Plans for our Community College
Dr. Kojo Quartey is the fifth president of MCCC and will be completing his fourth year in office this summer!
Dr. Quartey spoke to the county yesterday morning during his State of the College Address.
The BDC and MCCC work closely together as strategic partners in our efforts to provide comprehensive career and technical educational opportunities for all Monroe County students.
We thank Dr. Quartey for his contribution to our community college and our community, and are proud to have him and his experience on our Board of Directors.
STATE OF THE COLLEGE
Reprinted from Monroe News
4/12/2017
By Danielle Portteus
Monroe News Reporter
Everything Monroe County Community College does is about its students, the president said.
During his State of the College address, MCCC President Dr. Kojo A. Quartey underscored that message to a room of about 45 people gathered at the Monroe Bank & Trust headquarters on Tuesday.
“Student success is our mission,” he said. “Everything we do is about you.”
In the coming weeks, the college will begin work on the Life Sciences building as part of the maintenance and improvement work coming from the college’s successful millage campaign last fall. Monroe County voters approved a .85- mill, five- year levy in November.
“We are looking to create a modern space for student collaboration,” Dr. Quartey said. “Other community colleges have similar spaces and we don’t yet. It will be a nice space.”
Work on the Life Science building is scheduled to begin in mid to late May.
Once that work is complete, the college will move on to the East and West Technology buildings. That project received $3.75 million in state funding, which the college is matching with the millage funds.
Dr. Quartey said the work on those two buildings will begin next spring.
He talked about the college’s new partnership with Michigan State University on an agricultural program, which MCCC had not offered previously.
“ We are an agricultural community and we didn’t have an Ag program,” he explained. “Now our students have the opportunity to study Ag operations.”
Dr. Quartey discussed the recent “tuition freeze” for students living in Monroe County. The college’s Board of Trustees recently voted not to increase tuition this year for those students. They will pay $107 per billable contact hour. Students living outside of the county and out-of-state saw small tuition increases. “ We didn’t want to keep putting our burdens on the backs of our students,” Dr. Quartey said.
The president talked about the college’s plans to partner with Bedford Public Schools to launch a local cybersecurity center at the Whitman Center in Temperance.
He also talked about the college’s role in preparing students for jobs in today’s workforce. “ There is a shortage of skilled workers,” Dr. Quartey said. “ We are doing something about that.”
Dr. Quartey talked about the programs in Career and Technical Education and MCCC’s role in getting students ready for jobs for projects such as the I- 75 corridor plan, Gordie Howe International Bridge, the Nexus pipeline project and Fermi 3 should DTE Energy decide to construct a new nuclear power plant.
“If not MCCC, then who?” he asked.
Barry Kinsey, director of workforce development, was called on to ask about creating a trucking school at the college. Mr. Kinsey said that has been looked into and the college previously offered a trucking school, but has other areas it will focus on in the future.
“We are looking at logistics and we see a big need in supply chain and we are working to partner with Eastern Michigan on something in supply chain management,” Mr. Kinsey said.
Looking to the future, Dr. Quartey said the college is concentrating on forming partnerships with the K-12 schools and with industry.
