that were the best-kept secrets hiding in plain sight in town. Enrollments went up. But during MacDougall’s reign, the politics of community college boards were significantly less fractious and campus politics in general considerably more placid. During MacDougall’s tenure, board meetings were the most boring show in town. There were no pandemics, the housing market was not so keenly on fire, and issues of equity and inclusion not nearly so urgently pressed. 

In Santa Barbara, MacDougall — with his big smile and broad Rhode Island accent — quickly emerged as a pillar of the community establishment. But as a community leader, he preached the mission of access and inclusion with an irresistible evangelical zeal. 

“He just believed in human potential,” Endrijonas said. “It was all ‘No barriers,’ and ‘Access, access, access.’  The operating approach was let students take as many classes as they want; just get them in the door.” 

After MacDougall left, the emphasis shifted. It went from access to access coupled with success, she said. But MacDougall, she noted, was part of that transition. In 2011, he served on the statewide Student Success Task Force. 

After leaving City College, MacDougall’s services as an ambassador of instant good will were much in demand; he worked hard, for example, while serving on the Cottage Hospital’s board for the massive fundraising campaign needed to bankroll the hospital’s expansion and renovation.