A Blueprint for Developing Higher Education in Missouri

Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri
Image: mcckc.edu/

An experienced public administrator, Mark James was chancellor of Metropolitan Community College from 2010 to 2017. In 2015, as part of his role as Metropolitan Community College chancellor, Mark James sat on a steering committee established by Missouri’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education (CBHE) to develop a blueprint for improving higher education in Missouri.

Members of the steering committee included higher education professionals from across the state, distinguished citizens, and representatives from commerce, industry, and government. The committee held numerous discussions and public meetings between 2014 and 2015 to uncover the state of higher education in Missouri as well as the opportunities and challenges present.

These efforts culminated in an ambitious plan to develop the state’s higher education. The plan, titled Preparing Missourians for Success: A Blueprint for Higher Education, was presented to the CBHE in 2016. It focused on four special areas of higher education: accessibility, affordability, quality, and completion. It outlined the challenges affecting each of these areas of concern and laid down strategies to mitigate them so that all students in the state could enjoy accessible, affordable, and quality higher education from start to finish.

The MCC Foundation – Supporting Student Education

 

MCC Foundation
Image: mccneb.edu

As former chancellor of Metropolitan Community College (MCC) in Kansas City, Missouri, Mark James oversaw strategic planning, budget management, and workforce and academic development programs. Mark James was appointed chancellor of Metropolitan Community College in 2010 and served in this capacity for seven years until his retirement. His successes in that time included the revitalization of the MCC Foundation through the recruitment of committed business leaders from the Kansas City region.

For more than 40 years, the MCC Foundation has endeavored to transform people’s lives by making education at MCC more accessible and enhancing the college experience. The foundation offers more than 160 scholarships and academic support funds. Among these, the Bloch Scholars program, provided through a partnership with the H&R Block Foundation and MCC-Penn Valley, gives students the opportunity to earn an associate degree from MCC-Penn Valley and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The Bloch Scholarship is available to citizens and United States residents who demonstrate financial need and are eligible for a Pell Grant. Individuals must be graduating from high school, have a GED, or be a current student at MCC with a 2.5 GPA or above and a maximum of 30 credit hours.

The Olympic Park Bombing of 1996

 

1996 Olympic Park
Image: history.com

Former Metropolitan Community College chancellor Mark James spent nearly 10 years with the institution, where his achievements included implementing a new, student-focused strategic plan. Now retired, Mark James came to his role at Metropolitan Community College with a range of experience, including several years as a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In that capacity, he worked on high-profile cases including the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta.

Eric Robert Rudolph placed a 40-pound pipe bomb in Centennial Olympic Park during the Olympics. Around 20 minutes before it exploded, an anonymous tip came through 911. Richard Jewell, a security guard, found the backpack with the bomb in it and alerted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The area was in the middle of evacuation when the bomb exploded, leading to two deaths and leaving over 100 people injured.

Jewell was seen first as a hero and then as a suspect before being exonerated a few months later. Rudolph, who had spent time as an explosives expert in the US Army, was finally convicted for the Olympic Park bombing, as well as for the bombings of three abortion clinics in the South.

The Olympic Park bombing was a part of a string of violent attacks in the United States perpetrated by Americans predating September 11, 2001, including Oklahoma City bombing and the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s serial mail bombs.

Mark James Discusses the Evolution of Metropolitan Community College