WMUCC not reaching potential as resource

To the Editor:

It is such a shame that the Western Maine University and Community College (WMUCC) has never reached its potential as a community resource that its founders had intended when they got the grant money and did the work to bring it into being.

When Brett Doney of the Growth Council first toured the building after its grand opening in 2003, he said it was a shame that there weren't more community resources apparent within the building space.

This was just the first sign that the administration might not have had the same vision and desire to empower the community as the people who originally brought the vision to life when they founded the Western Maine University and Community College Center.

Instead, the administration has continued to prove itself unaccommodating to many of our local community service organizations, such as SCORE, the Chamber of Commerce and the Career Center.

As a matter of fact, the director of Central Maine Community College offered to let the Career Center use classroom space for which they, the Community College, pay for in their lease, in order that the Career Center could continue to serve job seekers in the area after their devastating budget cuts.

This would have been an ideal, cost effective solution to a community problem by using community resources, a little ingenuity, and an underlying desire to serve others in the community.

However, the director of WMUCC interceded and said that the Career Center absolutely could not use CMCC’s space unless they paid additional fees. This administrative decision goes directly against the terms of the lease agreement under which the Community College leases space at WMUCC.

In addition, many other organizations have expressed interest in holding functions there which impact the community.

The director has told some of these people that because the one housekeeper on staff is getting older, they are unable to allow meetings, events or forums at WMUCC that consist of more than 20 people, because the housekeeper cannot do all of the moving and cleaning necessary to accommodate them.

(The housekeeper in question is a close personal friend of the director and has been for many years. She is also a contractor, but she is paid more than any other staff member besides the director herself, and her position has never gone out to bid in more than five years).

Thank goodness other local businesses such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Town of Norway, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Norway Memorial Library and Oxford Hills/Buckfield Adult Education have stepped up to fill the needs of our area’s vulnerable populations, job seekers in particular.

It's just a shame that the building couldn't have served the needs of the businesses and people for which the Western Maine University and Community College was intended, due to the capricious, inconsistent implementation of policy by the current administration.

Shannon L. Moxcey

West Paris