A Message From Local 212 President
Michael Rosen:
 March
11, 2005
AAS Victories
I want to thank the entire faculty for
demanding input on the reconfiguration of the Associate
of Applied Arts Degree.
The heart of shared governance is faculty
control of the curriculum. It is a principle that is well
established in the academy at all levels. It is unfortunate,
to say the least, that certain technical college presidents
and state WTCS staff don’t grasp the elementary truth
that it is the professional educators who work directly
with our students and business and industry that are most
knowledgeable about curriculum and student needs.
Because you have insisted that the faculty
have a voice in the curriculum redesign, the union has taken
this matter up. As a result we have won three significant
victories.
- The State Board established an AAS
Working group with faculty membership.
- The working group has agreed to increase
the range of AAS degree credits from 60-68 to 60-70.
- The state has agreed to add to the
general education core such courses as Technical Math
1 and 2 and Communications Skills 1 and 2 that were originally
rejected.
All of these positive developments are
the direct result of your willingness to speak out, testify
at state and MATC board meetings, write emails, letters
and even educate your union leadership.
Challenges Remain
Many important program courses such as
Math 182, NatSci 199, 108, and 177 are not on the general
education core list. They need to be added. If you have
not already done so, please let Provost Jim Walsh know which
courses need to be added!
In addition, in the revised degree electives
are entirely optional. This means students may have no choice
at all in selecting credits in their programs. Combined
with the cut in total credits, this could lead to an enrollment
reduction in physical fitness and wellness programs. These
are important courses that help students develop healthy
lifestyles, and it is education that is not available to
many of our students otherwise. This change would also cost
the college FTE’s and state dollars.
MATC Funding Under Attack
I also want to thank all of you who have
written your Congressional representatives urging them to
restore Perkins and AEFL funding and to the Governor urging
him to veto Assembly Bill 58. The response has been overwhelming.
I believe we will win these battles. If you have not written
yet, it is not too late to do so. Information is available
on 212’s web site, www.local212.org
It is a sad commentary on the values
of our political leadership that at the very time the country
is facing a large and growing skilled labor shortage, they
continue to promote tax cuts for very wealthy (another $100
billion in the current federal budget) while slashing educational
funding. Just ask yourself, how many teachers would $100
billion allow technical colleges to hire? How many labs
would it equip? How many childcare centers would it fund?
In the President Bush’s latest
budget Carl Perkins, the main federal adult basic education
program, is entirely eliminated and the AEFL is cut by 65%.
AB 58 the Wisconsin legislature’s property tax freeze
bill will undermine the only effective revenue stream that
MATC has, the local property tax which is already statutorily
capped at 1.5%, that is $1.50 per $1000 worth of property.
This is a rather modest, but very important investment in
training our skilled workforce. If we don’t train
skilled workers, the state’s economy will not grow
and Wisconsin’s businesses will not prosper.
In contrast, Governor Doyle’s budget
freezes property taxes without cutting tech college funding.
It invests in education recognizing that technical education
is the key to growing Wisconsin’s economy.
Archived Messages...
May 22,
2007
January
16th, 2007
October
29, 2006
August 4,
2006
May 16,
2006
April 28,
2006
August 23,
2005
May 15,
2005
April 15,
2005
March 11,
2005
February
11, 2005
January
18, 2005
September
29, 2004
Michael
Rosen's Speech to the MATC Board - September 29, 2004
Welcome
back, August 2004
"Jobs
report paints bleak picture for the nation",
Michael Rosen's editorial in the August 21, 2004 Journal
Sentinel
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