www.mcccagora.com

THE

Aug. 26, 2010 Vol. 55, Issue 1

goraA

Serving Monroe County Community College since 1968

Inside:

LAL/Writing Center:Mon - Thurs: 8 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.Fri: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.Sat: 9 a.m- 1:00 p.m

Fitness Center Hours:Mon - Thurs: 10 a.m. - 7:30Fri - Sat: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Bookstore Hours:Mon - 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.Tue - Fri: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Library Hours:Mon - Thur: 8 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.Fri: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Sat: 9 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Campus News..................2,3,4

Feature............................5,6,7 Sports..............................8

Check out The Agora online atwww.mcccagora.com“Like” us on Follow us on

MCCC Study Abroad visits

Spain, Portugal

Page 7August 29, 2013 Vol. 58, Issue 1

Julia Wells Agora Staff

MCCC’s new president, Kojo Quartey, seeks to expand student horizons.

“The world is our market-place!” he said. “Let’s grow globally.”

Bringing a more multicul-tural focus to MCCC is just one of the many goals of the new president, who was unani-mously hired by the MCCC Board of Trustees in May.

Dr. Quartey’s worldly ambi-tions may be attributed to his upbringing and travels in his time as a student and educator.

He was born in Ghana, West Africa, and lived there for 11 years.

His father was Ghana’s min-ister of foreign affairs; when Quartey was ten, the family moved to Washington D.C., where he spent most of his school years.

He finished high school in Ghana and returned to Amer-ica at 19. He went on to earn his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Missis-sippi State University.

His most recent job was provost of the City Colleges of Chicago, where he was in charge of seven colleges.

This is not his first time in Michigan; he spent five years working as the dean of the business school at Davenport University in Grand Rapids.

Despite spending time in countries all over the world, he is no stranger to small town living. He spent 11 years work-ing in Talladega, Alabama.

“I just love the small town atmosphere, where you get to know people,” he said. “The smaller a community is, the more of an impact one can make.”

“I thrive on community in-teraction,” he said.

This was something Quartey missed while in Chicago over-seeing 120,000 students.

“There was no direct contact with students and faculty,” he

said. Quartey said this semester

he likely will be seen walk-ing around campus, interact-ing with everyone he can. In his first few weeks on campus, he has made the effort to meet one-on-one with faculty mem-bers.

“What we want to do here is not only to change this institu-tion, but to really impact the entire community and take this community to the next level,” he said.

Something Quartey hopes to accomplish in his time here is to get students to think glob-ally in terms of success. He hopes that incorporating more multicultural studies and op-portunities will give students an advantage.

“Your competition is going to be global,” he said. “If you really want to compete against the world, you want to expand your cultural horizons,”

He also encourages students to learn a second language — he himself speaks four lan-guages.

Quartey hopes to reach stu-dents internationally by part-nering with global companies here in town. He hopes to bring more diversity to the school in order for the community to better reflect the world.

He also understands that students today face a plethora of challenges when it comes to their education. He advises them to keep an optimistic view of their future.

“You invest a little in your future for a greater return,” he said.

Times have certainly changed since Quartey was a college student — advances in technology are an obvious example. For the most part, technology is an advantage, he said. But in some instances, it’s hurting us.

“It’s helping because we have all the information at our fingertips. But there is a reli-ance on technology, that’s how

Photo by Katie Mullin

A sign in the Admission’s Office informs students that the MCCC child care center will be closed fall semester.

Enrollment for fall down 5 percent

Page 2

Board cuts ribbon on CTC buildingKatie MullinAgora Staff

The red ribbon was cut. The time had come. The Career Technology Center opened its doors.

In a special ribbon cutting ceremony, new MCCC President Kojo Quartey spoke to a crowd of around 250, announcing the grand opening of the 60,000 square foot building.

“The opening of this building is a watershed moment,” Quartey said.

From the podium, Quartey pointed to an electric car parked on the sidewalk.

“I drove that this morning, because that ve-hicle was created by our students,” he said.

Quartey honored the former college presi-dents, including MCCC’s most recent presi-dent, Dr. David Nixon.

“The legacy was built by the previous presi-dent. He’s a legend; I have big shoes to fill,” Quartey said about Nixon.

Nixon stepped forward and explained the importance of the CTC building, which was built during a period of economic stagnation.

“With every crisis comes opportunity,” he said. “We will move forward.”

The $17 million building will offer programs in the technology and engineering fields. The building features spacious labs in areas such as nuclear and renewable energy.

Bill Bacarella, chairman of the Board of Trustees, honored the MCCC College Sup-porter of the Year. This year the award went to Monroe County’s legislative delegation in Lansing.

He commended the state representatives and senator for their committed efforts to move

grant funding forward through the state Leg-islature.

