MATC Matters

Dear faculty and staff,

It is great to see so many students in the halls again as we begin the formal summer session. We have some good news to share. Summer school full-time enrollment is up 3.8%, and head count is up 1.2% over last year. This means an almost 40% increase over the past two years! These impressive numbers are the result of the commitment and dedication of our faculty, staff and administrators in answering the call of our students.

During the interim session, not only were we busy running 58 credit and non-credit classes, but we’ve also been busy proceeding with plans for our future. We have been saying farewell to a large number of retirees and trying to find ways to fill the void they will surely leave behind. These people have made an incredible impact on MATC, investing their time and talents and contributing in ways too innumerable to mention.

While our MATC retirees leave large shoes to fill, our new leadership team is ready for the challenge. Today, Roger Price, vice president for Infrastructure Services, formally begins his employment with us, though you may have seen him around over the past few weeks.

Last week I had a proud moment when I was visiting the Foundation Board of Endres Mfg. Co. and one of our diesel and heavy equipment technician students, Jason Laufenberg, spoke to the group about how much the scholarship from the foundation has meant to him. My congratulations to his communications instructor, Rossitza Ivanova, who prepared him well for public appearances. We also had high school completion graduation with more than 100 graduates. As always, this was an inspiring evening. Charles Brown and the recognition ceremony committee members (Sharon Fallon, Pascual Flores, Terry Humiston, Shana Kuehn, Jose Luna, Janie Ocejo, Dee Okon, Helene Smythe-Eagle, Sarah Teniente, David Woolpert and Ana Zambie) again did a wonderful job of launching these students.

This week I am in Washington DC attending a national conference sponsored by The Chronicle of Higher Education. These training sessions focus on financial matters for higher education, and will be attended by presidents of two-year and four-year colleges. I also will be meeting with a group of college and university presidents and members of Congress about global warming. Because of the work of our facilities department together with faculty led by Ken Walz and Paul Morschauser, MATC has been a leader of Wisconsin Technical College System schools in our responsible energy consumption and innovative academic programs. We are the only technical college in Wisconsin that has signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, reinforcing our pledge to decrease our use of natural resources. There will be a formal announcement of our commitment at the groundbreaking for the solar-powered Truax Transit Shelter structure.

I will be writing my MATC Matters messages every other week during the summer, so I will report my activities to you again the week of June 25.

I will close with a couple of quotes that were shared with the graduating students at Thursday evening’s 15th Annual High School Completion Recognition Ceremony:

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that is your own self.”
- Aldous Huxley

“Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing …”
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thank you for sharing your summer with our students.
Bettsey