Editorial
If you’ve listened to or read any comments from Washtenaw Community College President Rose Bellanca, you know that student success is the most important issue on her ever-growing plate. And while it may seem like just another cliché attempt at improving her public image, her actions speak louder than her words.
On most afternoons, around lunchtime, you can find Bellanca on the first floor of the Student Center eating lunch, and she is usually engaging students. One student told a member of The Voice they never saw former President Larry Whitworth eat with the students, and they had seen Bellanca numerous times in the cafeteria area.
While it may seem like a minor gesture to some, we’re impressed with Bellanca’s willingness to take the plunge and actually sit in the broken chairs at the wobbly tables like the rest of us and not always the haute cuisine of Garrett’s or the plush surroundings of her office upstairs.
Students are notorious for complaining about something – and not talking to anyone who can make change. But by making herself visible (in the most congested place on campus), Bellanca is giving students every opportunity to get right to the source. And if you can’t make it down to SC at lunchtime, Bellanca has an open-door policy for students to come in and speak with her.
Bellanca recently told members of The Voice that she is using our newspaper as a resource for learning more about the college. We’re glad to help, but we would be naïve to think that we give proper coverage to all the issues that students are concerned about and that’s why speaking with Bellanca directly is the most efficient way students can enact change on our campus.
But it shouldn’t just be Bellanca who makes a point to get out and speak with students. Other administrators and certainly members of the Board of Trustees would definitely benefit from taking an hour or two every couple weeks to get down to campus to speak with students.
Time will tell whether or not these informal luncheons will enact any real change at WCC, but it’s refreshing to see the newest member of college administration making the biggest effort to get to know her true constituents.
Editorial
Recently, members of The Voice were invited to attend a forum on domestic violence that was held on campus here at Washtenaw Community College. Discussed at the forum were ways to spot signs of abuse and what victims can do to help get them out of an abusive home or relationship.
Staffers and contributors to The Voice attended the meeting with great interest because this is a cause we not only support, but we’re honored to give it the coverage it deserves.
At least we tried.
But once our writers and photographer arrived, they were essentially told they were not welcome to cover certain parts of the forum. As former survivors went up and told their stories, our reporters were not allowed to be present. The reason we were given was to keep their identities secret — at an event the public was invited to in both a story and an advertisement in this newspaper.
So what could have been a powerful message and story of hope and inspiration turned into a basic recap of an important event, but one that took place a week prior to our publication date.
A few days before the forum, one of our writers contacted the coordinator of the event to make sure they were aware that we would be in attendance. At no point during our interactions with the coordinator were we told we would not be welcome during certain points. Had we known about the restrictions in advance, we wouldn’t have bothered.
As a newspaper, when we are invited as guests, (and we were invited) we do not expect to be told what we can report on and what we cannot. The trustees don’t do that when we cover their twice-monthly meetings. It is not our job or duty to serve as a propaganda machine, no matter how good the cause, or how bad the news.
Our reporters are charged to cover an event from start to finish and give readers an accurate depiction of what took place – without including their points of view – based on what they witness. By no means do we ever approach a story with a certain perspective in mind prior to our reporting.
Domestic violence is a serious issue that deserves to be spotlighted and focused on, and no one bears greater testimony to the issue than victims and survivors. We regret that we weren’t able to give our readers a complete story about a worthy campus event, but those in charge of it asked us to leave.
Editorial
When news broke last week about an assault on the campus of Washtenaw Community College, students and employees were instructed to “please stay alert.” No other details were given, and it took almost another 24 hours before we got another vague, un-informing and, frankly, worthless message from the school.
As details have emerged, (which were also just as vague) the incident seems like merely a dispute between two people that was not violent in nature – which is a relief for many people on campus.
But it is totally irresponsible for the persons who broadcast those messages to send out an alert about an assault at 6 p.m., just as it is getting dark, that reads “A physical assault was reported on campus and is under investigation,” and not tell people anything regarding where and when it happened.
For all we knew, someone could have been robbed, beaten or even worse, raped. It’s not out of the question to think in those terms as anyone who has paid attention to the events on the U-M campus and downtown Ann Arbor can tell you.