As a result, MCCC was awarded half of the building’s cost — $8.5 million. The remain-ing balance is being raised through a capital campaign.

The winners of the annual College Sup-porter of the Year award included Sen. Randy Richardville, Rep. Dale Zorn, former Rep. Kathy Angerer, the late Kate Ebli and Rep. Rick Olson.

“As I look back, I look forward,” said Zorn, who represents District 56.

Zorn, a former MCCC student, took auto-

motive technology classes at the college.“I came to hone in on these skills,” he said-

after the ceremony. “Skilled labor is so important, and it’s a part

of who we are.”A representative for Rick Snyder, governor

for Michigan, read a special tribute.“Without question, CTC will be an asset to

students,” he said.Other speakers included U.S. Sen. Carl

Levin and U.S. Reps. John Dingell and Tim Walberg.

After the commemoration speeches, the politicans, board members and other MCCC leaders gathered behind the red ribbon.

Bacarella and Board member Linda Lauer stood in front to help cut the ribbon with an oversized pair of scissors.

At first, the ribbon did not snip into two pieces.

“I’m trying,” Lauer said. Finally, the ribbon parted and the building

was officially open. Guided tours were available for the public

afterward. On the same day, MCCC and DTE Energy

unveiled an Enrico Fermi (Fermi 1) historical exhibit within the CTC. The exhibit covers the history and importance the nuclear plant, locarted just north of Monroe. An afternoon ribbon cutting ceremony was held outside the CTC building at a monument that formerly stood at the Fermi I plant.

As students return to school and classes in the new building, Rep. Zorn said they should remember one thing as they enter.

“Take every opportunity you can,” he said.

Child Care Center closes doors, future unclearKatie Mullin Agora Staff

MCCC’s child-care center has been left in limbo.

Randy Daniels, vice president of student ser-vices, said in an email last week that the former director of the child care center, Diana Cramer, has decided not to operate the child care center this fall.

Daniels said he has been scrambling to try to have another plan for students who will be re-turning to classes this week.

“Given the timeframe for acquiring licensure from the State of Michigan, it will take 3-6 months for a new vendor to get licensed and op-erate on our campus. Therefore, we cannot of-fer child care services on campus this semester,” Daniels said.

In a telephone interview, Daniels said it is not known yet whether childcare services will be provided next semester.

Located in the Health Building, the child-care facility has been under threat of closing its doors due to dwindling funds. However, the Board of Trustees voted in July to keep it open under a private employer, no longer operated by MCCC.

At its June 24 meeting, the Board of Trustees decided to accept an offer by Cramer, who was the child care center’s director for 33 years. Re-quests for proposals to operate the center had been submitted to 20 vendors within the com-munity.

“During her tenure, she has provided excellent service for the students requiring child care,” Daniels said at the June 24 meeting.

Cramer could not be reached for comment. Daniels further elaborated in the email that all

inquires should be referred to nearby locations such as Meadow Montessori School or the In-termediate School District.

“I talked to Kathy Calder (Principal) over at Montessori and let her know we will be refer-ring students to her,” he said.

Arrangements are being made to have MCCC students drop off their children at the private school.

Crystal Willit, secretary of the early childhood program, said the Intermediate School District does not have a regular daycare program for non-special needs children, but has an Early Head Start program for those 0-3 years. The program provides education on parenting and child development through home visitations. It is currently accepting applications, but the pro-gram is waitlisted.

For more information please call: Meadow Montessori 734-241-9496 or Intermediate School District 242-5454.

MCCC greets new president, CTC

Photo by Reggie Allen

President Kojo Quartey shakes hands with U.S. Sen. Carl Levin at the ribbon-cutting cer-emony.

Quartey hopes to take MCCC to “next level”

Photo by Reggie Allen

President Kojo Quartey stands proudly in front of the new building. For more photos of the new building, see page 3

“This is a roadmap to prosperity; education can take you to a place called prosperity.”

Dr. Kojo Quartey New MCCC President,referring

to the map in his education box

See PRESIDENT, Page 2

August 29, 2013 campus news mcccagora.com • The Agora | 2

Reggie Allen Ray Bell Katie GerweckTim Green

Morgan HofbaurMelanie JacobsWilliam MikoKatie Mullins

The Agora Editorial PolicyThe Agora is published by the students of Monroe County Community Col-

lege, 1555 S. Raisinville Rd., Monroe, MI, 48161. The editorial office is located in Room 202 of the Life Sciences Bldg., (734) 384-4186, agora@monroeccc.edu.

Editorial policy: Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of The Agora staff. Signed columns represent the opinion of the writer. All letters to the editor must include a signature, address and phone number for verification pur-poses. The Agora reserves the right to edit for clarity, accuracy, length and libel.

