Spring 2011

Madison Area Technical

College Foundation

Alumni and friends news

Faculty, staff
buoy College
There is something about
springtime that makes
us want to get our hands
dirty and our houses
STAND
clean. Madison College’s
version of spring cleaning
is analyzing every system
for ultimate efficiency and
letting in every fresh idea

UP
for cost-savings. We are Bettsey Barhorst,
Madison College
also growing and finding President
cost-effective measures to
get our students everything they need to suc-

for MADISON COLLEGE

ceed in their careers. Cultivating employable
students has always been our mission.

During these difficult economic times, we By Madison College Foundation Staff

could not do this without the support of our

faculty, support staff and administrators
who have made personal sacrifices to help
Madison College. These actions by our
colleagues ensure that service levels for
our students will be maintained throughout
the district.
Our full-time faculty union and our support
workers’ union opened their contracts and
agreed to pay part of their retirement costs,
which amounts to about a 6 percent pay
cut. They also accepted much smaller pay
increases than those previously bargained.
Administrators will also pay part of their
retirement costs and know raises in the near
future will be slim or nonexistent. Some of
our veteran part-time faculty also agreed to
pay the retirement cost.
I am very proud that we are clearly united at
Madison College in a commitment to student
success. These recent agreements show that
continued on page 2 >
A
s Madison College prepares for its second 100 years of
worker training, students, alumni and friends are asking
their neighbors to “stand up” for student needs in new and
important ways! “Wisconsin can’t
Jake Weigandt, Student Senate president, said students need
be open for
to see that their community stands up for working people.
“Many of us who’ve had life-changing training at the College business if we
are showing our support for students. We’re the ones who will
lead the Madison area into an exciting future of green jobs,
aren’t open to
health careers, public safety roles, revolutionary manufacturing train people for
innovations and high tech business growth,” Weigandt said.
their jobs.”
Student success is the vision that drove the new building plan
approved by voters in November. Now we must keep the vision — President Bettsey Barhorst
strong and that means asking our alumni and friends to stand up
for Madison College.
Weigandt announced the College started a “Stand Up”
campaign to ask our community to become informed, to get
engaged and to stay involved by sharing emails of fellow alumni
with the Foundation, making gifts to honor programs or favorite
teachers — and even just attending College events.
“Wisconsin can’t be open for business if we aren’t open to train
people for jobs,” said President Bettsey Barhorst, referring to Gov.
Scott Walker’s goal to create 250,000 new jobs in the next four years.
“Our new facilities will spur job creation in unprecedented ways.
We are energized and focused on our next 100 years,” said Barhorst.
continued on page 2 >