While WCC is typically a safe place, and we can thank Campus Safety and Security for that, when news like this breaks, the college cannot release a bulletin like that and then wait a day to give another update.
If that were the case, writing for a newspaper would be easy. Can you imagine if the Detroit Free Press wrote “Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick lied, details coming” when they broke the news about the text-messaging scandal that led to his downfall?
Obviously someone thought this assault (or non-assault) was worth notifying people about, and we should appreciate that. But with a lack of protocol or foresight, they’ve seemed to cause more confusion, concern – and fear – than necessary. Some students immediately left campus when they heard this news.
The next time one of these incidents occur on campus, how many students and employees will simply overlook the message and ignore it based on the lack of useful information from the previous alert?
While we appreciate the attempt to keep us aware of potentially dangerous and harming situations, to leave us all in the dark about what to be on alert for is simply inexcusable.
Editorial
Newspapers not only enjoy arguments, they thrive on them. When people disagree and bicker, we usually get a story out of it. At the Sept. 13 Washtenaw Community College Board of Trustees meeting, a rare disagreement between board members ensued.
And we loved it.
Board Chair Pam Horiszny and Trustee Richard Landau openly expressed their displeasure with the other’s point of view on a finance issue. The point-counterpoint style disagreement was of great interest – mostly because of how uncommon it was.
Meetings of the board are by and large an unexciting, choreographed, formulaic process. The Sept. 13 meeting started off like any other. In fact it was a jovial mood inside the board room, with jokes and laughing. Board members even joked about a mistake in The Voice, which by the way we didn’t find very funny.
Eventually, however, the meeting took a serious turn when the mini-debate began.
It was refreshing to see a differing of opinions and to see two sides each sharing their ideas in a public place where we could all see where they stand. WCC has great leaders and is on the forefront of community college education, but we would all be ignorant to believe that arguments never happen.
Just because the members disagreed does not mean they’re not on the same page, either. Some of the best ideas come from a direct confrontation at some point. And while we have no idea if their
relationships are solid, we can easily imagine
that the board members genuinely like and respect
one another.
As with any working environment, there are bound to be differing opinions, and the WCC board is no different. Most meetings inside the office of The Voice have some sort of back-and-forth debating, and occasionally a heated argument. Some of the best decisions a newspaper makes are often followed by door-slamming – and some colorful language.
But no one takes it personally, and neither will this board. We’re sure the board will meet away from public scrutiny, talk out their issues and get back on the same page just in time for their next meeting. And if they don’t, then The Voice will be there to cover it.
Remember, it’s what we thrive on.
The new president at Washtenaw Community College has been very clear about what her focus will be as she begins her new job: Students.
Dr. Rose Bellanca has used the phrase “student success” to describe her goals for WCC at almost any chance she gets.
So if students truly are the focus, Bellanca and her administrators must begin working with the college’s board of trustees to keep the cost of our education down. Students have many advantages at WCC that many community colleges cannot offer. However, just because we are privileged to have great facilities doesn’t mean we should bear the brunt of the cost of building them.
WCC has seen record enrollment over the last few years and a surplus in the budget. Now that enrollment and the surplus have taken a dip, students are the first resource WCC has tapped into, when really they should be the last.
Last spring, it was forecast that tuition will continue to rise for the next three years. Among the reasons for this rise were decreased tax revenue, increased cost of education and a lack of state aid. These reasons are certainly valid; no one is arguing that. But why do our costs have to increase while the school continues to spend money and hand out raises to employees? And even though some of us at The Voice were fortunate enough to receive those raises, it still bothers us that they were awarded at least in part at the expense of our fellow students.
On top of tuition increases, textbooks continue to cost more now than they did the year before, and gas prices aren’t coming down anytime soon. Add on supplies and contact hour fees and the cost of education isn’t affordable to many students, which could be one of the reasons why enrollment is down nearly 10 percent this Fall.
But for those of us who can afford to make it to class, we’ll at least have a place to park! Of course, if enrollment continues to fall we’ll have an $11 million parking structure with no cars in it.
