Community College Implements Decisive Changes to Restore Health

 

Metropolitan Community College
Image: blogs.mcckc.edu

As Chief of Staff to the Chancellor and Associate Vice Chancellor of Human Resource at Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri, Kathy Walter-Mack serves as principal staff to the chancellor of the community college system. Among Attorney Kathy Walter-Mack’s accomplishments are developing and executing strategies that harmonized financial plans with available resources, helping to arrest worsening financial conditions.

In 2010, Metropolitan Community College installed a new chancellor, Mark James, who faced the prospect of having the institution’s financial reserves depleted in five years due to less state support, rising health benefits, rising utility bills, and lower enrollment. James quickly tapped Kathy Walter-Mack as his right hand person to develop strategies and implement decisive changes and actions to address the situation. This included termination of a popular early retirement plan, reconfiguration of the health benefit plan, IT audit and reconfiguration, physical structures assessment, refinancing of an existing bond, lobbying for more state support, and implementing zero-based budgeting.

These changes resulted in cost savings (freeing up cash) and additional funding which were used to improve and repair building facilities, acquire IT equipment which are now bulk purchased and fully compatible, among others. The college was also able restore the annual salary increases to its 900 employees as well as its professional development fund. With improved planning and resource utilization, the college is now on sound financial footing.

Metropolitan Community College awards third annual MLK Chancellor Schoalarship

During the third annual Martin Luther King Chancellor’s luncheon,  18 year old MCC student Chebet Buckner was awarded the 2017 Chancellor’s Scholarship

The event was designed to give Metropolitan Community College employees in the greater Kansas City area time to focus and reflect on Dr. King’s legacy.

Keynote speaker for the Chancellor’s Martin Luther King Jr. Luncheon was Alonzo Jones, associate athletic director at Arizona State University. Jones, in presenting some biographical tidbits about King, urged educators not to deify the civil rights leader but to portray him as a human being, flaws and all, with whom students can identify.

The vision for this initiative was developed by Kathy Walter-Mack, the MCC chief of staff. The event was sponsored by the Chancellor’s Office and  planned by Robert Page, the executive director of inclusion and engagement. This year’s event was also sponsored by the KU Edwards Campus and KU Medical Center.

Chebet Buckner, student at MCC and Kansas City Public Schools’ Lincoln College Preparatory Academy, will receive both her high school diploma and an MCC associate degree in May. The “wonderfully impassioned” and “highly gifted” Early College Program student just turned 18.

After being presented the award by MCC Chancellor Mark James, an emotional Buckner said the MCC-Penn Valley campus has been her home for the past two years.

At MCC-Penn Valley, Buckner is president of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society — another unusual feat for a high school student.

Her list of honors includes the Spirit of Activism Award presented by the Urban League of Greater Kansas City for taking part in a peaceful protest against police brutality. She was also inducted into the National Honor Society at Lincoln.

In her essay for the MLK scholarship, Buckner writes that one injustice she has observed is a lack of mentors: “A mentor can often times be the difference between someone reaching their goal or throwing it away. I hope to one day use my skills and experiences to help a young adult navigate the various decisions and issues that will occur during their lifetime.”

Kansas City’s Metropolitan Community College Hosts The Juncture

The Juncture
Image: mcckc.edu

Kathy Walter-Mack serves as the chief of staff to the chancellor and associate vice chancellor of human resources at Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Kansas City, Missouri. In that position, Kathy Walter-Mack has helped advance several of the college’s programs and initiatives. Recently, her office was the primary sponsor of The Juncture, an annual professional development symposium she helped launch in 2015.

Hosted by MCC’s Office of Inclusion and Engagement, The Juncture is an interactive event that focuses on helping women in higher education improve their professional practice and meet the needs of students. The symposium features panel discussions and small-group activities that explore professional ethics, mentoring, networking, and collaboration. The Juncture also highlights the different journeys and paths women take on their way to careers in higher education and features presentations from MCC faculty members and local business leaders.

The most recent Juncture symposium took place October 14, 2016, at Metropolitan Community College. Over 100 women participated in the event, which focused on changing student demographics, professional growth, and the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance. The symposium program featured presentations from speakers such as Dr. Andrea Hendricks, the assistant vice president of human resources at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and Ellen Heffernan, a partner at The Spelman & Johnson Group.

A number of faculty and staff members from all five MCC campuses also participated in discussions at The Juncture in 2016. For more information about the event, visit www.blogs.mcckc.edu.

MCC Chief of Staff’s work leads to removal of AAUP censure

Leaders of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) discussed several topics at the group’s annual June 2016 conference in Washington, D.C. One of the agenda items included the censure imposed on Metropolitan Community College in the 1980’s.

The academic association unanimously voted to lift the censure from 1984, which had been enacted over the termination of eight tenured faculty appointments.

Kathy Walter-Mack MCC Chief of Staff

Removal from the list “is welcomed by  MCC administration and faculty leaders,” said Kathy Walter-Mack chief of staff in the chancellor’s office,  who worked for a year with AAUP to get the censure removed. “Nobody wants to be on a censure list,” she said. “It is not the way we do business.”

 “We are appreciative of the objective review the AAUP conducted of our current circumstances and are pleased with the removal,” MCC Chancellor Mark James said.

“I would also like to commend the work of the late Mr. Jordan E. Kurland, AAUP associate general secretary, who worked diligently with Chief of Staff Kathy Walter-Mack to achieve this outcome.”

 

The AAUP said in lifting the censure that Metropolitan Community College has since made amends to the affected faculty members and adopted new policies intended to protect faculty rights.

At the time the censure was imposed, MCC leaders said they needed to eliminate the positions in response to financial difficulties and declining enrollments. The AAUP argued that enrollment had stabilized and that no state of financial exigency existed, and that the college’s real motive was to reduce the number of full-time faculty members.

Walter-Mack explained that being on the censure list blemished the College’s reputation. Not to mention, the College since successfully navigated through one of the deepest recessions in U.S. history and managed state reductions in higher education funding without layoffs.

“This was a legacy we did not need to leave on the books,” Walter-Mack said. “It didn’t seem right to have a legacy hanging out there that didn’t now accurately reflect the way we do business.”

Read more about the removal in the Kansas City Star.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article85752172.html#storylink=cpy