While Muskegon Community College officials are disappointed over the narrow defeat of the proposed $31.1 million millage in Tuesday’s election, they are thankful for voters’ support and will continue to work on addressing strategic facility needs that will ultimately strengthen the local economy.
With 71,006 Muskegon County voters going to the polls, the MCC bonding proposal was defeated by just 686 votes – 35,846 (50.5%) to 35,160 (49.5%).
“Nearly 50 percent of the Muskegon County voters agreed with our 2010 strategic plan and needs assessment that there is a real community need for expanding higher education opportunities here in Muskegon County,” said MCC President Dale Nesbary.
“We know that we need to complete our campus improvement plans for science, health science, and the arts facility additions to support our students meet the needs of businesses and industry. The phases outlined in the campus improvement plan came about through a detailed process that included input from local businesses and industry, community members, students, faculty, staff, and others.”
In January 2011, the College’s Board of Trustees reviewed the findings and set priorities for each area, identifying science as the most pressing need.
Nesbary said that the MCC Board of Trustees is discussing a plan to proceed with issuing bonds on its own to complete the science addition. Faculty and other campus members have been working with architects over the past few months to outline some of the details of the science expansion project. Nesbary stressed that input would continue to be gathered from students, faculty, staff, businesses, industry, local school districts, and other higher education institutions to ensure the expansions can best meet community and student needs.