We understand that maintaining WCC’s elite status among community colleges isn’t cheap, and bills have to get paid. But in these economic times when very few are thriving, WCC cannot continue to ask students whose income usually falls in the lowest demographics to foot the bill.
Bellanca wants students to be successful; there is no doubt about that. But in order to be successful, students need to be able to pay their own bills, not WCC’s.
EDITORIAL
In Dr. Rose Bellanca, trustees choose the future over the past
As we welcome Dr. Rose Bellanca to Washtenaw Community College as its new president, we’re all wondering what to expect. And that’s a good thing.
It’s far too early to have any realistic expectations. President Bellanca has only been on campus for three weeks, and she has barely had time to meet her administrators.
Naturally, there have been serious questions about Bellanca’s administrative abilities and the management style she will bring to the college – as there would be with any newly named candidate.
Curiously ahead of such a momentous decision, WCC’s trustees were so impressed with Bellanca during the interview process that they decided a formal site visit to explore her background at a previous employer was not necessary.
Most self-respecting newspapers are wary of taking things like this for granted, so as journalists are trained to do, we traveled to the campus of St. Clair County Community College, where Bellanca spent six years as president, to ask those questions and elicit some responses for ourselves.
And we got an earful, hearing both compliments and complaints about her tenure at SC4. While our trip may have resulted in more negative responses than positive, we know the person at the top of any business public or private is a lightning rod for many with various axes to grind. We also know there are three sides to every story. Yours, theirs and the truth.
When The Voice conducted its first face-to-face interview with Bellanca last Wednesday, she did not shy away from the questions about her tenure at SC4. Instead, she answered them head on.
“It wasn’t easy,” she acknowledged. “It was a very challenging time there.”
The college trustees obviously knew of those challenges she faced, how she handled them and the very public way it played out. And while we wonder about the board’s decision to give Bellanca a three-year contract without even an informal site visit, it would be naïve of us to even suggest trustees made a hasty or ill-informed decision.
And that’s why we, as a school, must look at the new president and sincerely believe that only great things lie ahead for our college. Washtenaw’s trustees have done a phenomenal job of building a world-class community college, and they probably deserve more credit for that than this community has given them over the years.
Their record suggests that they got this hire right, and that whatever perceived problems in Bellanca’s past will stay in the past. And because of their record, there is every reason to believe that Dr. Rose Bellanca will continue the brilliant leadership that has made this college the kind of institution that brought us all here in the first place.
EDITORIAL
Trustees: It’s time to educate
Washtenaw Community College’s Board of Trustees approves everything from what teachers are hired and fired to how much money will be spent on the Student Center renovation. One thing is for sure: They need to hear from more students.
Here at The Washtenaw Voice, we’ve been opining all year about the lack of student engagement in what is essentially their own politics. Nevertheless, most students still don’t show up to meetings, they don’t send us letters to the editor and when we ask for their opinions, we usually have to explain, again, what the board even does.
So after a year of this just flat-out not working, we’re trying something different.
We understand that the board has enough on its plate to begin with. But since it’s clear that students won’t be the ones to take the plunge, we would like to suggest that the board think about a way that they could meet students halfway.
Sure, it would be nice to have some sort of student representation, like a student government, that could approach the board and speak for the students.
However, the reality is that a lot of students won’t see this kind of interaction as a better alternative.
It still involves approaching people in a very formal way, one that is pretty foreign to a lot of the students here, many who are young voters or still can’t vote.
Besides, many students don’t even know what the board does.
To solve that problem, the board could stand to market a little more. Send out a campus announcement to students to tell them when board meetings are, just like the Presidential Search Committee has been doing. Designate an area in the Student Center that describes what the board does, who is on it and how they got there — because many students don’t even know that you’re elected officials.
Wouldn’t you want them to know that so that when they go to vote, they actually recognize your names?
Also, since so many students seem to shy away from meetings, and sometimes even their WCC emails, it would behoove the board to have some sort of physical presence where students actually are. There obviously isn’t a lot of foot traffic through ML 150, where the board meets.
