By Katie Knapp Schubert
Omaha, NE – Metropolitan Community College will no longer be part of the Nebraska Community College Association.
The Metro Board of Governors voted unanimously Tuesday night to leave the NCCA effective July first. Crystal Rhoades, president of the MCC Board, says leaving the Association is best for the school. "We have had an ongoing discussion with the NCCA members about the inherent unfairness of the voting structure. When we agreed to rejoin last year, the understanding was that we would renegotiate the voting structure so that it wouldn't be so flawed and unfair. And those negotiations have completely failed."
Rhoades says the vote means Metro Community College will lobby the Unicameral on its own behalf for state aid. "The reality is that the smaller schools do not want to equitably distribute the state aid. They want to continue to take the lion's share of it even though we have three times or four times or in some cases, as much as ten times the number of students that they have."
Metro also disagrees with the NCCA's decision to restructure. Last month, a proposal by MCC to give larger community colleges more votes in the Association failed.