TO: The College Community
FROM: R. Thomas Flynn, President
DATE: December 4, 2002
RE: Fall 2002 Update
Happy Holidays. I hope all members of our college community enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday. It is certainly a time to give thanks for family, friends and community.
Since my last update communication to you in April, much has happened and been accomplished at MCC. Please excuse the length of this memorandum, but I believe it’s important that our college community be aware of important changes and progress in our institution.
In April, I asked for the college community’s patience and assistance in managing the disruptions of our building projects—the campus center and residence halls. I am very proud and appreciative of all our faculty, staff and students who have worked together in these trying times of so much construction interruption in daily activities. Your patience and flexibility have been remarkable and I thank you all. I promise that one day all the backhoes, trailers and cranes will be out of here. In the meantime, I have asked Dick Degus in our Planning Office to provide you with periodic progress reports on both facilities.
I want to offer a special thanks to all those working in Student Services. I recognize it has been a difficult year with the student center out of commission, but the extra efforts from each of you in adjusting programs so that our students have a complete college experience is commendable. As I talk with our student leaders, it is apparent to me that you’ve done your job well. They are excited about what they’re doing and about the opportunities for the future with their new campus center.
In addition to the co-curricular area, the Advisement, Counseling, Transfer and Placement, and Hospitality departments have required many changes in operations due to construction. You’ve adjusted remarkably well and again I’m very proud to witness the extraordinary efforts you are making to assist our students.
FINANCES, ETC.
I know you have read and heard much about the financial plights of both Monroe County and our state. The obvious question is “How does this affect MCC?”
Thanks to our increasing enrollment, MCC continues to be a financially strong institution. However, we must recognize that obtaining increased funding from the county and the state in the next year or two is going to be very difficult. Thus, it is important that we continue to grow our enrollment for the additional revenue we need to maintain our operations and that we be good managers of our resources.
Yes, our enrollment continues to be very strong. We set record enrollments in the past two years with increases of 9 percent (2002) and 5.5 percent (2001). Currently, inquiries and registrations for the spring semester are up and we anticipate another record year in 2003-2004. This enrollment growth is only possible because of our strong academic reputation and the excellent service we provide this community.
A major factor of growing our enrollment is our continuing development of desired academic programs. I want to compliment all those in our Academic Services Division and especially our Faculty Senate for their continued diligence in moving new programs forward and adjusting our curriculums where appropriate. Our teacher education programs are developing; we anticipate submitting them to the State Education Department for approval within the month. Additionally, a new A.A.S. degree in business administration has been developed. This collaboration between the Faculty Senate and the various administrative offices pays great dividends in keeping our college at the forefront of the needs of this community.
The MCC Foundation is continuing to grow and to assist the college in developing many new partnerships. Our current capital campaign is well on its way to a successful conclusion; we will announce it to the public in the next few weeks. That announcement will contain further details on our campaign progress, so please watch for it.
Also, let me take this time to encourage as many as possible to attend our Salute to Excellence dinner on December 11. We are honoring Tom Mooney, president of the Greater Rochester Metro Chamber of Commerce, who has been a great friend to our institution. In addition, we will be inducting four alumni into the Alumni Hall of Fame, including our counselor extraordinaire, Betty Smith. For you golfing addicts, MCC alumnus Jeff Sluman will join us as one of our inductees as well.
The “etc.” part of this section is technology. I continue to marvel at our many technology advances. The ETS Division has made good progress on the challenge of compatibility between the Damon and Brighton campuses. The Admissions, and Registration and Records offices are busy implementing an imaging project that will shift us from paper records to electronic ones. And the MCC Daily Tribune has harnessed technology to make college communications more in-depth and more manageable.
ACADEMIC NEWS
Let me update you on activities at our newest facility, the Public Safety Training Facility. If you have not had an opportunity to tour the PSTF, you should do so in the near future. This facility is providing police, firefighting and emergency medical training in Monroe County and beyond. In fact, we’ve just completed aircraft rescue firefighting training for 36 firefighters from Athens, Greece. This training was particularly important to them as they prepare for the 2004 Olympics in their city. An additional 66 firefighters from Athens will be here in the spring of 2003.
