A Busy Summer Portends Even Busier Fall Even after more than 30 years in education, I continue to be energized by the start of a new semester. Having thousands of students put their futures in our hands is an incredible responsibility - one that we enthusiastically embrace. My thanks to faculty and staff for the energy, passion, dedication and creativity that you bring to the job of helping our students succeed. But before we completely let go of summer, I want to highlight three milestone achievements: In June, we signed the Badger Track transfer agreement with UW -Madison, creating a pipeline from MATC to the state's premier public university. A similar agreement has been reached in principle with UWM and will be signed in the coming weeks. These partnerships are prototypes for a new brand of student-friendly, guaranteed-admission articulation agreements. In July, we broke ground for the center for Energy Conservation and Advanced Manufacturing at the Oak Creek Campus. Thanks to Governor Doyle for his participation. The event attracted enormous interest in the business and political worlds, and we intend to ramp up that interest even further. MATC classes soon will begin at Discovery World at the lakefront. Staff and students were there all summer, helping with preparations. The partnership provides us with valuable classroom and lab space for emerging technology career training. It will usher in a whole new way of teaching and learning at MATC. Our students already have begun to benefit. Also, we just learned that the Mequon Plan Commission has unanimously approved our wind tower project at the Mequon Campus. It is the cornerstone of our Renewable Energy Technology Center. RETEC will provide a broad range of educational services, at the same time supplementing campus power needs with sustainable energy solutions. Look for a complete report in our next Communique, along with news about expansion plans at the West Allis Campus. I invite you to check out all of the stories featured in this back-to-campus issue. To all of you who added professional development activities to your teaching toolkits this summer, thank you. Here's to a great semester for our students. Darnell E. Cole President

September 2006 Issue: Classes Launch at Discovery World With the start of MATC classes at Discovery World, students and faculty now have a state-of-the-art teaching tool at a premier lakefront venue. Governor Keynotes ECAM Ground Breaking Scheduled to open at the Oak Creek Campus in fall 2007, the center for Energy Conservation and Advanced Manufacturing will help employees better compete in a rapidly changing global marketplace. Students Can Make Tracks to UW - Madison Badger Track provides MATC students with a smooth, guaranteed pathway to Wisconsin's leading public university. TCF Bank Opens On-Campus Branch A full-service branch bank is now open at the Downtown Milwaukee Campus on the third floor of the Student Center. Webber Elected Board Chair; Thank You to Former Chair Bell Bobbie Webber was appointed chairperson of the MATC District Board for 2006-07 at a recent organizational meeting of the board. Click here for top of Communique.