MATC has abandoned it principle core mission to provide Multicultural Student Services for 63% of students of color, which 24% of the enrollment are Latinos that attend the technical college.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
December 22, 2025
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - As the year ends in 2025, the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) under MATC President Dr. Anthony Cruz, who is of Cuban descent has abandoned its principle core mission to provide Multicultural Student Services to 63% of its student population, which for decades have served as a business skill model to help prepare, retain and successfully graduate students of color in the Milwaukee metro area. Dr. Cruz decision to end the Multicultural Student Services Office in late August and replaced it with the the Office of Community Impact, which now only offers general student services to those enrolled at MATC, has created a void of specialized services effecting students of color.
In September 2025, Jon Sheldon, union President of the AFT-Wisconsin wrote to Dr. Cruz and the MATC Board of Trustees, "Milwaukee Area Technical College has a laudable reputation in every corner of Wisconsin for supporting students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. Indeed, a wealth of academic research shows that supporting the diverse needs of students is absolutely essential to the their success, particularly those on the margins. Supporting our students is not providing special favors—it is ensuring everyone's unique needs are met, which has always been at the center of our aspirations to create an excellent education system for all."
"Further, eliminating the positions of our members without due process and essentially replacing them with new hires is an affront to the principle that when a worker commits to an excellent institution of higher education like MATC, they should only be fired with cause or let go under exigent circumstances. This moment qualifies as neither of those scenarios," Sheldon wrote.
Dr. Cruz who came from Florida and has no ties to the predominately Latino community, especially to the majority of the Mexican descent population in Milwaukee was hired in June 2024, which definitely shows his lack of knowledge of the sacrifices the Latino community including the African-American, Asian-American and Native-American communities had struggled in the early 1970's to late 1980's to create specialized Multicultural student support services at MATC, which is known as one of the most diverse technical colleges in Wisconsin.
Then for Dr. Cruz, to simply come to Milwaukee and decide to eliminate the Multicultural Student Services Office, and to unjustly terminate four student service specialists with no prior notice or imput from the communities of color, in order to comply with Trump's illegal and unconstitutional attempt to eliminate race based student services, hiring and getting rid of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs at colleges and universities.
So far, Dr. Cruz has ignored the outcry and diverse voices from the communities of color that demand for MATC to restore the Multicultural Student Services and to rehire the four student service specialists that were previously terminated. Recently, discrimination complaints were filed by the four student service specialists with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Equal Rights Division. (Article link: https://hispanicnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2025/11/four-former-student-services.html?m=0)
Today, Dr. Cruz has done a disservice to the communities of color, and he continues to ignore their concerns and demands to restore the Multicultural Student Services at MATC. Cruz's reluctance to comply with the communities of color demands may result in a consensus agreement of having no confidence in Dr. Cruz to continue to lead MATC, and he must be replace. To date, Dr. Cruz hasn't accomplished anything in significance to continue as president at MATC.
Public testimony given at the MATC Board of Trustees meetings regarding the current state of affairs at MATC:
• MATC Alumni and community activist Samuel A. Alford public comment testimony regarding the elimination of the Multicultural Student Services Office by MATC President Dr. Cruz, during the November 24, 2025 MATC Board of Trustees meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Here's the October 2024 MATC Board meeting video where Luz Sosa, Carlos Aranda, Patricia Gómez and others exposed the hostile, harassment, retaliation and discrimination practices by leadership administrators at the technical college. https://youtu.be/Lm_ImpZGXn4
• The latest video, December 2024, the MATC Board meeting and testimony given by employees and MATC Counselor Carlos Aranda https://youtu.be/ed93-NODo8M
The members of the MATC Board of Trustees are, Erica L. Case, Chairperson; Citlali Mendieta-Ramos, Vice-Chairperson; Dr. Waleed Najeeb, Secretary; Gail Pence, Treasurer; Lauren Baker; Mark F. Foley and Wisconsin State Representative Supreme Moore-Omokunde (D-Milw). (MATC Board of Directors | MATC https://share.google/JBtolZmTGaz4lo885)
Editor's note: Dr. Cruz has yet to resolve the ongoing MATC hostile work environmental, the MATC administration retaliation against employees who complain about unfair work practices, job discrimination, a history of lack of full-time job promotions for part-time instructors, and harassment that employees experience by the Cruz administration and etc..
Also, the alleged corrupt administration leadership at the Human Resources (HR) illegally cut wages from part-time employees without them knowing, which totaled nearly $1M in back wages, the HR was forced to reimburse back wages to the part-time instructors this year.
Hispanic News Network U.S.A (HNNUSA) has learned that a major scandal at MATC involving millions of dollars is about to be made public.
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