Peter Weiss Passes the Baton as Director in 2025

19.03.2025

At the annual general meeting of the University Centre of the Westfjords last Friday, March 14, 2025, where all the founding members are gathered, UW director announced under other matters his intention to pass the baton during 2025.

Peter Weiss has been the director of the University Centre since its establishment and was the first and initially the only employee. Now twenty years later, almost 20 people work at and for the University Centre of the Westfjords. Not to forget some 80 students registered.

A change of director is a process that will take several months. The decision had been presented to the board in January and to the general assembly and the public now in March. The position will be advertised as soon as possible. The director has a six-month notice period and is flexible regarding termination of employment. He will therefore continue to perform this role at least throughout the summer.

Most delegates were unprepared for the news and some were left speechless by this turning point. They left their seats and thanked with applause. The Chairperson of the Council of Delegates, Dóra Hlín Gísladóttir, thanked for the meeting and pointed out that there was a good time until the autumn to bid farewell to the outgoing director and invited everyone to the University Festival on 17 June in Hrafnseyri.

The address that the Director of the University Center gave to the delegates, along with the announcement of his resignment during 2025, can be read below:

Thank you for twenty good years
The first head of the board of directors of the University Centre of the
Westfjords, Halldór Halldórsson, then mayor of Ísafjörður, said twenty years
ago on the occasion of the opening of UW "Now is a time for celebration–in a
few years we shall look back and say; this was a stroke of luck";
And indeed it was a stroke of luck.

It was also a stroke of luck for me personally. I gave up a permanent position at the University of Iceland for what was then defined as a five-year pilot project, and I have never regretted it, not even for a single day.

It is a privilege to be able to work with and for a board that guides and brainstorms, but does not breathe down the director's neck.

It is a privilege to be able to work like a freelancer while still receiving a monthly salary. It is a privilege to work with strong colleagues who think independently. It is a privilege to have all this support here in the Vestrahús-hub.

It is a privilege to get to know all the many instructors, researchers, and other visitors who come through here, as the University Centre has become a kind of melting pot at the edge of the world.

It is a privilege to observe all the many students who grow during their studies here at this place and to keep in touch afterwards. Not to mention the 11 % who continue to live in the Westfjords and another similar number who continue to live in Iceland.

It is a privilege to see all this grow and thrive year after year.

This is a creative job, for sure. It is a privilege to have something to say about the choice of logo, colours and lighting, of furniture, library and print materials, of graduation toques and birch twigs. It is a privilege to have the most beautiful office in the Westfjords, 12 square meters on two floors, ,,the kvart óval office.“

It is a privilege to live in a good community in a beautiful fjord, with good neighbors. This was a stroke of luck, for sure. And I have been in my element for 20 years! However, I have decided to pass the baton during 2025.

I will leave this interesting, fun, respected, well-paid job with reluctance. I am leaving a job where I was trusted to know so much. I shall say goodbye with reluctance, but at the same time I am convinced that it is the only way, the only right way. The way to grow, both for myself and for the University Centre.

It is this combination of my age and my time in this job that makes me take this decision. I have at least ten years until my retirement age. I don't see myself standing here in this position for another ten or more years. I believe that I have given UW what I am best at: Faith in the future, identifying possibilities, being clear in strategic planning, disciplined in financial matters, getting a new organization off to a good start, and creating trust in the institution. The University Centre of the Westfjords benefits from great stability, great determination, in the board and among the staff. But it also needs renewal. Now is the time for others to take over.

Rectors have their appointment periods, ministers of education have to be re-elected, presidential candidates last year outbid each other and said they wanted to stay in office as short as possible. But the director of the University Centre has to know himself when the time for change has come. Another thing that the director of the University Centre is trusted to know.

I am infinitely grateful that a gentle fate has washed me onto this very shore, where I was entrusted with the University Centre of the Westfjords for twenty good years.

Thank you all!

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