BUTTE COLLEGE

Dr. Luozhu Cen, Dean of Student Learning for Library Services, Foreign Languages, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Sociocultural Studies, Study Abroad, and Technology Mediated Instruction, retired at the end of July, 2016.

Luozhu:

After having been an educator, a reference librarian, and a college administrator for a combined total of over 30 years, I decided to retire at the end of July, 2016.

I am deeply appreciative of the wonderful opportunities and the good fortune I had throughout my productive and exceedingly rewarding career. It has been such an honor and privilege to have worked with so many incredibly talented and dedicated individuals over the span of more than three decades. Some of them have been my mentors and a number of them have become my close friends, including my former school teachers, university professors, and professional colleagues in three different countries, namely, China, England, and the US.

I was born and brought up in a small village in Zhejiang Province in southern China and received my undergraduate education from Hangzhou University which was later amalgamated with Zhejiang University in Hangzhou City. In 1976, I was one of the 15 students selected by the Chinese Ministry of Education from all over China to send to England to study for two years. It was truly a transformative experience for me that changed my life forever because I met a man I fell deeply in love with and we got married one year after I returned to China. Forty years later, we are still crazy about each other. So I have good reasons to be grateful for the remarkable two-year experience in England from both the perspective of educational training and personal gain.

Another major turning point in my life was 1987 when I came to the US to join my husband and to pursue my MA in Library Science and Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration and Librarianship from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where I also worked in two of its libraries. After I moved to Chico, California in 1993, I worked as a part-time librarian at California State University Chico. I joined Butte College as an Associate Reference Librarian in 1996 and accepted a full-time Reference Librarian position in 1999. Butte College is a very enjoyable place to work and I found the reference librarian’s job very gratifying. In 2004, I assumed the Director of Library Services position at Butte College. A few years after that, I first became the Associate Dean and then Dean of Student Learning. Although my responsibilities expanded beyond the library services, my passion for library services has intensified over the years. I care deeply about the library and the invaluable and indispensable services the library provides to students, faculty and staff. It is my conviction that all educational institutions need to have a high quality library with a dedicated professional staff to support and enhance student success.

The hardest part of making the decision to enter my golden years was the thought that I had to say goodbye to the wonderful people I worked with at Butte College. However, I very much look forward to spending more time with my family, especially my new born granddaughter, Naomi. I now will also have time to do fun things such as travel, reading, writing, and volunteering. I am so fortunate to be blessed with a happy family and many good friends who are the essential ingredients of a happy life.

started her new position Spring 2015 semester.