President's Message: August 31, 2009

Dear faculty and staff,

Can you feel the energy on campus? Our degree credit enrollment is up 13 percent. Our beautiful new West campus is now open. Our newly-renovated South and Commercial campuses are looking great. Our regional campuses are rocking. This has been a great first week! I want to thank all of you for going the extra mile to help our students during these crucial first weeks of the semester. You’re really making a difference. I can tell—because I’ve been visiting our campuses and talking to students. Keep up the good work!

Limiting the Spread of H1N1
The flu season is right around the corner and we want to make sure you’re protected. We have installed 55 wall-mounted Purell hand sanitizing dispensers throughout our campuses. We have also put together a number of helpful tips to limit the spread of H1N1. Don’t forget to wash your hands!

Marvels
As you know—I love to talk to our students. Here are some of their favorite instructors:
Christopher Syrnyk, English
William Huntsman, chemistry

More Marvels
Hats off to Geoff Bradshaw, our Director of International Education, for coordinating study abroad programs and helping our faculty develop new and exciting opportunities for our students. Geoff recently worked with Amy Connell in therapeutic massage and Mary Heinrichs in learner development to put together a new course and trip to Peru this summer—it  focused on understanding indigenous healing practices in the Andes.

Kudos
Here are a few quotes from a parent’s email I received last week. Again…many thanks to everyone who has taken time to help our students! 

“We were at your campus yesterday for the WolfPack Welcome—it was wonderful! The student ambassadors did a great job explaining and sharing their enthusiasm. Everyone was incredibly helpful and friendly! We had the ‘lost/confused look’ going on in the hallways at times, and staff was quick to approach us and offer assistance.”

Highlights of My Week:
• met with Wisconsin Gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann;
• attended funeral visitations for golf coach Jim Thomas, former Watertown Campus Area Coordinator Eileen Scott, student Adam Suby, and the relative of a staff person;
• met with Edgewood College President Dan Carey and his staff to talk about articulation agreements and degree completion programs;
• talked with real estate developer and one of our alums, Randy Alexander;
• met with representatives from the American Association for Community Colleges (AACC) as we prepare for a two week visit this fall from a Chinese delegation;
• stopped in at the WTCS District Boards Association annual open house;
• spoke at the Law Enforcement Academy class at their graduation; and
• gave a mentorship presentation to the Edgewood College doctoral program in educational leadership. Math instructor Ramon Figueroa is a doctoral candidate in this year’s cohort.

In closing, here is a quote by the late Senator Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy, taken from a letter he sent this past April to the Appropriations Committee requesting that the Community College Consortium for Autism and Intellectual Disabilities program for millions of Americans be funded at a $35 million level for fiscal year 2010:

“This amount will represent an initial investment in life skills and vocational programs, particularly at community colleges, that would begin to meet the challenges posed by the impending “tsunami” of autistic and intellectually/developmentally disabled students that will soon be upon our post secondary schools.”

Bettsey