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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


Over the summer, each member of the president's staff will take over this Wednesday Message to share his or her response on change, learning, students and community colleges. They will reflect on how swirling changes in higher education impact their work, their offices/division, and their focus on student success. This week's message comes from Michael McDonough, Provost and Vice President, Academic Services.

A Change is Going to Come (Sam Cooke)

In the intense heat of the civil and cultural revolutions of 1964, Sam Cooke’s now iconic blues anthem captured the hope of a generation: “It’s been a long, a long time coming/But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.” Today, we have the opportunity to embrace that same transformative optimism. Higher education is undergoing radical change and the MCC community is helping to both shape and to lead this urgent national conversation. Nowhere is this spirit of change more evident than in the classroom.

MCC’s innovative faculty and engaged staff are tackling an impressive array of challenges. Our colleagues are promoting the kind of change that will improve graduation rates, enhance student success, and support a culture of sustained excellence. These issues are full of promise and suggest the many ways in which they are helping to reshape our college. Today, you are

--         promoting the infusion of a global perspective into the general education curriculum, recognizing that our students will live in a new era of internationalization;

--         exploring creative ways for our students to practice civic engagement, realizing that engaged and ethical citizens are vital for the new century;

--         asserting that high impact teaching practices are the hallmarks of an MCC education;

--         creating a new and more dynamic partnership with K-12, a union that champions the Common Core, aligns curricula, and supports intentional career and college readiness;

--         advocating for a new vision of general education, a radical framework that is interdisciplinary and that asks students to apply knowledge across all disciplines.

Of course, this list highlights only a fraction of the college-wide innovation currently in progress. Henry David Thoreau, an agent of change from an earlier century, quietly observed that “things do not change; we change.” So, whatever your role on campus, I challenge you to think about the way you can attract, enroll, retain, educate, and graduate the diverse students we serve. Your dynamic and passionate engagement empowers our students and changes lives. Surely that is the most profound and inspiring change we can ever hope to support.

I look forward to your thoughts on
the blog.

Michael J. McDonough, Provost and Vice President,
Academic Services
07/25/2012