MATC Matters

Dear Faculty and Staff,

Even with the snow falling to almost 15 inches, the games did go on over the weekend as we hosted the WJCAA Men and Women’s State Basketball Tournament. UW-Waukesha earned both men and women’s state titles but our WolfPack guard, Patrick Macki made the All Tournament Team.

We have hosted the WJCAA State Basketball Tournament for four years and just won the contract for the next two years. Hats off to our Athletics staff for doing a superb job! Also, thanks to Jason Verhelst for initiating the live webcast of the tournament several years ago. This year the webcast was more popular than ever and much appreciated, due to hazardous driving conditions throughout the state.

Don’t Miss the Follies!
Don’t forget to attend the MATC Follies this Saturday, March 3, 7:30 p.m. at the Truax Cafeteria. You will experience the CPAAC Hi-Lo Smaller Than Average Brass Band, a sultry Torch-Song Trio, a quartet, Potpourri, Above the Storm Solo Acoustic Instrumentals on 12-String Guitar and traditional and contemporary folk songs with guitar and banjo accompaniment. You will even hear the sounds of an euphonium! Tickets are $10 with profits going to the MATC Foundation General Scholarship Fund. Call the Mitby Theater Box Office for tickets at 243-4000.

March 13 Convocation Day & Free Lunch!
I look forward to seeing each of you at our next Convocation Day on March 13, during which we will meet in the Redsten Gym to hold a college wide Vital Focus Conversation as part of our AQIP accreditation process. Our AQIP Team is collaborating with WACTE to provide a free box lunch, or dinner, for all employees. To help in our planning, please see more details about this special Convocation and answer two questions via the posted Zoomerang link to let us know your food and session preferences.

Global Connections
This week I had the pleasure of visiting with a number of international guests: a member of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, who was accompanied by the UW-Madison Dean of International Studies, and a delegation of 10 individuals from the German state of Hessen. In addition, our Global Horizons lecture on dissident voices in Iran and the current international crisis was well attended Friday evening, even with the start of the weekend’s heavy snowfall.

. . . and More Global Connections with Critical Spanish Class for Staff

As more and more native Spanish speakers join our community, it is important for our faculty and staff to learn basic Spanish pronunciation skills and critical phrases for working with students, as well as to become familiar with Hispanic/Latino culture. To meet this need, we have developed a gentle and fun introduction to Spanish for our faculty and staff that is being held 12:30 -2:30 p.m. over four Monday afternoons at DTEC. I stopped in on the session and found it most enlightening and enjoyable. The instructor, Janice Redford, was delightful.

You can register for one of two sessions - the first started yesterday but you still can register by calling Will Strycker at ext. 2920 - the second starts April 9.

MATC Marvels
Each week, I like to highlight some marvelous people I encounter or learn about here at the college. Here are this week’s “favoritesâ€? as mentioned to me by students:

William Burke, protective services, EMS
Margaret Mishler, health & safety education instructional assistant

Other MATC Marvels
Holly Kerby, chemistry instructor, facilitated “How Strategies from Theater Can Help People Learnâ€? workshop at UW-Madison’s College of Engineering.

An article, “Before You Paint, Capture the Energy of Landscapes With Values Drawings� by Marla Brenner, commercial art instructor, appeared in the April 2007 issue of American Artist magazine.

A very big thank you to the staff that cleared lots and lots of snow this weekend!

Truax: Denny Reible, Armando Cazares, Kerry House, Travis Wiersma
DTEC: Dave Funk
Commercial Avenue: Jerry Pfalz
Fort Atkinson: Chad Schuster, Paul Husting
Watertown: Jerry Heidner, Richard Wackett
Portage: Greg Klinkner, Mike Reid
Reedsburg: Clint Lombard, Mary Washa

MATC Foundation Update
The Eugenie Mayer Bolz Family Foundation continued its support of MATC with a donation of $3,900 to provide scholarships for visual and performing arts students. The Jackson Foundation also donated over $2,500 for students in the Associate Degree Nursing Program.The MATC Retirees Association hosted a luncheon on Thursday, February 22 at the Madison Club. The program included a presentation by Shawna Carter and the student coordinators of the Alternative Spring Break Program, and a performance by Bob Dinndorf’s duop group, The Nefrons.

MATC photography students were thrilled to receive a gift from Jim Ballard, a retired Chicago photographer, who donated his extensive collection of pictorial books, instructional manuals and other texts to the program.

In closing, I would like to share a quote by Jim Stovall from The Ultimate Gift, which appeared on a card I recently received from the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa:

“The only way you can truly get more out of life for yourself is to give part of yourself away.�

Have a great week!

Bettsey