MIDDLETOWN,
CONN. – In a room filled with elected officials, members of the board of
regents, former trustees, alumni, friends, faculty, staff, and supporters, Dr.
Anna M. Wasescha was formally presented as the sixth president of Middlesex
Community College. The ceremony, which can be viewed at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22013839, was held on Saturday, April
21 in Chapman Hall on the MxCC campus. Dr. Jonathan M. Daube, president
emeritus for Manchester Community College (and former interim president at
MxCC) presided over the ceremonies.
Lieutenant
Governor Nancy Wyman opened the ceremony stating, “Governor Malloy and I can’t
be happier with the choice to put Dr. Wasescha in this position and we thank
her for coming to this great state of Connecticut.”
Senator
Blumenthal commented on Dr. Wasescha’s choice to plant a sugar maple tree on
campus to kick off her week-long inaugural celebration. “There is a saying that the essence of public
service is to plant a tree that you know you will never sit beneath, but that
others will sit beneath,” Sen. Blumenthal said. “I think that President
Wasescha brings to this school that sense of vision and that sense of foresight,
seeing into the future, seeking to match skills with jobs that exist and will
exist in the future, seeking to create careers and opportunities for people who
are here now and whose lives will stretch into the future after many of us are
gone. What more exciting work is there?”
In her
speech to the audience, Dr. Wasescha pledged to make MxCC “more extraordinary
than ever,” by “dreaming big.” She noted
that “inaugurations are a time of rebirth and regeneration,” and that the
school is part of a new cycle in higher education that addresses today’s
economic and social challenges.
“As a society, we have been painfully slow to
appreciate just how radical the transformation of our economy has been over the
past 20 years,” Dr. Wasescha said, addressing not only the changes within
higher education, but of the massive economical, industrial, and environmental changes
throughout the world. “At a time when
academic achievement levels have stayed the same or slowly declined, many
growth industries cannot find highly skilled, knowledgeable workers.” She said
today’s new generation of community colleges, which are flexible and more
responsive than other types of higher education, will help solve this problem.
Dr. Wasescha
laid out her vision for her term as president at MxCC – and as a permanent part
of the school’s history. “We will be
champions of an exceptionally high quality of higher learning, the kind that
increases knowledge, hones skills and creates the habits of mind in our
students that all together will result in the kind of society we would be proud
to sign our names to,” she said. “We
will be one of the loudest voices in the crowd calling for renewed commitment
to engaged citizenship, the kind that embraces democratic ideals, civil
practices, altruism, and dedication to the common good.”
Addressing
her commitment to increasing environmental education and awareness, Dr.
Wasescha said: “We will breathe new energy into our campus life, the curriculum
and co-curriculum, with a commitment to environmental stewardship – that draws
on knowledge of the sciences and the social sciences, the arts and humanities,
and that helps us understand how each one of us has a positive role to play in
sustaining the intricate web of life that is our natural world.”
Prior to her
speech, Dr. Robert Kennedy, president of the Connecticut Board of Regents of
Higher Education, presented Dr. Wasescha with the MxCC college medallion. “Today
we inaugurate a president who brings with her a profound understanding of the comprehensive
community college, and I commend those who were involved in her appointment,”
he said. “Dr. Wasescha understands MxCC’s
role of the development of Connecticut’s workforce. She also understands the important role a community
college plays in providing students with skills they need to be engaged
citizens, face complicated issues of the day, and be prepared to contribute to
a common good.”
Earlier in the week, Dr. Wasescha signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, a “high-visibility
effort to make campuses more sustainable and address global warming by
garnering institutional commitments to reduce and ultimately neutralize
greenhouse gas emissions on campus.” MxCC also held several environmentally
focused events to highlight the president’s inaugural theme of “going green.”
Dr. Wasescha received her Ph.D. in Educational Policy
and Administration, her master’s degree in higher education, and her
baccalaureate degree in English literature from the University of Minnesota,
Twin Cities. Prior to joining MxCC, Dr.
Wasescha served as provost and then as special assistant to the president at
Minnesota State Community and Technical College, Fergus Falls. Before that, she was an associate dean of
doctoral programs at Walden University in Minneapolis. She also served as an adjunct professor at
Concordia University in Saint Paul, as research assistant at the University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, and as associate dean of student affairs at Hamline
University, Saint Paul.
Founded in 1966, Middlesex Community College (mxcc.edu) is part of the Connecticut State
Colleges and Universities Board of Regents for Higher Education. The school
offers more than 50 degree or certificate programs at its three locations: the main, 38-acre campus in Middletown, the
downtown Meriden Center, and the shoreline in Old Saybrook. The college promotes understanding, learning,
ethics, and self-discipline by encouraging critical thinking. Current enrollment exceeds 2,875 full and
part-time students, and 1,600 continuing education students.
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1 comment:
Who said English Majors aren't equipped for the work force? (Garrison Keillor)
A friend who was there said that the Inauguration was lovely, and Anna Wasescha is going to be a breath of new life in our community. We MxCC Grads enthusiastically welcome her.
The also newly invigorated Middlesex Community College Foundation has plans to work closely with President Wasescha in achieving her goals. There's a lot to look forward to!
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