Tuition increasing again
Ryder and Ryder, riding together
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One Book One Community wrap up
Page 7 April 18, 2016 Vol. 63, Issue 3
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After 45 years, Wilson retires Jacob Adams Co-editor
Photo by Jacob Adams
Gary Wilson stands next to a piece of art, given to him by one of his students, in his office.
The Ceramics and Creativity professor says “see ya!” Gary Wilson, who has the second longest tenure at Monroe County Community College, is retiring at the end of the semester. “It’s been a great 45 years. I’ve loved teaching here,” Wilson said. Described by students as inspirational, one-of-a-kind, and caring, his colleagues mirror these sentiments, calling him a friend, a vital part of the college, and hard to replace. Wilson, who started teaching at MCCC in 1971, said he never planned to teach in the first place. “I wanted to be a street artist, doing street fairs,” he said. “I was so green behind the ears it was crazy.” When Wilson was in college, he wanted to be a painter. “After a lot of soul searching in college, I realized I just didn’t have anything to say,” he said. “I ended up taking a ceramics coarse and fell in love with it. I didn’t need to ‘say’ anything.”
McGarry pushes projects By Evan Kutz Co-editor
Jeremy McGarry is busy. In between his studies and work as a restaurant server, he fleshes out his numerous ideas and plans for MCCC’s campus and students, as well as the city of Monroe. For McGarry, pursuing these ideas at various legislative levels turns his passions into legitimate projects. Despite facing personal challenges, he’s secured the confidence he needed to be himself. At a young age, when he was told he wouldn’t succeed, McGarry’s defied established perceptions and has been proving people wrong ever since. Now, he’s getting things done to improve his community. McGarry has been working to promote a bike path that connects MCCC to downtown Monroe. He wants to organize a “Bike to City Hall” rally, where people will ride their bikes downtown to raise funds and awareness for the project. MCCC has supported a previous plan for a bike path connecting the college and the city. McGarry repurposed the concept, making changes to existing paths and adding new ones. For example, McGarry proposed repurposing dikes through the marshes by the former Ford plant for the bike path — and maybe a kayak launch on the marsh. This path would connect to the River Raisin Heritage Trail, joining a larger circuit of designed bike paths. He proposed it to MCCC’s Student Government and Administration, and they both were behind it. “President Kojo thinks it’s a really, really awesome idea,” McGarry said. “He’s given me a lot of direction on who to talk to about all of my ideas, like all of the numbers of all the people who run the groups I need to talk to.” McGarry has talked with city planners about the bike path at community development meetings in the City Hall council chambers. “They’re at 7:40 in the morning, which is annoying,” he said. “I was really, really nervous.” McGarry said city planners were very interested in the bike path. “They were asking me all of these questions about who I talked to. Then they were trying to direct to me some-
With a new passion under his belt, other pieces to his life’s puzzle fell into place. “I was contacted by Monroe through Michigan State University, where I was finishing my degree,” he said. Within the year, he was a professor at MCCC. Professor Ted Vasser, who had been hired two years prior, played a part in Wilson joining the college. “I saw his work, I liked his work, and he’s been a great colleague ever since,” Vasser said. Vasser spoke fondly of his time working with Wilson. “I take care of a lot of technical stuff, like art techniques, and he [Wilson] takes care of the content, like art history,” Vasser said. ”In all that time, we’ve gotten along just fine. I’m going to miss him,” he said. “A lot of time artists are on ego trips, but not him.” It is easy to imagine such a long career as the defining characteristic of a person’s life.
See Wilson, Page 3
Millage focuses on building enhancements Evan Kutz Co-editor
Photo by Evan Kutz
Jeremy McGarry explains the use of the land survey equipment behind him.
one from DTE. It was funny because I already knew who this was, and they said ‘Is that who it is? Well how would you get a hold of that person?’ and I said ‘Actually, I already have her number.’ ” McGarry was happy to feel that he was on top of his game. “Then they asked about seeing the original plan for the bike path, and I said I had a copy of that already, and they said ‘We should start consulting with you about this situation because you know everything,’ ” he said. “So that was pretty cool.” He learned that because this is a large scope project, it requires three districts — Frenchtown, Monroe city and Monroe County — to cooperate, and there is a lot of work that needs done. This isn’t the first project McGarry has spoken to the college administration about. He’s also been working with the Gay Straight Alliance on getting a nongender-specific bathroom on campus. “Most four-year universities are making it mandatory now to have non-gender-specific bathrooms,” he said. “Most community colleges do not have one. From what I found out, we could be one
of the first in the nation to have one.” McGarry was glad to learn that faculty had already thrown the idea around, including individuals who want to have this important option, he said. “I know quite a few transgender individuals, and they’ve talked to me about how difficult it is to go into genderspecific bathrooms,” he said. “It makes them uncomfortable.” The bathroom, as McGarry sees it, would be a single-person facility, so it offers extended privacy and safety to transgender and gender fluid individuals. “I see community college as progressive; they’re becoming more cutting edge when it comes to equal rights, and being all-inclusive and accepting,” he said. McGarry wanted one installed in the Administration building, but sees it happening sooner in East Tech. “This is where all the middle college students are,” McGarry said. “I’m kind of happy about that part, because it will be used as an educational tool.” The gender-neutral bathroom is
among a large list of campus facility enhancements tied to the November millage attempt. “I’m trying to get it done sooner, because if the millage doesn’t pass, it would be nice to at least have one,” he said. McGarry also won approval from MCCC for a community seating area, receiving Enhancement Grant funding from the MCCC Foundation. The college is planning on using a rubber surface made from recycled tires. The picnic tables will be made from recycled milk jugs. “I think there are 2,000 milk jugs in each picnic table,” he said. “It’s pretty phenomenal.” A college is an excellent place to remind people to be conscious of our planet and our relationship to it, he said. Keeping the environment’s importance in students’ minds is important to McGarry, as this is a reoccurring message in many of his projects. “Our goal is to be as environmentally friendly as possible,” he said.
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MCCC will place a millage proposal on the ballot in November, President Kojo Quartey confirmed at the March board meeting. “We’ll be going forward, we just need to get some millage language to the board, but in terms of all planning, we’re going in November,” Kojo said. This time, the millage campaign will focus on facility enhancments and upgrading campus buildings. The 2014 campaign focused on maintaining current programs, exploring new programs, improving student services, updating tech services and facilities, and keeping tuition low. A more focused effort is planned in 2016, Quartey said. “We will leave no stone unturned this time to ensure we will get a successful millage,” Quartey said. “Last time, we did leave some stones unturned.” “The last time we had the millage, we won the city of Monroe—we lost everywhere else.” Quartey said this year will be different, as he has spent the last school year visiting with the communities in Monroe County townships, as well as trying other tactics to raise voter awareness. “Since the last millage, we’ve talked with those townships,” he said. “I got kicked out of the parking lot of a hospital putting flyers on windows.” Quartey said the college has been getting by since the failed millage proposal, but the needs have not changed. At last month’s board meeting, Jack Burns, director of Campus Planning & Facilities, presented a slideshow outlining early plans for how the millage funds would be spent. The plan included updates and enhancements to most of the campus buildings, as well as a stronger computer network, Burns said. He broke down the enhancements by building. The Life Sciences building was built in 1972. Since then, a significant crack in the masonry of the building has occurred, due to a design flaw. “It’s something that must be addressed. If we were going to design it to today’s standards, it would not be designed that way,” Burns said. Foundational supports that are now known to be necessary were not part of the 1972 design, he said. Burns showed an image of a redesigned L Building. The heavy brick precast stone is gone,
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