Our 2010 – 2011 school year is over, and with its end we bid farewell to Ron Bell (retiring), Thad Russell (Taking a Dean’s position at Dodge CCC), and Karen Tolliver (who will be working at home for the time being). We had the opportunity to have a small get together last week and wish them all fare well.

We are really “Living the Mission” out here this week (Manhattan Area Technical College provides quality technical and general education to prepare individuals to pursue technologically advanced careers and lead productive lives). Besides the two construction companies hard at work on the modular buildings and parking lot, just in the past two days we’ve had electricians, overhead door people, locksmith, plumbers, HVAC techs, filter changers, windows contractors, and even an architect on campus working with their hands and minds to make MATC an even nicer place to hang our hats during the day. 

New Overhead Doors in ACR and AT


 




Modular Science Building Foundation





400 Wing Windows

 


Front Windows

Parking Lot Excavation











The commencement and pinning ceremonies went wonderfully. The keynote speakers representing the PN and RN classes did a great job and Will Gold really dazzled the graduates and audience with his excellent speech. As an added bonus, we had our own Linn Schroll take the walk to receive his Associate of Applied Science degree during the ceremony.

Linn Schroll’s father James Russell Schroll passed away May 10 at the age of 88. Our heartfelt condolences go out to Linn and his family during this difficult time.

Marilyn attended a National Security Agency (NSA) Cyber Security (CSEC) meeting earlier this week in Oklahoma. She was able to bring back many pearls of wisdom that will help us manage our recently awarded NSA grant in this area.



Mike Rowe at Congress



Mike Rowe testified before Congress two weeks ago on behalf of working men and women.  Watch his presentation at ... http://www.mikeroweworks.com/2011/05/mike-rowe-speaks-to-commerce-science-and-transportation-committee/

I was able to meet with three Legislative teams on my Washington DC trip a couple of weeks ago. We have developed a modified strategy involving the Department of Homeland Security. More to come.

Memorial Day is Monday and it is the beginning of our summer four day weeks. The office is open from 7am – 6pm M-TH until the end of July.

Have a great Memorial weekend everyone.

Rob

Our Dental Hygiene students and staff, along with professionals from the surrounding area, held an oral cancer clinic on Thursday May 12, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. giving free neck and head cancer screenings following our motivational speaker/cancer survivor Lindsay Geisler’s presentation.

I had some great conversations and received some recommendations from our Washington Legislative Staff while in DC earlier in the week. I also had a good visit with Congresswoman Jenkins who wants to come back and visit with us again soon. I understand from Staff that she is supporting the funding of Perkins for another year and we appreciate it. While there are exciting times coming associated with the arrival of NBAF there is still a large piece of the puzzle missing; enough qualified laboratory technicians to support the scientists who will transfer with the organizational move. As we are acutely aware, the technicians will not be following the move and we must prepare a large workforce between now and then. This is why I continue to work on the Health and Science building as well as an Advanced Technology Center for the T&I skills that will be needed to maintain and operate these sophisticated buildings.

Nurse pinning starts in about an hour followed by commencement exercises at 7:00 pm. I hope the weather holds out and rain doesn’t ruin anyone’s nice clothes.

We are also ready to see some of our construction projects wind down and others gear up even more as summer approaches. We appreciate the support from the city and federal government and other donors that help us expand even when budgets have been cut so severely over the past few years. Without their help we would not be able to serve our community as we have.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Rob

The Student Government Organization’s annual BBQ was a big hit. I sure wouldn’t want to be teaching a class this afternoon competing with all of those full stomachs. Thanks to our SGO members and advisors for pulling off another great feast. We served over 225 hungry students and employees.

Spring commencement will be held at McCain Auditorium at 7:00 on Friday, May 13th. Former MATC student William Gold will be our speaker. If you remember, Will was the recipient of the Career Zoom Kansas Career Technical Education Success Story of the Month award for February at a recent Technical Education Authority meeting.

Our semi-annual Nursing Pinning will be held Friday, May 13 at 3:30 in the University Christian Church’s sanctuary. A pinning ceremony is a symbolic welcoming of newly-graduated nurses into the nursing profession. The new nurses are presented with nursing pins by the faculty of the nursing division. Some nursing schools have stopped holding the pinning ceremony, claiming it is an outdated ritual but we value it as a rite of passage. The Amicus Humani Generis: on the Practical Nursing pin means “A friend of the human race”. (Click on the picture to enlarge.)