The Agora is a student-managed newspaper that supports a free student press and is a member of the Michigan Community College Press Association, the Michigan Collegiate Press Association, the Michigan Press Association, Col-lege Media Advisers, Associated Collegiate Press and the Student Press Law Center.

Story suggestions are welcome. Let us know what you’d like to see in The Agora - it’s your newspaper. E-mail submissions: agora@monroeccc.edu .

EditorJulia Wells

Adviser:Dan Shaw

Contributers

Continued from page 1it’s hurting us.” he said. “The other way

it’s hurting us is in my day you really needed to know how to spell and write. It’s dumb-ing our kids down.”

Despite his qualms about technology, he is ultimately a fan and has big plans for the campus’s new Career Technology Center.

“I’m thinking about new academic pro-grams we could have in there: wind energy and engineering, auto-tech, hybrids and electric cars — that’s the next level of tech-nology,” he said.

“That’s where the world is going.” Sitting on his desk among family pictures

is his “education box” — a prop he uses when encouraging kids that education is the answer.

Its contents include a medicine bottle, a key, and a map, each symbolizing a way in which education is the answer.

“Education cures poverty; it has done it for me. The key to success is education; it can open so many doors for you,” he said.

“This is a roadmap to prosperity; educa-tion can take you to a place called prosper-ity.”

President praises role of education

Katie Gerweck For the Agora

MCCC privatized the Copy Center this summer, and the fa-cility is now being run by Canon Business Solutions of America.

The Copy Center was priva-tized as a cost savings measure, and a way to increase efficiency, according to Joe Verkennes, the director of marketing for MCCC.

The college looked at privatiz-ing after the Copy Center Coordi-nator, Mark Spenoso, gave notice in late April that he would be re-tiring.

The budget was being prepared at the time, and privatization gave the college an opportunity to save money.

“Overall, the cost savings was about forty thousand dollars, which was a significant amount of money for the college,” Verken-nes said.

MCCC did research before re-ceiving three bids, and eventually chose Canon Solutions, Verken-nes said.

Lezlee Downing, the new Copy Center coordinator, said the initial reaction to the privatization was mixed.

“People thought things were going to change,” she explained. “But we’re doing everything we did before, if not better.”

The privatization with Canon meant the college had the op-portunity to lease a new copier, Downing said. This copier is more efficient and environmental-ly friendly than the previous ma-chine, and produces better quality images.

“It’s the best gray-scale copier available,” she said.

She is also looking to imple-ment web submissions of print jobs in the next year. Instead of a

required visit to the copy center to fill out a form, staff members will be able to upload PDF files and fill out the form online.

“People were wanting to do on-line submission,” Downing said.

Downing was formerly the stu-dent assistant in the Copy Center for two-and-a-half years, so she is familiar with both the copy center and the people at MCCC.

She was hired by Canon to be the facility manager of the Mon-roe division after her graduation from Siena Heights in May, where she got a bachelor’s degree in pro-fessional communications and a minor in graphic design.

She had previously received two associate’s degrees from MCCC.

“I love the people I work with. This is a great environment,” she said.

Copy Center now operated by Canon

Photo by Katie Gerweck

New Copy Center coordinator Lezlee Downing recently graduated from Siena Heights.

By Katie MullinAgora staff

MCCC’s Board of Trustees turned to privatization to balance the 2013-2014 budget.

Privatization is when a public institu-tion turns to outside employers to handle any of its operations.

One service privatized by the board is the college’s copy center. The Maumee-based Canon Solutions Co. has assumed all of its operations.

Mark Spenoso, who ran the copy cen-ter, retired at the end of the 2012-2013 school year.

Joe Verkennes, MCCC Director of Marketing, said that Canon has hired the student assistant who had been working at the center. (See story on this page).

The college’s child care center also was privatized. The college asked for bids from private companies to run the center (See story on Page 1).

Student assistant jobs were also high-lighted at the meeting.

Instead of using money from the col-lege’s general fund for student assistant jobs, the college increased its request to the federal government for work study money to finance the jobs. This fund transfer will save the college a total of $70,000-$85,000 according to Suzanne Wetzel, vice president for Administra-tion.

“The way this works is we asked for

more work-study money. There is money available from the government,” Verken-nes said.

The college also saved money by de-ciding not to replace the director of the Whitman Center, a position that has been open for a year.

Despite the cuts, the board opened a door of opportunity by providing more money for training of faculty and staff.

“We have set aside almost $38,000 for professional development for faculty and staff,” Wetzel said.

In addition, support and administration staff will be receiving a 1 percent salary increase.

“Since 2008, we haven’t added any-thing for the salary schedule,” Wetzel said.

Pay raises for faculty are still up in the

air; the faculty contract is still being ne-gotiated, she said.

In an e-mail to faculty sent last week, new college President Kojo Quartey said the next negotiating session will be Oct. 4.

