President Barhorst's Referendum Update

Dear Faculty and Staff:

On Wednesday, September 8, we witnessed an historical moment for our college. The District Board voted unanimously to authorize the College to provide for a referendum election in an amount not to exceed $133,770,000 for the November 2 general election. This action would allow us to execute major projects of the Facilities Plan. 

Although the College’s comprehensive Facilities Plan totaled at least $380,000,000, the Board reduced the scope of the plan out of concern for taxpayers. Our stakeholders have told us that in our current economic circumstances the college should limit its request to those projects that meet immediate needs. Please be assured that the College is committed to the rest of the Plan, but first we have to ask voters for Phase One.  

I want to thank you for the valuable input you have provided for the project and thank you in advance for your help in our successful campaign to educate our public. At this time I also must provide you with a warning. As employees of the College we can only give information to our public during our work time. We cannot advocate for any particular vote or use any college resource or equipment (i.e., facilities, computers, office supplies, telephones, copiers and facsimiles, etc.) for advocacy efforts of any kind. We can and should educate our citizenry and we are asking for your help in doing so in the next seven weeks. 

We will answer questions in MATTERS from this point forward. If you have further inquiries, please submit them realworldsmart[at] matcmadison [dot] edu (here.)

I encourage you to mark your calendar and join others from the College community as we work to make this a successful educational campaign for our students and communities. 

Sincerely,

Bettsey Barhorst
Madison Area Technical College President