Mike at Night Without Rhyme or Reason
What to call McCook Community College has turned into a tragic-comedy. This whole process would be laughable if it wasn't so sad. It would be funny if it didn't affect so many people in so many different ways. Our name is our identity, it's who we are. People who attended MCC or contribute to MCC are proud of their affiliation with this institution. Students, faculty, staff, and administration have always been proud to be affiliated with McCook Community College and we still are. But through administrative fiat, our name was taken away. Overnight. Just like that. No Board approval, no committee meetings, no dialogue between administration and MCC personnel or community members, no nothing. We went from a proud heritage of being the oldest community college in Nebraska to being a campus of the Mid-Plains Community College Area because that's what George wanted. We all thought and believed that our name would be reinstated after Mihel's resignation. After all, this was his gig. He evidently needed no Board approval to take away our name to begin with so we assumed the Board would take immediate action to give us our name back. As you all know, however, about the only thing that is accomplished when we assume anything is that we make an ass out of u and me. That's exactly what happened. The outcry from the McCook community has been strong and constant. Numerous editorials and letters to the Editor have urged the Board to reinstate our original name. Community members turned out in force at the August Board meeting and eloquently stated their case in support of McCook Community College being our permanent name. This issue was taken up at a subsequent Board retreat and a straw poll indicated an eight to three preference to giving us our name back. A kink was thrown in that plan when an at-large Board member who isn't from around here decided he didn't like ANY of the names and suggested hiring a consultant to give us a new name. That's kind of the way of the world anymore. We hire consultants for everything and there are two primary reasons for that. Either the Board doesn't feel like it's qualified to decide the issue so they hire an "expert" or by hiring an expert, it gives the Board an out. If things don't turn out right, they can just blame the consultant. I think you will agree with me when I say that hiring a consultant to give us a name would be an outrageous expenditure of funds, especially when we are undergoing budget cuts left and right, including the elimination of personnel from our Student Center which always made a positive impression on prospective students, their parents, and community members, thanks to the tireless efforts of Rhonda to always put our best foot forward. Then, to add salt to the wound, our interim President, Carlton Williams, has come down square on the side of not returning our name to McCook Community College. His proposal, as discussed in the Wednesday editorial of the McCook Gazette, is to change the name of the whole area to Nebraska Plains Community College and calling us Nebraska Plains Community College-McCook, or, God forbid, McCook College Park. This is a curious decision made by Williams. Interim means temporary. He is not a candidate for the position of President of whoever we are. Once a new President is hired, he will be gone. He's not from around here anyway. Why would anyone who is in a position temporary take a stand on something that impacts on who we have been for the past 75 years and will impact on who we are for forever more? I think this is a fight he should have stayed out of. And, just so everyone will understand the significance of the new name Williams has proposed, when abbreviated it will read NPCC. When people see that abbreviation, do you think they will think Nebraska Plains? Or will they think North Platte? ____________ Mike can be e-mailed at mikeatnight@hotmail.com |