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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

President's Wednesday Message


First, I want to thank President’s Staff for their messages over the past few weeks.  As their essays underscored, MCC’s status as a leader among community colleges is well-earned.  We continue to exhibit innovative practice and bold action for a clear purpose: improving student learning and success.  Credit for MCC’s continued commitment to excellence goes to all members of our community.  Time and time again, empowering identifies for meaningful collaboration—inside and outside our colleges—as a necessary condition for success.  At MCC, we know the inspiring results that arise from working together to put learning first. Thank you for building, sustaining, and furthering MCC’s reputation for quality and vitality.

Sometimes, though, world events can make it difficult for us to focus all our attention and energy on “learning first.”  News stories on Ebola are certainly pulling some of our thoughts away.  No students from Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone or Nigeria are enrolled at MCC, but recent events show that we all must still be aware and at the ready to respond to an Ebola diagnosis in our community. Please know that MCC nurse Susan George, RN, is an active member of the Rochester Chapter of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and is sharing information with our college community on a regular basis.  

Recently, Chancellor Nancy Zimpher provided updated
guidance to all 64 campuses on SUNY's response to this issue; Vice Presidents Simmons and Holmes are coordinating MCC's response to these new requirements.  Public Safety Director Sal Simonetti has been asked by the SUNY Deputy Commissioner of University Police to sit on the system's newly established statewide Ebola task force.  MCC will also be hosting a long planned Point of Dispensing exercise in early January to test our community's ability to respond in a health emergency.  While this exercise was in the works before the heightened Ebola concerns, it could not be more timely.  

All of these efforts share a common goal of preparation.  A central tenet of preparation is well known to all of us--education.  So, in the spirit of education, please remember that in the midst of discussions about Ebola, the greatest seasonal health risk to our College community still comes from something far more mundane: the flu.  MCC has already begun its annual flu shot clinics for students and employees, and I encourage you to participate if you have not already done so.  My gratitude goes out to Health Services and Public Safety for their collaborative commitment to informing, preparing and protecting our community.


Please share your thoughts on the blog.

Anne M. Kress
Office of the President
10/29/2014