Mike at Night It's Now or Never for MCC
If the powers that be have it their way, this may be one of the last times you see the oldest Community College in the state referred to as McCook Community College. The "name" issue will be brought before the Board of Governors this Wednesday, August 28th, at the monthly Board meeting in North Platte. As I've mentioned in this column previously, the Board President, Betty Wadewitz, asked for three position papers to be submitted on the name change before the Board took any formal action. As I've also discussed before, no position papers were required to change the name in the first place so it seems nonsensical that position papers would be required to change it back. I would like to emphasize as strongly as possible that the Board is under neither Legislative mandate or Accreditation pressure to change the name of McCook Community College. In fact, during the Accreditation teams' last visit to our campus, faculty members specifically asked if the name change was an accreditation issue. We were told the Team didn't care what the individual colleges called themselves as long as we operated under the "area" concept. This past Monday, we had our beginning of the year in-service on the McDonald-Belton campus in North Platte. Dr. Carlton Williams, the interim President of MPCCA, gave a state of the college address in which he strongly stated his support for McCook Campus over McCook Community College. His reasons revolved around the concept that we were now one college and returning our name to McCook Community College would be divisive and run contrary to the idea of the "area" concept. Taking this position as interim President is unfortunate. As soon as a permanent President is selected, Dr. Williams will be leaving us and he won't have to think about the name change anymore. We, the faculty, staff, administration, and community supporters of MCC will be left to live with the decision forever. I wonder if Dr. Williams or Dr. Mihel or the Board members who will make this decision have ever thought about waking up one morning to discover that their identity had been changed overnight while they slept. The name that they have proudly carried for 75 years is no longer THEIR name and a new name has been substituted instead. Everyone they know have only known them by their original name, consequently no one recognizes the new name. As I've mentioned before, our identity is the thing most of us are most proud of. It tells us and others who we are. Some people voluntarily choose to change their own name but no one is allowed to change someone else's name without their permission. If that applies to individuals, it ought to apply to institutions as well. Yet, these position papers were prepared and presented to the Board by Administrators from North Platte. No one at MCC nor any community member from Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas nor any donor or supporter of our school was solicited to participate. The donor issue is a crucial issue as well. Going back to the analogy of waking up to the realization that your name had been changed overnight without your permission, you would be in for an even greater shock when you went to the bank to find that you no longer had access to the money in your account. People in this area who contribute to McCook Community College might not be so eager to contribute to Mid Plains Community College Area, especially when the money goes to North Platte to be used equally across all three campuses. Dr. Williams can preach harmony, unity, and "oneness" until the cows come home but the fact of the matter is that most community members in our area don't care about North Platte and the colleges there. They have been aligned for 75 years with McCook Community College and that allegiance will remain firm. I've said before that perception is reality and there is probably no better example than someone who has the opportunity to contribute to McCook Community College as opposed to the Mid-Plains Community College Area. Time is short and the decision that is to be made at Wednesday's Board meeting will most likely be etched in stone. If the Board decides to leave things as they are, we will have lost McCook Community College as our name and our identity forever. It's time for you, the citizens of this area and the supporters of this college to act, even if no one from North Platte has asked for your input. ESPECIALLY because no one from North Platte has asked for your input. I'm listing the names, telephone numbers and e-mails of every Board member whether you had a chance to vote for them or not because they will be making a decision that we all will have to live with forever. IF YOU CARE, please contact them and let your thoughts and preferences be known. They are all elected officials and, because of that, they work for you. You're their boss. Tell them what you want. Harold Bennett: 345-5079, hbennett@mccooknet.com Dale Poore: 345-5891, dppoore@swnebr.net Glenn Colson: 228-2322, gcolson@lakemac.net Jane Hornung: 848-2839 or 239-2339, jhornung@esu16.org Rick Kolkman: 534-3617, cmanka@fnbnp.com Kent Miller: 534-9014, komiller@tpnrd.org George Ed Moore: 284-3979, gmoore@megavision.com Royce Norman: 534-5229, npandh@atcjet.net Louie Stithem: 872-5662, ls40425@navix.net Betty Wadewitz: 532-9494, nathanr@nque.com Dale Wahlgren: 532-2295, islandfm@kdsi.net In addition to calling and/or e-mailing, let your presence and support for MCC be seen and heard at the Board meeting. Whether we win or lose may ultimately depend on you. The faculty, staff and administration at MCC have done all we can do to plead our case. Your voice is now the most crucial. Regardless of the decision, wake up Thursday morning knowing you did everything you could do to preserve and defend the proud and time-honored name of the oldest community college in the state of Nebraska: MCCOOK COMMUNITY COLLEGE. ____________ Mike can be e-mailed at mikeatnight@hotmail.com |