I’m tempted to begin with “It was 20 years ago today …” because, hard as it is to believe, it really was two decades and two presidents ago that MCC first had a vision of a true college campus in downtown Rochester. This campus would support the College’s access mission by providing high quality, highly effective, higher education to students in the City of Rochester. The goal was a simple one: create a college campus that met the needs of an urban population, a campus that reflected their hopes, dreams, and aspirations. The process to create the campus, however, turned out to be anything but simple. As years passed and locations and opening dates came and went, the Damon City Campus remained in its “temporary” home in Sibley.
At one of my first public meetings in Rochester, I watched from the sidelines as Renaissance Square fell apart—and with it, years of planning and work. MCC being MCC, we did not throw up our hands and call it a day. Instead, we went back to the beginning, to why we went downtown, to the students we serve, to the community we help build, to the promise of a better future we make a reality. And, driven by this promise, we reached out to build support for our downtown vision and mission.
And, finally, Tuesday night, 20 years after MCC first sought support for a new downtown campus, we got it! The County Legislature voted to bond the first segment of funds necessary for the new DCC.
It is a time to celebrate what we have achieved and a time to thank so many who have made this result possible.
First among them are our students. Not only are they the reason we have pushed forward year after year, they pushed alongside us and sometimes even pulled us with them. They convinced the community it was “Time to Move.” Their leadership is inspiring, and this campus is their victory.
The list of those to thank could go on for some time: our amazing faculty and staff who advocate consistently for our students; our Trustees who have stuck with this project through every challenge; our County Executive, her team, and the Legislators whose belief in MCC, our students, and our vision carried the vote; our community leaders and the many citizens who spoke out on MCC’s behalf; our new neighbors downtown in High Falls who have welcomed us enthusiastically; our partners at Kodak who have been so generous with their time on countless tours; and, of course, SUNY who has been patiently waiting with funds for more than a decade.
We’ve always had resolve. Now, we have a resolution.
There are other votes ahead, and plenty of work still to go on planning, designing, and consensus building. But today, we can pause and say …
Congratulations, MCC! We did it!
I welcome your thoughts on the blog.
Anne M. Kress
President's Office
12/12/2012 |