President's Message: October 6, 2009

Dear Faculty and Staff,

Autumn is in the air. The mercury is dropping, leaves are changing color, and we’re gearing up for a very busy October at all of our campuses. Our College Spotlight event is this Thursday evening in the Redsten gym. We also have our mid-semester Convocation on Friday, October 30. In-between that time, faculty will be busy grading rosters, our golf, soccer, and volleyball teams will be winding down their seasons, and future scientists will battle it out in our annual middle school math club competition. State Representative Andy Jorgensen and Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan will be at the Fort Atkinson campus on Tuesday to talk about the role of technical colleges in job creation and workforce development initiatives. Busy is good.

Re-Cabling Our Campuses
As part of our ongoing network upgrade project, it's necessary to re-cable our campuses. This month, installation and program training is taking place at the Fort Atkinson and Watertown campuses. When this happens, you’ll most likely see people wearing "InfinIT" t-shirts in offices, hallways, classrooms and other areas—as they pull, route, terminate, test and connect cables to physical data jacks. It's the goal of the network infrastructure project team to make sure the work will not adversely affect you. Thank you for your patience during this time.

Grant Award
The U.S. Department of Education has approved our Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) grant request! We submitted a 3-year, $750,000 grant and we were awarded two years at $453,000—with expectation of the final year of funding to be announced later. Thanks to Dana Maya, Janice Van Keuren, Denise McKay, Anne Scott, Amy Brown, and Ed Clarke for making this happen.

In closing, here’s one of my favorite quotes by Helen Keller:

“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.” 

Thank you for everything you do for our students.

Bettsey