MCCC’s Board of Trustees unanimously passed an anti-bullying policy at its Monday meeting.
The anti-bullying policy was introduced by Molly McCutchan, MCCC’s Director of Human Resources.
“We have not seen many complaints, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening and not being reported,” McCutchan said.
The policy takes effect immediately and applies to students and employees at MCCC.
“Frankly, I don’t think bullying stops at K-12. Bullying can go on through your entire life,” said Board Chairman Bill Bacarella.
The policy lists behaviors that MCCC considers to be bullying, and states that punishment includes up to expulsion for students and termination of employment for workers.
A report on student profile data was presented to the Board by Steve Mapes, a counselor in Student Services.
The report says a decline in enrollment is affecting many community colleges. At MCCC, enrollment is down from last year by 283 students, or about 6 percent, but this year’s numbers still were the fourth highest in MCCC’s history.
The report attributes the decrease in enrollment to several causes, including:
- A smaller Monroe County high school graduating class.
- Fewer occupational retraining grants because of reduced government funding for displaced workers.
- The new federal healthcare legislation that allows parents to keep their children on their family’s health insurance plan until they turn 26. Previously children had to be full-time students to remain on the family policy after they turned 21.
There were numerous statistics presented in the report. Among those listed was information about the gender, age, and residence of students, the number of students enrolling at MCCC from last year’s graduating high school class and which school in Monroe County they graduated from, as well as the enrollment figures for the five career programs offered at MCCC.
There are significantly more female students than male – 60 percent to 40 percent.
The median age of students enrolled at MCCC is 21. The average age is 25.
There has been a slight increase in the number of part-time students this year, about 50 students or 2 percent, while full-time enrollment is down about 400 students, or about 16 percent.
About 40 percent of last year’s high school graduates from Ida and Jefferson high schools enrolled at MCCC this year – the average of Monroe County high schools was about 30 percent.
Sixteen percent of students enrolled at MCCC live outside Monroe County. While in-district enrollment was down about 7 percent, both out-of-district and out-of-state enrollment was up by about 2 percent.
Also covered at the meeting was the resignation of Beth Kohler, MCCC’s coordinator of grants and major gifts, effective Oct. 8. Kohler resigned to pursue a new job at the University of Toledo.
