Milwaukee Area Technical College President Anthony Cruz aims to boost student earnings in the years to come as part of an effort to address generational poverty and get more recognition for the college.
Cruz spoke yesterday during a meeting of the Milwaukee Rotary Club, where he discussed MATC’s strategic plan for the next five years and how it could benefit students.
He noted the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education recently rolled out a new classification framework for two-year colleges, after previously only looking at research universities.
The new framework for two-year colleges focuses in part on access to education, for which Cruz says MATC already meets the highest category by providing “tremendous access” to students in the region. But another element of the Carnegie framework examines student earnings, which poses more of a challenge.
“We need to work a little bit on that,” Cruz said. “We still are not where we need to be. And right now, we’re in the third tier. And I would like to see us move to that second tier, where most two-year colleges in the country, that’s where they are.”
Ultimately, he wants to see the college move into the top tier for student earnings, calling that “essential” for increasing enrollment as well as improving social and economic mobility for its graduates.
“My commitment is to intensely focus on connecting students to careers that will truly provide family-sustaining wages,” he said.
MATC has more than 30,000 students each year, Cruz said, with most attending college part-time. The average age for students is 29 years old, he added, meaning most are balancing higher education with their jobs and families.
Cruz also touted the college’s efforts to work with Milwaukee Public Schools and UW-Milwaukee, noting the number of MATC college credits earned by high school students in the area has risen by 18% in the last two years.
“We want to grow that even further,” he said.
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