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MHCC president takes leadership role
on national community college board
The Advocate
President John Sygielski represented MHCC last week in community college meetings in Washington, D.C, and said even though it rained every day, the rain did not damper his commitment to MHCC and community colleges nationwide.
Sygielski was recently elected as chair for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) board of directors and said this position is an honor and a privilege to represent his peers as he did in the nation’s capital.
A 32-member board of directors elected Sygielski as the board leader. As chair-elect, Sygielski has been tasked with the responsibility to provide guidance and support to the AACC president, participate on the executive committee and report discussions back to the board, “and any other duties the (current) chair assigns me,” said Sygielski.
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His goals as the chair-elect are “to support the current chair, the board, the staff of AACC, and begin to work with others at the association to define my goals for my tenure and choose executive committee members.”
While in Washington, D.C., some of the officials Sygielski met with were Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore), and the education adviser for U.S. Rep. David Wu (D-Ore).
Asked if he was able to meet President Barack Obama, Sygielski said, “No, I did not. However, I ran by his house early in the morning a couple of times.”
The meetings’ topics consisted of discussions surrounding higher learning education. Sygielski said, “Although my meetings covered many interesting topics, there were two that will significantly impact Mt. Hood Community College.”
The American Graduation Initiative is Obama’s plan for boosting the community college graduate count to include an additional five million people by 2020 and, according to Sygielski, “This level of support is unprecedented and, if successful, will significantly impact MHCC’s future.”
The Workforce Investment Act is a law that was passed in 1998 and if re-authorized there could be funding opportunities available to MHCC for credit and non-credit courses like VESL (Vocational English as a Second Language), Transitions/Transiciones and other career programs offered in the community, according to Sygielski.
Asked if this new position will take him away from campus often, Sygielski said, ”There are four meetings a year that I must attend for the association.” He said there also may be other meetings and if necessary he will attend, but the association tries to conduct many of them via electronically, by telephone or online.
“Since my main goal is to be president of MHCC, I will never let anything get in the way of my being president and engaged in the day-to-day activities of my favorite community college,” Sygielski said. “I also look forward to representing MHCC and bringing recognition to our outstanding programs, services and employees as well as identifying federal resources for ways we can better serve each other and those who join our learning community.”
The Advocate reserves the right to not publish comments based on their appropriateness.