Skip to main content

MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


Recently, I learned of a request made by Faculty Association leadership to Faculty Senate leadership to reconvene the Faculty Resource Committee (FRC). My understanding of the FRC is that it has been convened in the past to find a means of retaining faculty whose positions might be at jeopardy of elimination due to enrollment decline. I know that word of this request has reached some of you and created anxiety.

As I shared with the leadership of the Faculty Association, the Faculty Senate, and CSEA, MCC is not (I repeat, not) contemplating eliminating any position--faculty, staff, or administrative--currently occupied by a College employee. Let me underscore this: MCC has no intent to layoff any existing employee.

My consistent message to the College community has been that MCC has an institutional responsibility to honor all negotiated contracts and a responsibility to our dedicated employees. Over my seven years at MCC, despite significant decreases in state funding and post-recession declines in enrollment, the College has not wavered on this commitment.

It has not escaped my notice nor, likely, yours, that several of our SUNY community college peers are facing significant financial difficulties. Some have moved to lay off faculty and staff; others have eliminated offices and services/programs; some have done both. The same can be said of several regional private colleges. Please understand clearly: MCC's ongoing dedication to fiscal responsibility and institutional efficiency means our College is not in this position.

Over the past few years, MCC has avoided the situation facing our peers by adhering to and increasing fiscal controls and containing costs. We have taken steps to formalize the review of open positions and assess institutional expenditures. The College has also become more diligent in aligning the offered course schedule with predicted and demonstrated enrollment. MCC has also increased our ability to anticipate enrollment more reliably and realistically. In these ways and more, together, we will continue to be diligent in safeguarding MCC's financial future.

Thanks to our culture of innovation, MCC is home to exciting initiatives that are designed to improve student retention and success and to cultivate enrollment from new markets. This list is a long one, and includes the Academies model, the Virtual Campus and OpenSUNY efforts, the continuing Title III projects, new programs to increase minority male success, growing workforce partnerships, and more. The engagement of our dedicated faculty and staff in these initiatives and programs has always been and will continue to be essential to their successful outcomes.

When our alumni say that MCC has changed their lives, they are talking about you. You have inspired them. The horizon holds great opportunity for our College and our students. We know that we will reach it faster--and better--together.

If you have suggestions regarding where MCC can do more to manage costs or create efficiencies, please post them in the comments on the blog, or send them to Assistant Vice President for Administrative Services and co-chair of the Budget Resource Committee Darrell Jachim-Moore.


Anne M. Kress
Office of the President
10/28/2015