President's Message: November 3, 2011

DEAR FACULTY AND STAFF:

This week brings to mind November 2, 2010, just a year ago when we won the largest referendum in Wisconsin history. Spurred on by our success, we are seeing other colleges begin the process (Fox Valley and Western). As I said last year, winning is better than losing! And speaking of winning, I can’t help but mention how ebullient I’m feeling this week after being home in St. Louis over the weekend. There were hundreds of thousands of people celebrating the Cardinals’ victory with almost every store using the World Series win in some way, e.g., Cardinals cookies, cakes, signs, sales, line for official t-shirts.

The team this year came out of nowhere, wasn’t supposed to win, almost didn’t a number of times, but kept trying. This reminds me of many of our students – those who are first generation college students, with perhaps less than stellar high school grades, with financial and other issues. Yet with our help and expertise, they too become winners! So thanks for all you do to help them become champions.

FREE CAR CARE CLINIC
For the ninth straight year, our automotive students, with the help of their instructors, are holding a free Car Care Clinic to help collect non-perishable food items for local pantries. Students will check belts, hoses, wipers and other key automobile parts, plus top off fluids. The Car Care Clinic is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. It will be held this Saturday from 9 a.m. to
1 p.m. at Truax. Click here for more details.

MARVELS
Here are favorite instructors mentioned to me recently by students:

Renee Cairns, English
Joel Gruley, Arts and Sciences
Julia Haseleu, Psychology
Stan Johnson, Arts and Sciences
Joseph Lynch, Arts and Sciences

RECENT ACTIVITIES

• Attended a President Association's Process Improvement Committee meeting;
• welcomed guests at the Foundation’s Fall Scholarship reception where we recognized our students and their donors, and celebrated the College’s centennial; and
• attended the Wisconsin Technical College District Boards Association fall quarterly meeting in Waukesha.

Here's a quote by George Bernard Shaw (sometimes attributed to Robert Kennedy) that was in the program for the high school completion ceremony in May: “Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.”

Don’t forget to “fall back” on Sunday and get an extra hour of weekend.

Bettsey