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 < Barhorst, continued from page 1
our instructors, staff and administrators
will give up personal benefits to make
sure that our worker training and college
transfer programs continue with the same
rigor and student-centric instruction the
College has offered for almost 100 years.
We are reaching out to you to underscore
that the unions and administrators have
taken measures that are not sustainable
for an institution that runs a lean
operation even in the best of economic
times. The proposed state budget, as
yet unapproved at press time, sets the
College’s budget amounts to 1980s
spending levels at the very time that
enrollments at the College have surged
22 percent during the previous five years.
Against this back drop of commitment
from our colleagues, the College will move
forward with our Smart Future Building
plan and we anticipate we will have
shovels in the ground by late summer.
I am so grateful for your support of this
Plan, through last fall’s referendum.
I want to assure you that we will make the
improvements and upgrades necessary
to train students for 21st century jobs.
For now we are focusing all of our efforts
on maintaining instructional access and
service levels across the entire district.
We are sharpening our efforts to increase
student retention and completion of
certificates and degrees. We know this is
the fastest way to jobs for our students
and the best way we can support our
local economy.
Please review the Madison College
website at madisoncollege.org to see
how we will build for our future while
undergoing these significant budget cuts.
Look for the hard hat icon on our website
to view our progress!
I assure you that student success will
remain at the core of every measure we
take and we will live up to our mission of
providing accessible, high quality learning
experiences that serve the community.
Happy spring!
Bettsey L. Barhorst, Ph. D.
President
2
facebook.com/madisoncollegefriends
Stand up for Madison College
< continued from page 1
“We are so grateful to our district for the
chance to help secure family-supporting
jobs in this challenging time.”
Buoyed by the landslide support for
the College’s building plans in the 2010
referendum, Barhorst led teams of faculty,
students and staff in thoughtful plans for
cutting edge facilities at the nine sites that
serve about 40,000 students each year.
(See story about the new Health Education
building on page 3.)
While the campuses busily prepare
blueprints and get needed building
permits, the College is focusing on the
work of the Madison College Foundation
to build an ever stronger community of
supporters.
“The need for scholarships for students
who are taking full course loads has
exploded,” said Robert Dinndorf, executive
director of the Foundation. “At the same
time, we need the support of alumni and
friends to ensure our new facilities will
be well-equipped.”
Dinndorf encourages donors to
celebrate the Centennial theme in
a program designed to count our
alumni and friends “by the hundreds.”
College supporters can put their
Scholarships fuel
economic recovery
By Tricia Weisheipl, Madison College Foundation
E conomists look to small business
owners to jump start the economic
recovery, but without a Madison College
Foundation scholarship, Maria Kovach
would not have been able to help.
Kovach, 44, who is a part-time interior
design student at the College, a veteran
of the United States Air Force and Air
National Guard and a mother of four,
received a Lussier Family scholarship
when she returned to college to pursue her
dream of becoming an interior designer.
After her first year in the program, Kovach
started her own business, Belsö Design,
which specializes in remodeling and
revitalizing existing spaces. Her clients
describe her as professional, creative and
enthusiastic. Kovach graduates in May,
2011, and is looking forward to running
her local business full time.
Each year the Foundation awards
hundreds of scholarships to students like
608.246.6441
stamp on the new facilities with many
options for naming rights, by honoring
those who have helped them, by becoming
involved in College activities or even by
offering planned gifts for the future of
the College. “By the hundreds” is open
to interpretation: 100 involved alumni,
$100 gifts, 100 scholarships…we invite
you to share your ideas with us…by the
hundreds!
So, help us count you in! Stand up for
working people. Stand up for the workers
in our future community. Stand up by the
hundreds with a gift of time or money.
If you are willing to “Stand Up”
for Madison College, simply join the
Alumni and Friends’ Facebook page at
facebook.com/madisoncollegefriends.
Maria but it is not
enough. This semester
the College has nearly
300 students who are
on a waiting list for a
scholarship.
Please consider
making an investment
in our community’s
Kovach future by donating to
the Madison College
Foundation’s Forward Fund that provides
scholarships to new and continuing
students.
Visit us online at madisoncollegealumni.
org/donations, call 608.246.6441 or mail
your gift to the Madison College Founda-
tion, 3550 Anderson St., Madison, WI 53704.
To apply for a Foundation scholarship,
visit us online at madisoncollege.org/
scholarships. The deadline for the Fall 2011
Continuing Student Scholarship is May 31.
Donors get new tools to
help building plan
By Madison College Foundation Staff
A s Madison College leaders plan to
break ground in the next few months
on a Health Education building, they offer
alumni and friends new opportunities to
help the innovative facilities improvement
plan.
Donors can sponsor spaces, structures
and even entire buildings. These facilities
will carry the names of donors or they can
be dedicated to a family member or as a
memorial.
“For almost 100 years, the College has
trained workers for family-supporting
jobs,” said President Bettsey Barhorst. “We
want to honor for the next 100 years those
who will spearhead the 2011 re-invention
of Madison College with the naming of our
facilities for those generous souls.”
Plans for the $134-million first phase
of a comprehensive improvement plan at
all nine sites of the College began in 2005
when students urged changes to then new-
ly hired President Barhorst. In late March,
2011, Barhorst’s vision for 21st century
facilities to train workers for the economic
recovery began to take form with approval
of initial projects from the Wisconsin State
Technical College System Board (WTCS).
Dubbed the Smart Future Building Plan,
the estimated $350 million plan for the next
15 years starts with the Health Education
building, a $43-million building to be locat-
ed at the northwest corner of Anderson and
Wright streets on Truax campus. In addition
to classroom and lab space, the building
also may host a dental and health clinic.
Support new workers with gift to College
By Robert Dinndorf, Madison College Foundation
A job is the greatest form of philan-
thropy, according to famed Minnesota
philanthropist Marilyn Carlson. It’s a phi-
losophy that Madison College Foundation
donors have embraced with their gifts.
The Foundation works to support the
College mission of providing access to
high-quality learning experiences for all in
our community. Scholarships expand ac-
cess to learning. Endowed scholarships do
so permanently.
In May 2010, National Guardian Life
Insurance Company commemorated its
Centennial with a generous gift of $100,000
to the College’s Foundation, establishing
facebook.com/madisoncollegefriends
Draft rendering of proposed Health Education building
Students will learn with updated
classrooms and state-of-the-art equipment
now unavailable in the crowded facilities,
particularly on the third floor of Truax.
“The many years of planning yielded
an environmentally friendly building that
will set a new standard for instruction and
facilities at our College,” Barhorst said.
“We give thanks to our district for this
gift to our students and to the economic
recovery that worker training will spur.”
District voters approved a $134 million
referendum in November, 2010, to start the
building plan.
Facilities managers said they hope in
May the WTCS will approve the College’s
proposal for a Protective Services Center
where firefighters, law enforcement and
other related workers will be trained. Also
on tap is the construction of a Gateway
entrance and Student Achievement Center
at Truax.
Plans for regional campus improve-
ments also are on the drawing board.
Collaborative teams of faculty, students
and staff continue to work on concepts
an endowed scholarship fund. Long a part-
ner in education with the College, National
Guardian Life began funding scholarships
in 1991.
An endowment, established by an
outright or planned gift, is a long-term,
reliable source of financial support for stu-
dents who are in need of job training and/
or who seek additional undergraduate edu-
cation. Because nearly all of the College’s
graduates live and work in Wisconsin, it
adds great value to the workforce.
Donors can contact the Foundation office
at 608.246.6441 or email FoundationAlumni
@madisoncollege.org to learn more.
608.246.6441
for improvements to the advanced
manufacturing programs. Using the
working title of “The Ingenuity Center,”
the College plans to create manufacturing
facilities that most accurately simulate
2011 manufacturing plants and also spark
innovation in that field.
The Health Education building still
needs approvals from the city of Madison
and several other governmental agencies,
said Roger Price, vice president of
infrastructure services.
Bob Dinndorf, executive director of the
Madison College Foundation, said donors
can be remembered with nameplates or
plaques permanently placed on the walls
of the new buildings and the College is
seeking major gifts from those who would
like to name a building.
To become one of these special donors,
visit the Foundation at madisoncollege
alumni.org/donations or call 608.246.6441.
Gifts can be mailed to the Madison College
Foundation, 3550 Anderson St., Madison,
WI 53704.
Madison College photo
Mark L. Solverud and John Larson of
National Guardian Life Insurance Company
 Non Profit Org
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Madison Area Technical College PAID
MADISON WI
Alumni and Foundation Office
Permit No 1389
3550 Anderson Street
Madison, WI 53704

Stats&Facts
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