Great news, we have been successful in getting John Ratzenberger to agree to come to Kansas and present to two-year college leaders, Board of Regents members and TEA Board members (and others) at the National Center for Aviation Training in Wichita sometime this summer. Mr. Ratzenberger is a strong advocate for technical education and manufacturing and has dedicated a portion of his life to spreading the work about what he calls the “Industrial Tsunami".

Mr. Ratzenberger's work for Pixar, as well as his parts in Superman and The Empire Strikes Back, makes him the 6th most successful actor of all time, as measured by a total box office of over $3,000,000,000. John also developed packaging alternatives made from biodegradable and non-toxic recycled paper as a safe alternative to Styrofoam "peanuts" and plastic bubble wrap.

The plan is for him to be the keynote speaker of the KATC Summer Leadership Academy and then tour the Aerospace industry in the Wichita area. We are humbled by this honor and look forward to his words of wisdom. Follow this link to view some of his short taped speeches. www.centerforamerica.com

The General Advisory Council met today in the Dental Hygiene building. We had 21 participants and excellent presentations by Marilyn and Krista along with a tour of the DH facility for almost everyone there. We are so deeply grateful to our GAC members for their advice, their time, and their loyalty to MATC.

The new tinted, double-pane, high efficiency windows are being installed by Binswanger Glass down the 300 wing and the front of the building. These new windows are being funded with some of the last of the stimulus funds we received for these types of renovations. They look terrific and will help reduce energy cost for many years to come. The windows and front doors had been in place for 44 years.

Ron Fowles Construction has broken ground for the modular units. The company has erected safety fences North and South of the General Education building and will be installing utilities and foundational supports over the next few weeks. They will then transport and install the three modular units from Chapman Schools and prepare the facilities for fall classes. While this construction is going on you must not enter the sites without permission nor without a hard hat.

Finally, Manhattan Trenching will begin work soon on the 77 stall parking lot on the West hill and have that work complete in time for fall classes also.

It has certainly been a week of meetings, some by phone and some in person. The increased use of tele-conferencing is a byproduct of the recent recession as a way to save money. It has turned out to be the most effective way to conduct short meetings when there are literally hundreds of miles between participants. There are still definitely times when the direct human contact cannot be substituted but we remain watchful of distance opportunities.

Speaking of face-to-face meetings, I spent a good part of the morning yesterday with Dr. April Mason, Provost of Kansas State University. We spoke at length about the efforts already in place where MATC and KSU are working together, either in a direct instructional capacity, or an intellectual capacity. We discussed expanding these opportunities to enable both institutions to become more effective through these collaborations than we could on our own.

  

Have a great weekend everyone.

Rob

The final game of the fourth annual MATC March/April Madness Basketball Tournament was held on the 7th between Electric Power and HVAC. EP&D came out on top with a close 30 to 26 game. Thanks to all who played and to those who helped run the event.

I was out of town last week at the American Association of Community Colleges conference in New Orleans. There were over 1,400 attendees from two-year colleges including Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Australia. There were many great sessions, most of which dealt with retention and accessibility; two important issues today in Higher Ed.

Linn Schroll wanted to pass on a picture from the SCRS event his students and he attended in Kansas City on Wednesday. They toured two Kansas City shops and then we were treated to a presentation dinner with prizes and awards. According to Linn, it was a fun night and think it was a nice reward for my top six students. It was a tough job to separate the three award winners from the other three so he publicly told all six how proud he was of them and their accomplishments this year. He also singled out Nicole Moore for winning the I-CAR Education Foundation $2,000.00 scholarship. She received a huge ovation for winning that award which was nice to see and hear.

Brown v. Board of Education: in Pursuit of Freedom and Equity opened on the 13th at the College. This is another of the traveling exhibits that Donna Hobbs is obtaining for us through the Tasty Tuesday sales. In 1954, the Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education finally ended school segregation across America. Today, few people realize that African Americans in Kansas fought segregation as early as 1880, nearly a century before the Brown victory. This striking exhibit of 12 panels explores the historic struggle for equality through education, placing the Brown case in the context of earlier Kansas lawsuits, opposition to "Jim Crow" laws, and national events. Produced by the Brown Foundation for Educational Equality, Excellence and Research with support from the Kansas Humanities Council. Please stop by and see the exhibit located both in the library and in the display case across from the library. For more information, visit the Brown Foundation at http://brownvboard.org/.

