During the winter 2025 President’s Town Hall, which was held in the Meyer Theater on April 10, administration discussed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; diversity, equity and inclusion; mental health; bathroom safety and MCCC’s upcoming strategic plan.
“I don’t care what anybody says, there hasn’t been a single ICE raid on any college campus,” President Kojo Quartey said.
He said ICE is legally allowed on campus, but not in classrooms. He said they would most likely only come if they have a specific target.
Quartey said he spoke with Monroe County Sheriff Troy Goodnough, who said ICE is unlikely to raid MCCC.
Quartey said students with visas are safe. He said undocumented students are the only ones at risk.
In response to a question about academic freedom, Grace Yackee, vice president of instruction, said syllabi are reviewed by deans every semester. She said in her and the deans’ assessments, there was nothing in the course syllabi that was inappropriate to the content of the courses. She said she is speaking with experts on the topic for guidance.
She said, “The cornerstone of higher education is freedom in the classroom.” In which faculty and students can have meaningful conversations.
In response to a question about changing course titles, Quartey said MCCC is not changing them, right now. He said the Access and Engagement Committee, previously the DEI Committee, is reviewing these academic freedom concerns relating to executive orders.
Yackee said there is no intention to restrict courses and content because the executive orders are about access to programs and resources, not about conversations in the classrooms.
“The leadership here on this campus hears you, we saw the results of the climate survey, we were involved in focus groups with you, and we hear you, that there are concerns about what’s happening on campus and we take those concerns seriously,” Quartey said.
He said the CLARUS group’s past climate survey found that there were challenges with leadership, low morale, poor communication and lack of stability. He said in the past year, in response to these concerns, there have been pay adjustments and heightened security, including the installation of the alert buttons.
In an email sent to the whole college on March 21, Quartey informed the school of the decision to remove the signs outside the bathrooms on campus, and promised to expand the school’s anti-bullying efforts.
The signs read, “You are welcome to use the restroom that best aligns with your gender identity,” with the same message repeated beneath in braille.
The survey was conducted in January and February, distributed via email and open to students, faculty and staff, Wygonik said. The survey link was mistakenly distributed to all MCCC student email users, instead of only winter 2025 students, she said.
She said a one-time-only IP address safeguard was used in the survey tool to prevent the same device from being used to submit multiple responses.
She said there were 381 survey respondents, 252 of which were current students, 45 were faculty, 79 were staff members and five respondents did not identify their affiliation with the college.
A question on the survey asked if the respondents felt the signs achieved the goals expressed by Quartey, she said. She said nearly 15% of respondents answered “not at all,” about 23% answered “somewhat,” a little over 42% said “very much” and 20.5% answered “not sure.”
The next question asked respondents if they felt the signs had not met the goals to explain why not, she said. She said there were 119 responses. According to the thematic analysis the fear of men in women’s restrooms was a theme in 14 responses, she said. Other themes included that the real issue is bullying and it is not being appropriately addressed, the signs are creating issues, the signs are effective, the signs are divisive, they are only inclusive of one group, concern about opposite genders in restrooms, issue was created by small group, there are laws against discrimination so the signs are unnecessary, and they are confusing, she said.
Another question asked what the respondents thought the college could do to achieve their goals, she said. Wygonik said a theme among 26 respondents was to remove the signs. Other themes included adding more single use gender neutral restrooms, more education on gender diversity, enforcing anti-bullying policies, keeping gendered restrooms, ignoring the community, encouraging the use of single-use restrooms, more education on the law and that Quartey should take a definitive stance on the restrooms, she said.
She said respondents were asked how much they thought the signs impacted campus safety. Just over 30% said “not at all,” just over 24.5% said “somewhat,” 22.75% said “very much” and about 14.5% said “not sure.”
Respondents were asked to explain their answer to the previous question, she said. Forty-five respondents felt the signs increased the risk of men in women’s restrooms, she said. Other themes included the outside spreading misinformation about the issue, “people just want to use the restroom,” “signs make people feel safe,” “the community is angry,” “increase single-use restrooms,” “the signs will increase the risk of sexual or other assault,” “the signs do not affect safety” and “the signs will not affect assault,” she said.
MCCC’s conclusion from the survey is there is a major need for education on gender diversity; the law; anti-bullying, anti-discrimination and anti-harassment; their consequences; and already existing safety measures.
Scott Behrens, vice president of enrollment management and student success, said a survey, called Healthy Minds, was conducted with the University of Michigan on MCCC’s campus. He said in this survey over 1/3 of students self-identified as in need of mental health support.
He said there is 24/7 access to mental health support on campus.
He said the most recent Healthy Minds survey was administered to both students and employees with the intention to add mental health services to employees.
Gerald McCarty, dean of student services, said MCCC is working with the Jed Foundation through the D3C3 grant, which focuses on suicide prevention. The Jed Foundation is planning to assess MCCC’s services in October.
Joe Verkennes, co-chair of the strategic planning committee and director of marketing and communications, said the Access and Engagement Committee’s mission is to “impact MCCC’s strategic vision by supporting and promoting a campus community where all feel welcome, empowered and accepted.”
Verkennes said only 2/3 of the previous strategic plan’s tactics were completed. He said the previous strategic plan was too big, but the new plan will have fewer objectives so they can be focused on and achieved.
He said they will probably formulate the goals and objectives of the new strategic plan in the summer. He said the new strategic plan will likely be brought to the Board of Trustees in the fall.
Quartey said there have also been positive happenings at MCCC. These include receiving $760,000 in grants from the state, the operation of the Husky Shuttle, over 100 students using the Community College Guarantee, the elimination of the application process for some high school students, receiving almost $11 million for the renovation of the Health Education Building, the marketing team’s awards for their diversity marketing initiative, the reopening of Heck’s Market Food Pantry, the introduction of new programs, the 50th anniversary of the nursing program, and EMT classes starting at the Whitman Center.