But there is in the Student Center.
So put up a sign, a suggestion box and a little rundown of what you do.
Let’s make WCC do what it does best: educate.
EDITORIAL
Attendance and participation: Trustee Williams gets an F
Alright, no more Mr. Nice Newspaper: Anne Williams has to go.
Who is Anne Williams, you ask?
Answer: Exactly.
Williams is one of the seven Washtenaw Community College trustees. As was highlighted in one of this issue’s articles (See Three trustees miss a year’s worth of meetings Front Page), she’s also been absent or late for 22.3 percent of the Board of Trustees’ meetings.
That alone is unacceptable. If we as students were absent or late for 22.3 percent of our classes, we would be punished. Our grades would suffer, especially since 22.3 percent translates to missing or being late for more than three weeks in a 15-week course. Most of us take courses that penalize us after the first few absences.
Why should it be any different for Williams? After all, she’s missed or been late to 18 meetings since her appointment in 2007, which is equivalent to an entire year’s worth of meetings. A whole year!
Of course, Williams isn’t the only offender, and she isn’t the worst one. When Rep. David Rutledge, D-Ann Arbor, was a trustee, he missed 28 percent of the meetings from January 2006 until he resigned. Trustee Richard Landau is on par with Williams, and has been known to be up to three hours late for a meeting.
So why is The Washtenaw Voice singling out Williams?
Well, to put it frankly, she doesn’t appear to do anything.
It’s still embarrassing that Rutledge and Landau have missed so many meetings. Vice Chair Diana McKnight-Morton could stand to reprioritize a bit too; she’s missed 18 percent of the meetings since 2006.
But what separates these three from Williams is that they actually engage in the meetings.
Throughout The Voice’s coverage of board meetings, we’ve heard spirited debates from the often-absent trustees, as well as the ever-present ones. No matter the topic, however, you’ll rarely hear a peep out of Williams.
We’ve heard Mary Faulkner, the executive assistant to the board, speak more than Williams, and she only takes roll call during votes – and we’re not exaggerating. Faulkner isn’t on the board, and she’s not voting on issues like raising tuition or spending millions of dollars for a parking structure.
Williams is, and she needs to speak up. Maybe she’s a bit shy during public meetings, but then why did she run for public office?
We have no way of knowing if Williams is more vocal during the board’s closed sessions. It shouldn’t matter anyway; both kinds of meetings are part of the job.
One Voice staffer even said that he wouldn’t recognize the sound of her voice. That’s pretty bad when we’ve been in the same room for hours on end every month – assuming, of course, that she shows up.
You would think that we would also be able to recognize her voice after a year’s worth of interviews with The Voice. However, we usually have to flat out give up on trying to reach Williams. Sure, if we need her input, we’ll call and leave emails, but she never answers and never calls or writes us back.
Other board members, on the other hand, make it their business to answer our questions. They know that answering questions about their actions is part of the job.
Williams appears to have missed orientation.
In fact, the only time that she has returned our calls and emails has been for this issue, in which she knew that we would be writing about board attendance.
Apparently, issues like the board’s $4,000 dinner from last year and tuition aren’t as important to her as saving her own skin.
We’ll give Williams a chance to change. If she doesn’t, we certainly won’t be voting to reelect her in 2012.
Of course, it only counts if we show up.
Editorial
Be respectful of those in need; it’s not about greed
Hopefully everyone has settled down and the sticker shock has worn off. If not, hold on, because we’re saying it again: Tuition will rise by $5 per credit hour, starting during the Fall 2011 semester! Ahhh run for your lives!
For those of you still standing there wondering what all the fuss is about, we applaud you. For you, you see, get it.
Tuition is going to continue to rise until the end of civilization, whether we like it or not. We can kick and scream and fight all we want — which is something hardly any students do — but unless someone finds a way to freeze inflation and magically take care of all the financial problems facing Washtenaw Community College next year, we might as well get used to it.
Or! If you’re really upset about tuition rising, you could always go somewhere else.
Oh wait, everywhere else costs about the same as WCC or more? Weird! Now stop freaking out and go stand where the people who “get it” are.
