MAY 16, 2019
El Yanqui
MPC Monterey Calif. Issue 10
Homeless Mom Finds Support, Foundation at MPC
More than $280,000 in scholarships awarded to 171 students MPC Yanqui Staff
With her young daughter Hazel spinning around the podium, Maggie Young tried to keep composed, but she was telling her story of her life spinning out of control a decade before. Maggie’s compelling narrative, in front of a standing-room-only crowd at MPC’s Scholarship Awards Ceremony, was one of big dreams as a star high school soccer player with a university scholarship promised, bad decisions and turns, dismissal by her family, then hitting rock-bottom as a pregnant homeless person. For nearly seven years, Maggie bounced back and forth in difficult situations, including living in a recreational vehicle she bought for $1,500 with financial aid money, camping at the Pinnacles, in Morgan Hill and driving the RV to MPC for classes, but then she found support in the MPC Athletic Department and Child Development Center. She secured an assistant’s position with football coach Mike Rasmussen, and she spun her world positively, now setting her sights on a bachelor’s and master’s of social work degrees at San Jose State University. “Maggie is a team player,” said Coach Rasmussen in an email. “Great work ethic. In spite of her work load as a Mom, student, and worker, she is not looking for a handout. Maggie will be a success in life.” Ms. Young, who has a second daughter named Onyx, was one of 171 students who were awarded a total of $286,000 through the MPC Foundation. And as Hazel spun around, playing with a flashlight given all scholarship recipients to help guide their paths, her mother said she would keep positive in this spinning world, with the help of her scholarship.
MPC’s Walt Tribley accepts role of president at Northern Wyoming College By M. Beck MPC El Yanqui “I never started out thinking I’d be a school administrator. I was into nature—camping, fishing, bicycling, scuba diving --I was enthralled with nature. I didn’t want to study genus, species, order. I wanted to know how it all works,” Walter Tribley, MPC’s departing resident reflected. For Tribley, molecular/cellular biology grabbed his attention in high school and never let go. It helped that he attended college in the great Northwest, first at the University of Idaho in Moscow, for undergraduate B.S. and masters work in Biology Natural Science and later 30 miles away, across the Snake River, in Pullman, Wash., for his doctorate in Biochemistry at Washington State University. His first job took him far across the country, ending up at Seminole Community College in Sanford, Fla. There he earned tenure as a professor and later still taught at the University of Central Florida. Part of a National Science Foundation Grant, his team did research on medical devices to screen and monitor cancers. Though not part of the BRCA 1/BRCA 2 or the Human Genome Projects, his team moved forward with the Prostatic Specific Antigen (PSA) testing—a FDA medical device in affiliation with the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Tribley’s early administrative work came when he returned to the Northwest, to Wenatchee Valley Community College (WVC) in Central Washington, 60 miles north of Yakima, on the Columbia River. What better place for a nature lover? Over 11 years, Dr. Tribley graduated through administrator positions to Vice President Instruction and ultimately Chief Administrative Officer at WVC’s campus in Omak, Wash. He weathered the 2007-2009 US recession and dealt with the meltdown of college funding felt across the country. With a dramatic rise in tuition (and little state funding) and cuts to the administration and classified staff,
n TRIBLEY on page 7
Who will be MPC’s 11th president? MPC El Yanqui There have been 10 official presidents of MPC (and a myriad of interim presidents) in the past 72 years. Each one brought his own set of skills, each one met the qualifications the search team posted. What mattered most was their capacity and flexibility to deal with unforeseen issues. The past 25 years MPC has seen its share of “out of left field” challenges: • David Hopkins 1987-1995 --MPC had classes in Monterey, Fort Ord, UC Extension and Long Distance (Closed Caption) with San Jose State. In 1991, Fort Ord was chosen for deactivation and finally closed in 1994. • Edward Gould 1995-1997 -- offered change with his business approach “TQM” (Total Quality Management) which helped MPC partner with the emerging California State University, Monterey Bay. But it clashed in the educational setting. • Kirk Avery 1997-2006 -- was brought in for stability (having been a previous CBO at MPC). He had dealt with declining enrollment and lean times. Post-Graduate life learners were targeted to increase enrollment, reaching over 12,000 students and 8,000 FTEs. A unified governing board elected-at-large hailed from those communities. • Douglas Garrison 2007-2012 -- grappled with lost state funding from the 2006-2009 recession. Then in 2008, the California Community Colleges Board stopped funding repeat courses as well. Enrollment was reduced by 2,200 and funding by the State was reduced. Under pressure from the growing communities of Seaside and Marina, the Board of Trustees at-large elections were changed to district based. • Walter Tribley 2013-2019 -- had to wait for passage of Proposition 30 proposed by Governor Jerry Brown for emergency funding of K-14 education in 2013. The lack of funding kept MPC Faculty contract negotiations in limbo for five years. Accreditation Probation in 2017 and in 2018 CCC’s change to the Junior College model of Guided Pathways “Transfer In 2 years,” shifting the mission from “Student Access” to “Student Success”. in College. For students today at MPC, this history won’t mean much. In two years most will be attending school elsewhere. But for the faculty, staff and community, the next President of MPC will have a major impact. In the end, maybe all MPC needs is a President who will be “Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.” And, of course, transparent and flexible.
Longtime MPC Supporter, Community Volunteer Lynn Davis Receives President’s Award MPC El Yanqui Staff
Lynn Davis, a retired attorney, former MPC governing board and foundation board member, and former longtime grocer (Forest Hill Store, now the Trader Joe’s site) was honored with the President’s Award on April 26 at the Monterey Marriott Hotel. A graduate of Pacific Grove High School (’59), MPC (’62), San Jose State University (BA in Marketing), and Monterey College of Law (JD ’84), Davis has long been involved in supporting local education, legal services for seniors, and working tirelessly as a community volunteer. He and his wife of 58 years, Lydia, have been inducted as distinguished alumnae into the MPC Lobo Hall of Fame. They have two daughters, Jani and Cindy, and a grandson, Xanti. In accepting the award, Davis said, “Forget what you give or have given, remember what you receive.”
Lynn Davis, left, with previous President’s Award Honoree Vicki Phillips