Page 18 - BusinessWest February 6, 2023

EDUCATION >>
HCC President Christina Royal
18 FEBRUARY 6, 2023
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BusinessWest
Looking Back — and Ahead
Outgoing HCC President Makes Strides on Everything from Food Insecurity to ... Pickleball
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
Christina Royal wanted to make one thing clear.
Her decision to step down as president of Holyoke Community College (HCC) later this year has nothing whatsoever to do the
Great Resignation.
“The Great Resignation, to me, reflected people
who were in various stages of unhappiness with their respective roles and looking for a change,” said Royal, the school’s fourth president, who arrived on campus in 2016. “I love this college, and I love my position.”
Elaborating, she said her decision is about finding the space to decide what she wants to do next, and at this point in time, she really doesn’t know what that might be, other than some travel (destinations still to be determined), planning her wedding, and what she calls “voluntary unemployment” until at least the start of 2024.
In a wide-ranging interview during which she looked back as well as ahead, Royal talked at length about the past three years, especially, and what it has been like, personally and professionally, to lead an institution
like HCC through the pandemic. She said it was a tre- mendous, and exhausting, learning experience, one in which she and members of her team had to reach down and find the determination and imagination to see the college and its students, staff, and faculty through an unprecedented crisis, during which the school was mostly closed to the public for more than a year.
Indeed, while talking about the length of her tenure at HCC — which will be close to seven years by the time she steps down this summer — Royal jokingly asked if