Lorusso solarium awaits board meeting (Bec Rapacz)
By Bec Rapacz
Dr. Ellen Kennedy has officially been confirmed as 4Cs Interim President. Commissioner of the department of higher education, Noe Ortega, signed off on her appointment, according to an email from Board of Trustees chair Tammy Glivinski-Saben dated May 8. Kennedy will begin a yearlong presidency on July 1.
The board will meet on Tuesday, May 12 with the higher education legal counsel to discuss the search process for a permanent president. The meeting will be held in the Lorusso Solarium starting at 4 pm and is open to the public.
In attendance will be members of multiple unions and organized staff associations and committees. Cape Cod Community College Association president Michael Bejtlich sent out an email requesting at least 50 people from the community attend the meeting in an effort to send a message to college leadership. The message is that the concerns of the campus community need to be heard, especially as a long-term search for a permanent president begins.
Maryann Stacey and Skye Green, co-chairs of the Support Staff Association, will attend the May 12 board meeting. They wrote in a May 7 email to Dr. Kennedy, “We will also be present at Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting, along with our brothers and sisters in MCCC and FPC, and remain hopeful that the Board will acknowledge what so many within the college community are feeling at this time, as we should in response recognize the enormity that their role has taken on. We believe that recognition, empathy, and open acknowledgment of these concerns would go a long way toward rebuilding trust and fostering a sense of shared purpose moving forward.”
The meeting will be available virtually, though Bejtlich requested in-person attendance. “We need to make as strong of a showing as possible.”
