MCC Daily Tribune
End of the Semester Message
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” - Henry Ford.
The 2025-2026 academic year at MCC has been simply remarkable! And, we’re not done yet.
MCC students are achieving greater degrees of academic success; more are enrolling, sustaining enrollment, and graduating at historic levels.
Beyond the classroom, MCC students are honing their leadership skills while increasing in confidence, civic awareness, community service, and so much more. Fewer are experiencing homelessness and food insecurity thanks to the diligent work of many professional staff and the generosity of our community. The Hope Center Student Basic Needs Survey, administered again in 2024 as part of our participation in the Hope Impact Partnerships Program, showed a 20% decrease in food insecurity and a 5% decrease in housing insecurity since we first conducted the survey in 2016.
Students overwhelmingly describe MCC’s impact as inspiring a sense of “hope” and “belonging” in ways not experienced before and an objective team of peer evaluators from MCC’s institutional accreditor--the Middle States Commission on Higher Education--commended the College for the same. We are living out my North Star for the College, “catalyzing bright futures for our community and its people” and reaffirming what I brag about everywhere I go, something we already know—excellence is everywhere at MCC.
At the same time, I acknowledge that many members of our community continue to face acts of hatred and incivility on a routine basis. This reality is real, persistent, and deeply personal for far too many of us. I know this to be true and real for many, including myself. As a member of a marginalized population of people, too many of us continue to be subjected to hatred and incivility routinely, rejected and targeted for being of a particular ability or disability, citizenship, ethnic group, gender identity, religion, or socioeconomic status. Each of us long to be seen as human, valued, safe, and welcomed in all spaces and contexts.
Therefore, I once again appeal to everyone at MCC to unite, intentionally and compassionately, to serve as co-creators of the conditions all humans desire as inalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - whether you identify as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI); Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); Disabled/Uniquely-Abled; Formerly Incarcerated; Immigrant; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ+); Low-incomed; Rural; Veteran; Woman; or anything beyond or in between. As I have made clear before, in both words and deeds, you belong here and we thank you for making MCC such an incredibly diverse and enriched place to learn and work. Remember, “The whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts”—we are stronger “Together as One,” and WE are MCC.
And, as I conclude my fifth year serving as MCC’s sixth President and look ahead with optimism to our next chapter together, I remain in awe of you; and, I am profoundly thankful for you.
Students: Thank you for entrusting MCC with your educational journey and allowing us to be part of your growth, discovery, and success.
Employees: Thank you for giving your best daily to living out our North Star—catalyzing bright futures for our community and its people, helping MCC remain the “community jewel” it has long been known to be.
As the academic year comes to a close, I wish you time for rest, reflection, and renewal, and I look forward with great hope to what we will accomplish next, Together as One, because WE are MCC. Finally, all, congratulations on a job well-done. Finish strong, and please enjoy a safe and enriching summer.
DeAnna Burt-Nanna
Office of the President
05/11/2026