MATC Matters

Dear Faculty and Staff,

Governor Doyle has announced more deep cuts in the state budget. As of May 7, the budget deficit had increased an additional $1.5 billion. To help address the problem, the Governor is proposing furloughs for all state employees. At this time, the furloughs do not affect MATC employees.

The Other MATC Budget
Speaking of budget problems, Milwaukee Area Technical College has a $19 million gap in its 2009-10 budget. For the first time in decades, Milwaukee is considering layoffs to help close the budget gap. I want you to know that our budget is in good shape.

Listening Sessions
I want to thank everyone who took part in last week’s listening sessions on the Facilities Master Plan. Your feedback on the future of our college is very important. The listening sessions for Watertown and Fort Atkinson were done via Telepresence. Faculty will be working with Alli Jerger-Lopez throughout the summer on exploring the best learning methodologies to use.

Spring Graduation
Commencement is 10 a.m. this Saturday at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Alliant Energy Center. We have 2,045 total graduates this spring. The keynote speaker will be State Representative Joe Parisi. Congratulations to all our graduates!

GED/HSED Graduations
Here’s the schedule for our GED/HSED graduations:
Madison–Thursday, June 4 at 5:00 p.m.–Mitby Theater.
Eastern Region–Friday, June 5 at 6:00 p.m.–Fort Atkinson High School
Northern Region - Monday, June 8 at 7:00 p.m.– R.G. Brown Theater on the UW-Baraboo/Sauk County campus

MATC Marvels
Here are some names of college instructors and staff recently mentioned to me by students:
Gail Bailey, business tech
Timothy Twohill, English
C. E. Binkley, animation
Gerald Mahun, civil engineering
Joseph Lynch, philosophy
Maryann Dubree, psychology
Theresa Valencia, plastics
Matthew Guenette, English
Herb Nelson, college transfer photography
Margaret Phillips, chemistry
Amy Lemkuil, nursing
Christopher Gargan, commercial art
Giorgianne Maziarka, disability resource services
Lori Pennock, adult basic ed
Dawn Delaney, psychology
Michael Wagner, animation
Richard Schneider, civil engineering
Steven Noll, marketing

More MATC Marvels
Here’s what a faculty member had to say about our recent Career Pathway event. “You cannot imagine how much effort and creative energy John Palacios put into this event. Everything from the license plate name tags to the monopoly game boards the students used to visit every booth were John’s great ideas.

More kudos for our wonderful faculty: “I am writing to make you aware of how grateful that I am for the Accounting Lab that has been made available to me this semester. If it wasn’t for Debbie Smedema and my tutor Kelly Toubl, I would have never made it through my Corporate Finance Class.

From a student: “When I first made the decision to attend MATC, I was concerned at the level of instruction I would get. I was operating under the false assumption that MATC instructors were people who could not “hack” it in “real” academia. This, I found, was not the case. I have enjoyed my very intelligent instructors.��?

The CQI Transition team conducted its final report to College Council last week: Lynn Shafel—team lead, Linda Aroonsavath—team member, Jose Luna—team member, Deb Olsen—team member, Tricia Weisheipl—CQI Mentor, Kelly Schulte—CQI Mentor, Keith Cornille—champion. This team worked on an important topic, the transfer from college prep classes to college classes, and made some suggestions that we will be implementing.

Highlights of my week:
• met with the Dietetic Technician site team;
• held college-wide president’s listening sessions on the Facilities Master Plan;
• toured the Taliesen in Spring Green with our board of trustees chair Jan Bultema;
• observed our engineering students present the results of their semester project on wind turbine design and construction to engineering students and staff at UW-Madison;
• attended the Madison Metropolitan School District Circle of Friends fundraising event as a guest of Dr. Virginia Henderson;
• heard Renata Laxova talk about her experiences as a child survivor on the last train from Prague, at the Rotary Club of Madison;
• congratulated students at a reception for the 2009 Information Technology graduating class and alumni;
• participated in Microsoft Outlook training;
• met with the President’s Advisory Team: Reggie Mosher, Steve Noll, Lynn Baldwin, Katie Korovets, Michele Anderson, Marty Crabbs, Ana Zambie, Jeff Dodge and Zong Her;
• recognized our retirees at a reception held in their honor;
• attended the kick-off event for the Morgridge Institute for Research; and
• participated in the WTCS Presidents monthly meeting.

Here is a quote at the end of an email I received from a faculty member this week. It tells about what we do here, thousands of times a semester:

“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” ~ proverb

My message will be published bi-weekly during the summer.

See you at graduation!

Bettsey