Metropolitan Community College Cleared from the AAUP Censure List

 

Kathy Walter-Mack serves as the chief of staff at Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri, where she also leads human resources projects and provides support to the College’s chancellor. In addition to those duties, Kathy Walter-Mack recently developed and implemented improved fiscal policies in her department. She also successfully negotiated the removal of the College from the  American Asssociation of University Professors (AAUP) censure list.

More than three decades ago, Metropolitan Community College faced serious financial woes. To help balance the budget, the school was forced to lay off some full-time professors. This action caught the attention of the(AAUP),which placed Metropolitan Community College on its censure list.

The AAUP considered the community college’s actions to be threats to academic freedom and tenure. It places institutions on the censure list as a way to warn prospective professors and other professionals that tenure and academic freedom may not be respected satisfactorily. Schools are responsible for developing policies that improve conditions, and the AAUP reviews cases every two years. Metropolitan Community College was finally removed from the list in July 2016, 32 years after initially appearing there.

Things to Consider When Developing a Crisis Management Strategy

crisis management

 

Since 2009, Kathy Walter-Mack has served as chief of staff and associate vice chancellor of human resources at Metropolitan Community College, where she acts as spokesperson for the chancellor to media and the public. In her career, Kathy Walter-Mack has become a leader in the realm of crisis management.

When developing a crisis management strategy, one of the first and most important steps is to actually anticipate what type of crises could occur. Gathering the team and engaging in a proactive brainstorming session helps to determine which problems can be avoided simply by changing existing methods and policies, and also in developing best and worst-case scenarios and strategies about how to respond to them. As a result, your organization should come away with a solid crisis response plan.

Secondly, it’s important to identify the key members who will make up the crisis communications team. This should be senior executives, preferably led by the CEO. Public relations personnel and legal counsel will also be important pieces of the puzzle. It may be necessary to contract outside public relations professionals if the in-house team is inexperienced in dealing with crisis situations.