Mark Claussen would like to thank everyone who participated in the MATC Spring Scholarship Recognition Social on Friday afternoon. Brittney Lorson and Amy Bergstrom were recipients of the Barbara Teaford Memorial scholarship, Avery Pierson was the recipient of the Greg Davis Building Trades scholarship, Sarah Winnie won the Human Resources Management Network scholarship, Sara Schmidt and Phillip Valentine took home the Lewis and Ernest BrAun Merit scholarship, Desa Dohrman and Chris Collins became our Lewis and Ernest BrAun Ambassadors, and, as mentioned earlier in this memo, Nicole Moore won the I-Car Foundation Collision Repair Education scholarship (national runner-up). This was a great afternoon thanks to many people and Mark has acknowledged those that helped the Foundation at this event. Nicole, Tracy, Justin, Dan, Trysta, Scott, Karen, Connie and Jamie, including a special thank you to Dr. David Craft who helped present the awards to the scholarship recipients.

Krista Hahn and Desa Dohrman were the guest speakers on this month’s KMAN Radio segment. They talked about oral cancer awareness month and our upcoming free clinic May 12 from noon till 4 p.m.. Tracy’s daughter Lindsey will be the guest speaker as an oral cancer survivor during the noon hour. Spread the word and let’s get some folks out here from a free (painless) screening.

Have a great Easter weekend everyone.

Rob

• The fourth annual MATC March/April Madness Basketball Tournament will be held in early April on the 6th and 7th. We hope to see Building Trades defend their title against all other programs. 

• Former MATC graduate Will Gold was awarded the Career Zoom Kansas Career Technical Education Success Story of the Month award for February at a recent Technical Education Authority meeting. Along with his family, Will was joined by his supervisor at Mercy Regional Hospital’s IT Department Andy Gagnon, his instructor Thad Russell, Marilyn and I.

• From our Counselor: We have two winners of the Barbara Teaford Memorial Scholarship this semester. This scholarship goes out to one outstanding student from our Practical Nursing Program and one outstanding student from our Associate Degree Nursing Program. The spring 2011 recipient from our PN Program is Brittney Lorson…congratulations Brittney! The spring 2011 recipient from our ADN Program is Amy Bergstrom…congratulations Amy! Brittney and Amy will each receive $400 and be recognized at the spring semester scholarship ceremony next Friday afternoon.

• The Human Resources Management Technology Scholarship is an award that goes out to one of our outstanding students that is currently enrolled in our Business Administration program. The spring 2011 recipient of this scholarship is Sara Winnie…congratulations Sarah! Sarah will receive a $500 scholarship and will also be recognized at our spring scholarship ceremony next Friday afternoon. Nice work Sarah!

• From our Dental Hygiene Department: BRUSH-UP on New Things Happening in the MATC Dental Hygiene Department! We are proud to announce that Michael Wangsgaard, DDS has accepted the position as dentist for our dental hygiene clinic. He begins on April 18th and will continue next fall to be present at all dental hygiene clinic sessions. We are thrilled to have Dr. Wangsgaard as a part of our growing team of allied dental educators. A special thank you to those who have volunteered in our dental hygiene clinic. We appreciate the time you have taken away from private practice to serve in this capacity. Please look for future opportunities to volunteer…

• Tracy was elected Vice President of the Association of Kansas Community College Office Professionals (AKCCOP) board. With the duties, she will be responsible for putting together and distributing The Kansas Kollator, a report from each college that is put out every spring and fall. The picture at right is Tracy and other board members doing the AKCCOP RAP at the recent conference.

• Max Roberts, an MATC welding student won the Neosho County Community College TIG welding competition a couple of weeks ago. Ironically, two years ago the 2nd place winner of that contest was former MATC student and Max’s boss, Mike Vehaven. We are, to say the least, very proud of Max.

• I will be out of town next week at the American Association of Community Colleges conference in New Orleans. This is a great organization that advocates for two-year colleges at the national level on a constant basis. I hope to have an enjoyable time there or as the folks from Louisiana say "Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez".

Have a great weekend everyone.

Rob