President's Message: August 4, 2009

Dear Faculty and Staff,

We are pleased to announce that MATC’s new content management system and the redesigned website has been launched. This platform offers us a new beginning for staff to more easily post web content, and the site, over the coming months, will offer additional web functionality. Kudos to the many individuals who have worked to make this project a success including Marketing Staff, Technology Staff, Center Office Staff and the content authors and administrators.

Enrollment
The fall semester is just around the corner and we have many things to be excited about. At last check, enrollment for degree credit courses was up nearly 18 percent! Here’s some more good news. As a result of streamlining the admissions application process last year, the Enrollment Center has seen a 102 percent jump in the number of students who have been awarded financial aid! Congratulations to everyone in the Enrollment Center.

Convocation Reminder
Don’t forget…our fall Convocation is Tuesday, August 18 and Wednesday, August 19. We’re at the starting point for many important projects in the coming year and Convocation is an excellent way to learn about these new efforts as well as catch up with colleagues.

Employee Spotlights
You may have noticed we’ve started a new monthly feature on MATC Matters. It’s called Staff Hires and Promotions. The feature highlights new employees, as well as staff transfers, promotions and retirements. It’s all part of our Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) efforts to improve communication.

Take a Tour
Rome’s famous Coliseum has one. So does the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Now you can add MATC to the list. We’re talking about self-guided media player video tours. If you want to learn more about MATC, you can now check-out a media player, a guide book, and a map to explore the college on your own. Just stop by the Welcome Center for more information, or call Gretchen Arneson at (608) 243-4241.

MATC Marvels
Here are the names of faculty mentioned to me by students I’ve talked with this summer:
Jacob Statz, CNC
Burton Wheeler, welding
Ronald Koci, business tech
Sandra Madelung, dental assistant

We received this testimonial from a former student of accounting instructor Mark Finger: “Things are looking pretty good for my career and everything that I learned in school helps me every single day. When you’re in school you ask yourself; will I ever use this stuff? I can tell you first hand that everything I learned, especially in your computer and excel classes, I use every day on the job. MATC is such a great school. The knowledge you receive for the tuition dollar is a really great deal. My student loans are all paid off and I make a decent wage with full benefits. MATC is a highly respected organization from what I have seen in my interviews. You are a really great teacher. You taught me a lot of valuable things. Thank you.  P.S. Feel free to read this email to your students. They should know that what you teach is REAL WORLD SMART.”

And, here is a student comment about Charles Benton, Jr., anatomy & psysiology: “Dr Benton kept the class organized, focused and on track.  He was always willing to meet with students to help them out and I believe he truly wanted to see each student succeed in his class.  He had a well defined syllabus and other  class material and students always knew what was expected of them. Instructors like Dr Benton add to MATC’s fine reputation.”

Other MATC Marvels
When I attended the IT Education Open House last week at the MATC McAllen/Cisco Center, I received an autographed textbook authored by MATC information technology instructor Michael Bender. The book is titled Networking MCTS Guide to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure Configuration.

Through the efforts of Health and Safety Associate Dean Antonio Re and Respiratory Therapy instructor Jeffrey Wenzel, MATC will be receiving $388,000 of a $622,000 dollar grant from the U.S. Dept. of Labor WIRED (Workforce Innovations in Regional Economic Development) grant. Antonio and Jeffrey researched and wrote the grant and recently received official notification of the award from the Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin.
 

Highlights of my past two weeks:
• participated in two college planning retreats:
 Executive Team (comprised of myself, the three vice presidents, and the executive dean of learner development) and College Council (26-member team comprised of college leadership including  administrators, deans and union presidents); our work focused on strategic planning for next year;
• met with Bob Dinndorf, foundation executive director, and Pend Armistead of The Clements Group to discuss the Foundation’s Smart Future campaign;
• attended Downtown Madison Rotary;
• participated at a United Way of Dane County executive committee meeting;
• visited some of our specialized Workforce Development Board Academy classes which included CNC/machine tool, industrial maintenance, IT/technology, and the dental assistant program;
• participated in a BioPharmaceutical Technology Center (BTCI) board meeting with John Wiley (Director of UW’s Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery), Bill Linton (President/CEO of Promega), Craig Christianson (Director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation – WARF), and Karin Borgh (BTCI Executive Director);
• threw out the first pitch at the “MATC at the Mallards” event (and got the ball all the way to the catcher!), and visited with some donors who also attended;
• welcomed participants at a state-wide meeting of full-time faculty union leadership hosted at our campus;
• met with the PSRP Union Management Team and my Executive Team;
• observed Julie Monroe’s reading class; and
• videotaped a WolfPack Welcome for the fall semester students.

I came across this quote by Madeleine Albright which reminded me of the challenges our students will face as they prepare for the fall semester:

“As you go along your road in life, you will, if you aim high enough, also meet resistance. . .but no matter how tough the opposition may seem, have courage still – and persevere.”

Two weeks to convocation!

Bettsey