Many of you know the college has been actively pursuing an opportunity to participate in homeland security training, especially for airports and other transportation systems. We are currently hosting training provided by Lockheed Martin for airport security screeners at the Greater Rochester International Airport. We hope to become a regional center for airport security training.
Developing partnerships like the one with Lockheed Martin continues to help us meet community needs. Another example is the recently announced $1 million investment from the hospital and insurance communities to assist us in increasing our nursing student enrollment. By working with these healthcare partners, we will be able to hire the faculty and acquire the additional learning materials needed to prepare more nurses, thereby helping to meet a community need.
FACULTY AND STAFF
A very attractive retirement program offered to our faculty and staff has enticed about two dozen faculty and staff to leave us this December. Some of our most talented individuals will be retiring, and while we wish them well, we are certainly going to miss their contributions to MCC. Of course I hope many of the faculty retirees will continue to teach on an adjunct basis for us.
During the past two years we have hired a number of exceptional faculty and staff. As our more senior faculty say to me, “This institution is in good hands with the new people we are bringing on board.” This is comforting news given the many retirements in the last few years. On a related note, the Teaching and Creativity Center and Associate Professor of English Barbara Lovenheim have developed EDU 500, our replacement to the University of Rochester course for new faculty. This new professional development opportunity will help us further develop the good faculty we have hired.
I am also pleased by our successes in hiring diverse faculty. I reported on our successes at All College Day, but it is worth mentioning again, particularly the extra efforts of some faculty in helping us develop stronger, more diverse pools of prospective faculty.
STUDENTS
Of course, I want to mention some of the outstanding accomplishments of our students. Let me start with the student leaders responsible for our September 11 Remembrance Walk. Colleges and universities across this country marked the one-year anniversary of the tragedies in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania. However, I’ve seen no commemoration that equals or surpasses what our MCC students did. I hope all of you have taken the time to visit the memorial located just outside the gymnasium.
Our Phi Theta Kappa chapter continues to distinguish itself. In October the Alpha Theta Iota chapter collected $18,500 for cancer research by walking in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk and selling pink carnations at area malls. Additionally, the students gathered hats, scarves and bandannas for the national Hats Off for Cancer Project, which collects hats for children undergoing chemotherapy. Our chapter has earned Phi Theta Kappa’s Pinnacle Award, recognizing membership growth of at least 10 percent. Now 379 members strong, the Alpha Theta Iota Chapter will be recognized at the upcoming regional and international Phi Theta Kappa conferences.
Our Peer Mentors have met their goal of raising funds to bring the AIDS quilt back to campus. Through a variety of fundraisers over the last 18 months, the Peer Mentors have raised the $2,000 necessary to bring the quilt to campus in September 2003.
The fall athletic season has been very successful. Both our women’s and men’s soccer teams won their regional championships and our women advanced to the national championship, losing a well-fought contest by just one goal.
This year’s Student Senate has many talented individuals who are actively working on faculty committees and in many other ways to improve our institution.
And just before Thanksgiving I received the news from our Nursing Department that in the most recent testing period 91 percent of MCC graduates passed their RN exam, well above the state and national averages of 86 and 87 percent, respectively. Kudos to the nursing faculty and all their students.
In closing, I again want to thank every member of this college community for their part in assuring that our institution identifies and addresses the needs of our community. I have highlighted a few of our successes; there are so many more that are equally deserving of mention but to do so would add even more pages to this lengthy memorandum. I only wish you could hear all of the plaudits that come to my office for the job we do here at MCC. I assure you, you are doing your job well.
So as I write this letter on Thanksgiving eve, I am warmed by all that our college community has to be thankful for. I hope each of you take time to reflect on the goodness we have at our fingertips and that you each enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Best wishes for the remaining holiday season.
R. Thomas Flynn
President's Office
12/04/2002 |