President’s Message - January 16, 2007
January 16, 2007 | Editor
Dear Faculty and Staff,
In spite of a cold snap and at last . . . snow . . . our students have returned, and the semester is off to an energetic start! Thanks to the members of the Students First Team, and the volunteers they recruited, for countering the cold temperatures with warm greetings for our students at our “Welcome Back� event today and tomorrow at Truax. I found the students this morning to be in good spirits. As expected, not as many needed directions around campus as in August.
Also, thanks to everyone who helped organize last week’s Convocation activities, including the 17 terrific Future Thought sessions held to facilitate dialog among our faculty and working professionals in their fields. I hear valuable information was shared to help build our Academic Plan and excellent connections made to develop and strengthen partnerships throughout our programs.
MATC Marvels
Bob Dinndorf received the Rotary Club of Madison’s Vocational Service Award on January 10th. Bob has been involved with Rotary activities since 1998 and in addition to often leading the club’s musical activities, last year he chaired the Ethics Symposium, which brought more than 200 area high school students together to learn about ethical issues. As mentioned last week, Bob is taking on additional leadership for the organization by becoming the organization’s vice president next year.
MATC Foundation Update
The Foundation would like to thank Terrie Thorstad for doing an outstanding job of encouraging the Technology Services staff to participate in the Faculty-Staff Annual Giving Campaign.
A special thank you also goes out to Will Strycker for his generous donations to the Ethel B. Strycker Memorial Scholarship Endowment, which will provide scholarships for students in the nursing program.
Robert Keller, Keller Real Estate Group, has started an endowed scholarship for the Real Estate Program. Robert also is a trustee of the Nelson and Vera Hicks Foundation, which has been funding scholarships for 10 years. This past semester Robert enjoyed lunch in the Gourmet Dining Room at the President’s Table.
Highlights of my week
- Gave convocation presentation to all staff.
- Visited the Montello School Board with MATC District Board Chair Jerry McGowan to talk about enhancing our services and partnerships with the district.
- Attended a Madison TEMPO meeting and heard futurist David Zach talk about “Exploring Social and Technological Developments.�
- Met with Lea Culver, co-owner of Culver’s.
- Attended Rotary Club of Downtown and experienced a moving presentation on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. given by Perry and Virginia Henderson, and Scott Gray, from the Urban League of Greater Madison, Inc.
- Met with the MATC District Board.
- Participated in the WTCS Presidents monthly meeting.
- Attended our Watertown Scholarship recognition event.
- Presented scholarships at the Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Recognition Breakfast.
In honor of his birthday yesterday, I would like to share a quote in closing from Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically… Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”
- Bettsey
Bettsey L. Barhorst, President
