Survey points to key concerns for MATC campus in choosing next president

Milwaukee Area Technical College staff, students and faculty call it a "life-saver for many," "a diamond in the rough" and "catalyst for personal change for those who have big dreams."

Those comments were part of an online survey about the ideal candidate to be chosen this spring as the college's new president. Obtained through a public records request, survey comments point to a desire on campus to increase student enrollment, better support staff and faculty and better leverage the college's ability to make an impact in Milwaukee.

MATC received 51 responses to the survey as part of the public input process for the presidential search. It also held 38 public listening sessions this winter, either on campus or virtually. Ninety people attended, MATC District Board Chair Mark Foley said via email.

Working with Greenwood Asher & Associates Executive Search, the college has already released a job description for the presidential role. So far it has received 34 applications, Foley said.

The deadline is March 5 to submit applications "for best consideration," he said. The goal is to select a president this spring so they can begin the job by July 1.

Here are some key takeaways from the survey.

Increasing student enrollment, retention repeatedly referenced in survey of MATC campus

Seven people said increasing enrollment is a key challenge for MATC and a task the new president will need to be prepared to address.

MATC's headcount enrollment, or the number of individual students enrolled no matter their credit load, fell 21% between 2014-15 and 2022-23, acording to data from the Wisconsin Technical College System.

The college's enrollment decline fits with the trend among the 16 institutions in the public technical college system. Overall, headcount enrollment has fallen by more than one third across the Wisconsin technical college system — about 36% — since fall 1992.

Comments suggested a need to improve relationships between administrators and employees

Improvements in the relationship between administators, staff and faculty recurrently surfaced within the survey data.

"Bring staff together as an MATC family that can depend on each other," a staff member wrote in response to a question about what the new president needs to address. "That has fallen by the wayside, particularly since Covid. Staff can no longer depend on other departments to work together to support our students. Only as a connected workforce, can we effectively serve the many and diverse needs of our students."

A different comment said morale is low among staff, and pointed to "frustration of students at the bureaucracy in the instution."

"There are a lot of passionate people in this college, but you can't know it from just meeting the high $ areas and donors," a faculty member wrote. "You need to be in the college and have a sense for the wins and challenges from the ground level up."

For a college of 29,000 students, 51 people responded to public input survey

Faculty and staff submitted the bulk of those 51 survey responses, or 59%. Four of the nine members of the MATC District Board replied.

Via email, board Chair Mark Foley said the overall amount of public input is "something GA&A (the search firm) would consider healthy."

"Our goal was to create as many opportunities for feedback as we reasonably could, erring on the side of more sessions rather than fewer to accommodate peoples’ schedules and preferences for how they would prefer to give input. The number of sessions was more than would be typical, in GA&A’s experience," Foley said via email.

Survey: Diversity of student body should be seen as key to role of MATC president

Survey respondents repeatedly pointed to the diversity of MATC's student body as a factor the next president should not just be aware of, but be ready to embrace.

"The challenge is overseeing an incredibly diverse student body in terms of personal experiences, age, race, occupational goals, life goals. But I think it's an opportunity to get creative in meeting the needs and develop support systems for all students," a student wrote.

MATC's student population is made up of mostly part-time students with an average age of 29 and 56% identifying as a person of color. Two in five, or 40% receive either need-based financial assistance or have an income at or below the federal poverty level, according to WTCS data.

The college also draws people with a broad range of career goals, given that it has more than 180 academic programs. Those programs are not just focused on traditional two-year degrees, but also include community education programs like those for people learning English as a second language or adults finishing a high school diploma.

"MATC plays a strong and critical role in SE Wisconsin and the state. The President role is an excellent opportunity to make a difference in the largest most diverse city in WI. Opportunity abounds," a community member wrote.

Cleo Krejci covers higher education, vocational training and retraining as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @_CleoKrejci.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Key topics emerge in survey about priorities for next MATC president