Features

Peralta Vice Chancellor Margaret Haig Dies

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Tuesday June 19, 2007

Peralta Community College District Educational Services Vice Chancellor Margaret Haig passed away this week after a brief illness. 

The district reported she had been diagnosed with colon cancer. 

Haig was hired by the district in 2005 during controversy over Peralta’s International Education department, eventually issuing a report on the department that ended charges of mismanagement. Immediately afterwards Peralta Chancellor Elihu Harris put Haig in the middle of another heated situation, assigning her to represent the district in mitigating the problems to student parents caused by the closure of a portion of the Laney College Children’s Center. 

Most recently, Haig was the district’s point-person on the development of its Educational Master Plan, which Associate Vice Chancellor for Education Gary Yee, who worked under her, says “we will now have to finish without her.” 

Yee called the uncompleted master plan Haig’s “most important contribution and legacy. She really understood that the education goals must drive all aspects of the district, including the facilities. She was always reminding us of that.” 

Yee said that Haig’s sudden passing “came as a real shock and surprise to us. She was always the picture of health and vitality. I’ll always remember her riding her bicycle several times a week between her home in Montclair and the district headquarters.” 

Memorial services for Haig will be held at the Peralta Administrative Building, 333 East Eighth St., Oakland, at 4 p.m. on Friday, June 22, with a reception immediately following the remembrance. The Peralta Foundation has set up a scholarship fund in Haig’s name.