When he takes office on July 1, newly-named president of Manhattan Area Technical College Jim Genandt intends to build upon MATC’s current foundation to improve internal structure, as well as external relationship with the community.
One of the first aspects Genandt plans to address is ensuring accreditation for all programs within the school.
“Colleges and universities have to be accredited by one of the regional associations in order to have access to grant federal financial aid,” he said. “Our students need federal financial aid. So, the first order of business is to make sure we’re as strong as we can be in meeting the criteria of the Higher Learning Commission.”
Genandt said he also hopes to implement a program he utilized at past institutions to thoroughly train faculty and staff for supervisor positions.
“Oftentimes, we promote people. They’re good people, they’ve earned the chance to take the step up,” Genandt explained. “They become supervisors, but we haven’t trained them how to do that. How do you know they understand policies and procedures? How do they evaluate people? How do they handle budgets?”
Off campus, Genandt said he’d like to explore new avenues to help K-State utilize public resources and build a stronger relationship between the schools by providing tech training in various aspects of quality control for agriculture and food production.
He also has a few ideas when it comes to economic and community development within Manhattan.
“I want to work with the Chamber and with K-State on how we can do more related entrepreneurship,” said Genandt. “There are lots of people in the area that have ideas. Or, there may be an existing business in town that has no plan for succession. How do we move somebody younger into wanting to take that business over and keep it going?”
Until he takes office this summer, Genandt maintained that he’s planning to spend some time getting to know Manhattan and the MATC students and staff to ensure all changes are beneficial developments for everyone involved. He also encouraged community members to contact him with any questions or suggestions for the school.
“If anybody needs us to come listen, attend a meeting, give the benefit of some of our ideas, see how we can be a better partner for the community, just let us know,” he said.
