President's Message: May 12, 2011

Dear Faculty and Staff, but today especially Faculty:

At the end of a very tumultuous year, I want to send you off for the summer with a few thoughts (most of which I will repeat at next fall's convocation).

• We won the largest referendum in Wisconsin history because of the outstanding work you do every day, every semester, every school year in your classes. People I meet still query, “How did you do it?” The answer is because we worked together.
• This week we received permission from the WTCS State Board to proceed with the Gateway, Ingenuity Center and Protective Services buildings. We may now borrow the money, move ahead to get other approvals, and put out RFPs for contractors.
• We continue to communicate with the Legislature the difficulties we will have serving our students and communities as a result of the cap on property taxes for our operations and the cut in state aid at a time when more workers need training and re-training.
• After much struggle and difficult decision making, and using our Guiding Principles, the Executive Team and Sarah Hart McGuinnis from our budget office presented a budget to the Madison College Board Monday. It should be approved in June. Thankfully, we were able to accomplish this without involuntary layoffs. The budget is never final until the fall after property valuations are announced. Once again, we are all grateful to Joe Lowndes, Mick Conners and other leaders who stepped up to make this happen.
• We still ask for freedom from some of the outdated and arbitrary regulations under which we operate. As a result, we are told that both the State Board of the WTCS and the Presidents’ Association will be considering these issues at both their planning meetings this summer.
• Because of so many of you, our students have won numerous awards this year. (All recognized in Matters previously, I hope.) What an honor it is for all of us to work in an institution of such high quality.
• And this leads me to graduation. Spring 2011 commencement begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Dane County Memorial Coliseum. A total of 2,355 students are graduating and approximately 700 are expected to attend the ceremony. Our student speaker will be Amber Schneider, graduating from the Surgical Technologist program; the keynote speaker will be State Senator Dale Schultz. The 2011 Distinguished Teacher Award recipients Amy Whitcomb and George Conom will be recognized at the ceremony (unfortunately Gail Bailey is unable to attend).
• In spite of the uncertain economy, we still have relatively good news for our graduates. The recently published Graduate Employment Report shows 87 percent of Madison College’s graduates are employed within six months of graduation, and 96 percent are working in Wisconsin, with 81 percent in the Madison area.

College Marvels:
Following are names of faculty and staff mentioned to me most recently by our students:

Chris Gargan, Commercial Art
Holly Kerby, Science
Mike Lussenden, Communication Arts
Brad McDowell, Psychology
Victor Raymond, Social Science
Tom Ryan, Accounting

More Marvels
M. Jeff Quinlan, Accounting/Business Instructor, traveled with students to the National Leader Conference in Washington, D.C. This year’s theme was “Stand Out from the Crowd” and Wisconsin won the Professional Cup as the ‘Outstanding State’ for the collective achievements of all the chapters throughout the year. Our chapter had five qualifying members. They were called to stage (placing in the Top Ten nationally) along with Madison College 10 times, each receiving medals. The College also produced National Champions in two events-one in Computerized Accounting and the other in Financial Math and Analysis. Congratulations faculty, staff and students!

My recent activities:
·Participated in a District Board meeting;
·Attended the Administrative brown bag;
·Attended a Tempo meeting where Tom Still, president of Wisconsin Technology Council, was the guest speaker; and
·Attended the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) State Board meeting at the Lakeshore Technical College campus, along with Vice President Roger Price, Facilities Director Mike Stark. Vice President Terry Webb, and Board members Jon Bales and Frances Huntley-Cooper.

Thank you for your understanding and support during these past weeks as we struggled with my husband’s colon cancer. His surgery appears to be successful, and he is on his way to recovery. My final request to you this school year is to get your colonoscopies. Early detection is vitally important.

And, finally, thanks for all that you do.

Bettsey