Most of what is expensed through the college’s general fund — 83 percent — is for paying wages and benefits to facul-ty and staff. Main revenue sources come from tuition and fees, property taxes, and state appropriations.

The board approved the budget, but not until hearing a protest from Trustee James DeVries.

“As a trustee, I find the timing prob-lematic: A public session in May and fi-nalization in June are much too fast for careful deliberation. I was taken aback by the framing of the Whitman Campus question and the moves to privatize print-ing and the child care center,” he said.

DeVries said the college should not op-erate under a business model when bal-ancing the budget, referring to the child care center and copy center.

“These decisions were complete sur-prises to me. Each has not only fiscal ramifications but also profound implica-tions for our college community,” he said in the letter.

DeVries also advocated a “strate-gic collaboration” approach – allowing members of the MCCC community to provide input on the financial planning of the budget.

“Collaborative strategic planning would help illuminate our priorities and aid us in deciding what is essential to our mission, and what is not,” he said.

DeVries quoted from General Donald Rumsfeld at the end of his letter.

“If you expect people to be in on the landing, include them in the take off,” he wrote.

Vice-chairman William Braunlich read a letter of rebuttal to the board.

Braunlich attacked DeVries’ aregument against implementing a “business model” in the college budget.

“If Trustee DeVries ever succeeds in his revisionism and the rejection of the sound and principled business model required

by law, this college is clearly headed for financial disaster,” he said.

Braunlich elaborated further on why he advocates a business model (such as privatization) in the college’s budget.

“MCCC is a corporate entity under Michigan law,” he said.

Braunlich said that MCCC must have a detailed, accurate, verifiable, fiscally re-sponsible and sustainable business mod-el, and there is no alternative model avail-able under Michigan law, federal law, or the Higher Learning Commission, which is responsible for accreditation.

“The Michigan Community College act and the matrix of organizations and governmental units I referred to earlier all require a business model,” he said in the letter.

“I reject Trustees Devries’ letter of June 24th in its entirety as factually in-accurate, politically motivated to satisfy his campaign platform, irresponsible and loaded with leadership/stakeholder/ in-clusiveness/collaboration psycho-babble, all designed to obscure the fact that he has no new ideas whatsoever on cost-contain-ment, nor does he have a single idea on generating any additional revenues,” he said.

“I vote yes on this budget,” Braunlich said, raising his voice.

“If it’s not approved by tonight, the college cannot spend any money,” Chair-man Bill Bacarella said of the budget

The budget was approved by a 6-1 vote.

“As a trustee, I find the timing problematic. A public session in May and finalization in June are much too fast for careful deliberation.”

James DeVriesBoard of Trustees member

“If Trustee DeVries ever succeeds in his revisionism and the re-jection of the sound and pricipled business model required by law, this col-lege is clearly headed for financial disaster.”

William BraunlichBoard of Trustees Vice President

College privatizes to balance budget

By Katie MullinAgora staff

Unfinished.This word could be used for

MCCC’s contract negotiations with the faculty.

Negotiators for the college and the faculty association (MCCFA), have been meeting throughout the spring and summer to discuss a new faculty contract, which would cover issues such as health-care benefits and salaries.

“We have been bargaining since March 27,” said Dr. Patrick Nedry, who is chief negotiator for MCCFA.

Nedry said the college and the union reached accord on one is-sue — a health insurance plan to replace the plan that was expiring

this month.“We did agree,” he said about

the health insurance benefits.Under the agreement, faculty

members are paying a portion of their health insurance premiums for the first time.

Deductibles also are increasing, he said.

“A whole lot of other matters were not decided, including sal-ary,” he said.

Nedry said the college and the union are working with a state mediator to close the differences between them.

“This costs faculty money, and the district saves money,” he said about the current situation.

The next negotiating session will be Oct 4, he said.

Faculty start semester without a contract

William MikoAgora staff

Enrollment at MCCC is down for the third straight year.

As of Aug. 23, enrollment has decreased 5 percent from this time last year, according to Mark Hall, director of admis-sions.

Hall said MCCC is taking its biggest hit from returning stu-dents. Returning students are students who are enrolled with the college, take a semester off and then return, or not.

On the plus side, the number of new students enrolling has increased by 5 percent.

“We are really tickled to

death, by the amount of new students,” Hall said.

Hall said MCCC has ex-panded recruitment efforts, in-cluding pushing into downriver area high schools.

College recruiters also have been attending every education fair within a forty mile radius.

He said MCCC has allowed more retesting of the COM-PASS admission test for stu-dents who fail the first time around.

Also, the enrollment letter that students receive now of-fers options for student to prac-tice before taking the COM-PASS test.

Enrollment down 5 percent, but new students increased

Agora photo by Reggie Allen

Dr. Kojo Quartey, new president of MCCC, addresses the crowd during the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Career Technology Center.