While it’s true that this tuition hike will break some students’ ability to pay for school next year, most of the complainers are going to do just fine. Besides, how much is this really going to cost you? If you take 12 credits, you’ll be paying $60 more in the Fall than you would for the Winter 2011 semester.
Seriously? $60? That’s what we’re upset about?
Let’s put this into perspective. WCC is arguably the best community college in Michigan, with some programs considered to be the best in the nation. We have teachers in almost every department who either 1. also teach at the University of Michigan, one of the top colleges in the nation, or 2. have become so successful in the “real world” that they’re recognized on a state, national or international level.
Plus, WCC has majors that a lot of other schools don’t offer, like welding and astronomy.
A lot of people at WCC can’t afford to go anywhere else, but that doesn’t mean they can afford to complain either. Considering all that the school has to offer, it seems like $60 is a pretty reasonable shift.
Again, we don’t want to sound insensitive. There are plenty of people whom this will affect. For those people, if they haven’t checked out WCC’s financial aid opportunities or spoken with someone at the Student Resource and Women’s Center, do it. Your education is that important.
Still, even with help from WCC, there will be students unable to afford tuition here in the Fall.
Come to think of it, that should put some perspective on the tuition hike too.
Are you upset about the rising cost because you might have to sell some Xbox games to pay for your education? Then maybe you should talk to the woman who has to decide between feeding her family in the present and going to school for a better future.
Sure, $60 can make a difference. But if it doesn’t break your back, at least try to be respectful toward those it does.
EDITORIAL
WCC’s presidential search, and the Dave Brandon connection
Jobs aren’t always as straightforward as they seem from the outside. Take editing this newspaper, for example. Anytime someone finds a typo in The Washtenaw Voice, they have every right to assume that our entire editing staff is made up of idiots.
How we wish people could see all of the other things that go into our jobs, and how last-minute some of our changes – and typos – are made, in an effort to get things right.
We’re sure that the members of Washtenaw Community College’s Presidential Search Advisory Committee feel the same way. If only they knew how long we planned, how much we deliberated! Then they’d see why we didn’t select a new president (see Back to the drawing board, Front Page).
Just like us, no one really knows, or cares, for that matter. But that doesn’t mean they can be immune to criticism.
It took the Board of Trustees and the PSAC months to get to the point where it was interviewing candidates on campus, even though everyone has known since the beginning of the academic year that President Larry Whitworth is retiring.
In reality, it really should take this long. The board hasn’t done something like this in 13 years, and the candidate it chooses could be with the college for even longer. It’s not a quick-and-fast decision.
Nevertheless, the way that this first round of candidacies was handled was, shall we say, a little embarrassing?
As a matter of fact, all this hemming and hawing reminds us of another time that brought Ann Arbor some humility. Remember just a few months ago, when University of Michigan football head coach Rich Rodriguez was hung out to dry? The name of Dave Brandon, the UM athletic director, was painted in red all over the news and social media sites for the way it was handled.
“How unprofessional!” cried some. “Leave the man some dignity!” yelled others.
The comparison here is uncanny.
Of course, there are the obvious differences, besides the fact that this is WCC we’re talking about and not the UM Athletic Department. For one, let’s be honest: Most in the WCC community couldn’t care less if the dignity of the three candidates was compromised – which it was.
What we care about is how the school looks, and where our dollars are going.
With 13 members on the PSAC, and the initial reassurance of the board that any of the final candidates would be suitable for the job, WCC now looks a little silly.
Sure, the board could have just been reassuring the public that everything was fine. Besides, public worry won’t help the process go any faster.
On the other hand, everything wasn’t fine. The board originally allotted $57,000 toward the presidential search. That’s a lot of money to blow on three people that you don’t end up choosing.
Thankfully, that same amount of money won’t be spent this time around. A lot of the initial work has been done already. However, the specific amount of additional money hasn’t been discussed publicly. Either way, WCC will be paying more, in the many thousands, to find more presidential candidates.
Like last time, all we can do is sit back and criticize.
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