Speaking of Nursing students, this just came in from Becky Claus, our Division Chair of Nursing and Allied Health:  " We've just received Certificates of Excellence from the Kansas State Board of Nursing for both PN and ADN programs for achieving a licensure pass rate that exceeds the national average in 2010.  Congratulations to a great group of faculty members, and to a great group of graduates who were responsible for this success."  We at MATC surely know who has the best Nursing Program in the State, don't we?

I have been invited back to Washington DC to meet with Senators Moran and Roberts as well as Congresswoman Jenkins. We will once again discuss the critical need for a Health and Science building on campus. While there, I will also be making a plea to our legislators to vote against any Perkins funding cuts. There is presently a $1 billion cut being proposed which would equate to a loss of the technical education funds in Kansas of $131.5 million for the FY 2013 school year. This coming year's cut  to MATC’s portion of Perkins is $40 thousand.

While April was Dental Hygiene Oral Cancer Awareness month our Dental Hygiene students and staff, along with professionals from the surrounding area, will be in MATC’s Dental Hygiene Clinic on Thursday May 12, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. giving free head and neck cancer screenings following our motivational speaker/cancer survivor Lindsay Geisler’s presentation at 12:00 p.m.in room 304.

MATC Hosted this year’s F.F.A. Ag Mechanics Career Development Event (CDE) where 122 students from 33 school districts across Kansas competed against each other for gold and silver honors. This CDE tests both technical and agricultural mechanics skills and the student’s ability to work with others while solving problems. During the event, members complete a written exam and demonstrate problem-solving and hands-on performance skills. The event takes a “systems” approach and emphasizes machinery and equipment systems, related industry and marketing systems, energy systems, structural systems and environmental/ natural resource systems. Labette County School took first place overall this year, while Chase Wagner was the top individual. Chase is from Rock Hills High School in Mankato.

Information & Network Technology sophomores gave their end-of-program capstone presentation to a huge crowd of over 60 attendees, to include our six external IT expert judges. As I have said before, this is one of the finest demonstrations of competency-based evidence of learning I have ever seen.

The ADN students held their annual poster presentation in the Commons this year. I certainly hope everyone took the time to go and appreciate all the hard work these students put into their research and subsequent demonstration of knowledge related to a huge variety of health and welfare issues.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Ruder, Adjunct Speech Instructor, on the birth of her 8 lb 2 oz baby girl, Harper Jude Ruder on May 3rd.  Mother and daughter are doing great.

As the semester begins to wind down and the culmination of work begins moving from the classrooms and offices into public view we get more and more opportunities to see the fruits of our people's labor.  Just this month we had on-campus events involving INT, Nursing, Dental Hygiene, Auto Collision Repair, Welding and others. We have BT finishing another house and had our HVAC students working on the site to install the heating and cooling system. Over the past few weeks we’ve had PAC meetings with great participation for BA, CAD, EP&D, HVAC, and others. It is such a busy time and before you know it, the year is over again.  At the same time all of the academic functions are happening Student Services gets busier and busier giving tours, interviewing potential students, coordinating graduation and end-of-semester activities and preparing for the summer semester.  Our business office is processing all of those transactions that come in just under the end-of-year wire. Our support services are moving furniture, keeping the grounds up, and handling the additional cleaning needs that come with spring mud and more bodies on campus. IT is ordering computers, servers, and materials to upgrade systems before the next school year rushes in. The Library and Learning lab gets fuller and fuller as finals approach and our administrative assistants and other professionals pull all the pieces together that make all of these other activities possible.  In short, everyone is doing a magnificent job and it shows.   This is Employee Appreciation Week and it is also Nursing and Teacher Appreciation Day. I can think of no better time to tell you the same thing that I tell the public and others at the technical and community colleges: MATC is the greatest and this is the best place that I have ever worked because it is filled with professionals who care and aren’t afraid to show it.  Thanks to all that make MATC the Best College in Kansas! By the way…Happy Cinco de Mayo too.

By the way...we mustn’t forget Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 8th

Have a great weekend everyone.

Rob