MATC Matters

Dear Faculty and Staff,

Our MATC District Board has a new member and a new chair for the coming year. Janice Bultema, vice president of Human Resources at UW Hospitals & Clinics, was elected chair at last night’s annual board organization meeting. Janice was first appointed to the District Board as an employer representative in 2005. A new board member, Frances Huntley-Cooper, and two reappointed board members, Carousel Andrea Bayrd and Carolyn Stoner, were officially sworn in. Other board officers chosen at the meeting are: Jon Bales, vice chair; Vera Riley, secretary and Robert Elkins, treasurer.

Student Administration System
Our biggest success news this week is that we have achieved a major upgrade of our Student Administration System through the conversion to PeopleSoft 8.9, which was completed yesterday. It has been redesigned to be easier for students and faculty to use, and brings our infrastructure up to the state of the art. The System went live Monday morning at 7:00 a.m. Please join me in thanking those who participated with this upgrade.

Technical Services staff:
Kathleen Allen
Patrick Roe
Ali Simyab
Tom Berg
Mary Erbs
Sue Kronberger
Rona McNeil
Jeff Gurriell
Jayme Kerr
Annette Koenig
Steve Hineline
Peri Mills
Jim Patton
Frank Ianne
Ken LeClair
Mitch Millan
Randy Hammer
Gary Huber
Reggie Mosher
Kim Bethea
Rick Graves
Igor Steinberg

“Functional Leaders” who participated:
Stephanie Dean
Marcia Forbes
Livvia Goff
Jennifer Hoege
Tim Jacobson
Gladys McKay-Lenius
Lori McRoberts
Maureen Menendez
Fran Moritz
Jim Rockman
Lori Sebranek
Diane Walleser
Roxanne Zetzman

Online Applications
I am also pleased to report that our new online application system is up and running. This easy and convenient way to apply will give students 24/7 access and improved communication with our staff as their applications are processed. It will allow us to be more proactive in contacting students about things like missing transcripts, reminders to apply for financial aid, etc. Click to see the online application.

Major Budget Cuts
Deep cuts in the budget for Wisconsin’s Technical Colleges are included in a proposal by Republican legislators in the State Assembly that is expected to be voted on at the Capitol today. The cuts include a $14 million dollar overall reduction, elimination of an increase in student financial aid and a tax levy limit on technical college districts. These cuts, if approved, would have a substantial negative impact on MATC. To find out who your legislator is, see the state legislator list online. Please remember that contacts with your legislators must be made using your personal time, equipment and email address, not MATC resources.

Girl Tech News
Channel 3 News covered our “Girl Tech 2007� event to encourage more young women to consider future careers in science and technology June 26-28. About 45 girls in grades six through nine attended. The event was designed to expose girls to the fields of biotechnology, civil engineering, electronics, electron microscopy, and information technology programming and infrastructure.

Sponsors of Girl Tech 2007 included: American Family Insurance; Cisco Systems; Prairie Technologies, Inc.; National Science Foundation; Pearson Prentice Hall; WPS Health Insurance; Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance; Thomson Course Technology; Berbee; Madison Area Technical College; CUNA Mutual; TDS Telecom; Inacom Information Systems; MATC Technology Services; Fish & Associates, Inc; Burse Surveying & Engineering, Inc.; Dane County School to Work; and Dane County Powered Up.

GMCC City of Madison Reception
I had the opportunity to speak with Madison elected officials and key business leaders at the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce’s City of Madison Reception. This informal gathering was a unique opportunity to meet and strengthen relationships with the veteran and newly elected alders on Madison’s Common Council as well as Mayor Cieslewicz, his staff, and city department heads.

I also attended the WTCS State Board meeting at Lakeshore Tech College where the system’s strategic plan was discussed.

On Thursday, June 28, a representative group of District Board members, MATC Foundation board members, administration, faculty, PSRP and students spent the day exploring the future of the college, particularly pertaining to plans for facilities. They heard reports from a consultant for the WTCS and from a “mystery student” who visited all of our campuses and tried to register for one of our courses. This is just one step in the process of determining facilities needs for the next 20 years.

Jackye Higby Thomas attended a Governor’s Task Force meeting that was held in response to the Virginia Tech shooting. Our Conflict Management Services program was featured among others in the state. Two members on the task force from other WTCS colleges in the state (Nicolet and Gateway) applauded our program as well as the provision of mental health counseling for students.

In closing, this week’s quotation is from Bill Cosby, who said:

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.â€?

Have a great week!

Bettsey