By Brianna Stevens | Assistant Editor
Early in September, Mount Wachusett’s President Vander Hooven announced an organizational restructure to alleviate budget strains by retrenching the Executive Vice President of Student Affairs and Vice President of Academic Affairs.
Anne McDonald and Melissa Fama worked at MWCC for years assisting students. What seemed like a sudden decision to cut their positions, was an incredibly difficult one. Vander Hooven said, “We’re talking about two individuals who served this college very well for many years.”
Vander Hooven expressed that his biggest concern with this budget situation is that it does not have a noticeable effect upon students. This means that President Vander Hooven is working diligently to be sure that students do not feel the financial effect. He said, “The last things we want to have is impact the services we provide students and we don’t want to continue raising tuition fees.”
Vander Hooven said, “The funds from the state have been significantly declining, yet at the same time community colleges have been elevated in what they’re being asked to do…were being asked to do more with less.”
In the meantime, Dean of Students Jason Zelesky and Dean Vin Ialenti will be serving an interim role for their respective divisions.
To replace the Executive Vice President of Student Affairs and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Vander Hooven plans on combining the positions into a Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs. He said this is not an unusual position to implement and “Community colleges that do this are usually around our size, our number of students, and also the type and number of programs that we have.”
The MWCC employees and administration is working very hard to keep our college affordable and keep students happy and successful.
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