MATC ADOPTS NEW REGIONAL STRATEGY FOR ECONOMIC
AND
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT; CREATES EAST AND NORTH REGIONS
Administrative Changes at Regional Campuses Part
of Overall College Reorganization
Madison
Area Technical College is adopting a new and broader regional strategy
for economic and workforce development that is designed to expand
services and develop relationships across its 12-county district.
The new strategy has prompted the development of a new administrative
structure at the college’s four regional campuses, located
in Watertown, Fort Atkinson, Portage and Reedsburg, according to
Debra Derr, vice president of learner success.
“We’ve
created two regions to support our strategy. Our East Region is made up of
the communities located in our district that are nearest our Watertown and
Fort Atkinson campuses. Likewise, we’ve established a North Region to
serve communities located near our Reedsburg and Portage campuses.”
Derr states
that “MATC needs to offer services and develop relationships similar
to those that we have built in our regional campus locations throughout the
223 cities, towns and villages, and 40 school districts that make up our 12-county
district service area.” By adopting this regional strategy, the
college is following the lead of many of its partners in economic development,
such as the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, the Workforce Development
Board of South Central Wisconsin, county economic development organizations,
and a growing number of chambers of commerce.
Derr notes
that the administrative changes prompted by the new regional strategy
are part of a college-wide reorganization that began over a year
ago. “Our administrative
systems are being reorganized to improve efficiency and customer service at
all MATC locations. Over the course of the past year, several administrative
positions have been eliminated across the college and the remainder of our
administrators have experienced a change in their roles, responsibilities and
assignments.”
Terry Webb,
associate vice president of leaner success, is responsible for
overseeing the college’s regional campuses, as well as its sizeable operation that provides
customized training for employers and its grant-funded Business Procurement
Assistance Center, which helps businesses across the state learn how to procure
lucrative government purchasing contracts.
Webb
explains that a new administrative structure has been established
to support the new regional economic development strategy. “We
have created two shared administrative positions to serve our Watertown
and Fort Atkinson campuses to replace the two separate regional
campus administrator positions. Our regional campus administrators
were performing essentially the same functions in two locations.”
The new
model delegates the operations responsibility to an Eastern Region
campus manager and extends the responsibility for eastern region
economic and community development to an executive director of
economic and workforce development. “By coordinating
responsibilities in this manner we will improve our operational efficiency
and sharpen our focus on our regional economic and workforce development mission,” Webb
states.
C. J. Shannon,
who had been the regional campus coordinator and an instructor
at MATC Watertown, was hired last month as the Eastern Region executive
director of economic and workforce development. She brings 17 years
of experience as a community college and state government administrator,
including management positions in workforce development and commerce
roles, to her new position. In addition, she was formerly the economic
development director for Dodge County.
Last week,
Jerry Keiser was appointed interim East Region campus manager.
Keiser, who retired from MATC several years ago, served as the
Fort Atkinson campus manager from 1990-99, as acting president
of the college for a year, and most recently as an interim associate
dean in Madison. The college anticipates Keiser will serve in an
interim capacity until next spring. In the meantime, MATC will
conduct a search to external candidates for a permanent East Region
campus manager.
Lyn Hertel,
who served as the regional campus manager for MATC—Watertown, is starting
a new position at the college as regional development director for the MATC
Foundation. She will work with the MATC Foundation to expand the successful
donor model she created in Watertown to other communities. In this districtwide
role, she will be based at MATC’s main Truax location in Madison and
work closely with leaders in the college’s regional communities to develop
new opportunities to support MATC through its Foundation.
Lynn Forseth,
who has been the regional campus manager for MATC—Fort Atkinson, will
be taking on a new role at the college as the associate dean of the college’s
Center for Construction, Manufacturing, Apprenticeship and Transportation.
In this position, she also will be based in Madison and have responsibility
for managing career programs that serve students from throughout the college
district.
Webb
notes that the new regional administrative structure was piloted
successfully earlier this year in MATC’s North Region, where
John Alt was appointed North Region executive director of economic
and workforce development, and Diane Jetzer was hired as the regional
campus manager for the North Region. Scott Beard, who had been
the regional campus manager for Portage, moved to the new position
of director of institutional effectiveness at the college and now
is based in Madison.
Derr states
she is excited about the new regional management structure and
strategy. “Our
goal is to achieve a greater good by increasing operational efficiency and
focusing on our economic development mission throughout our district. I look
forward to continuing our strong partnerships and building new ones throughout
district. Our new structure and strategy will allow us to accomplish this goal.”
MATC is
one of the largest of the Wisconsin Technical College System’s 16 colleges.
It provides “real world smart” education through a comprehensive
curriculum of technical, liberal arts and science, adult basic education and
life enrichment studies and activities, as well as customized employee training.
MATC offers associate degrees, vocational diplomas and certificates, and non-degree
courses in more than 140 programs of study. The college serves all or parts
of 12 counties located in south-central Wisconsin and offers instruction through
five campuses and numerous community locations throughout the district.
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Last
Modified:
August 18, 2006
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