Press Conference: Discrimination Complaints Filed Against MATC Board And President Dr. Anthony Cruz By Four Multicultural Affairs Office Student Services Specialists Unjustly Terminated!

Discrimination complaints filed against MATC Board and President Dr. Anthony Cruz by four Multicultural Affairs Office student services specialists unjustly terminated!

By H. Nelson Goodson 

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin - On Wednesday, November 19, 2025, Attorney Mark Thomsen at a press  conference addressed the four discrimination complaints filed against MATC. Attorney Thomsen is representing the four MATC Multicultural Affairs Office student services specialists who last week filed discrimination complaints with the State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Equal Rights Division after getting unjustly terminated when the Multicultural Affairs Office was eliminated by Milwaukee Area Technical College President Dr. Anthony Cruz. The press conference was held downtown MATC. (Video link: https://youtu.be/VyTtNJw0H9s)

Speakers:

• Rev. Walter J. Lanier — Community Leader & President/CEO, GLUE

• Attorney Mark Thomsen — Civil Rights Attorney

• Pam Fendt — President, Milwaukee Area Labor Council

• Minister Greg Lewis — President, Souls to the Polls; President, Pastors United for Change

• Former MATC DEI/Multicultural Services staff

• MATC students & alumni

MATC's Culture at a Crossroads: Community Responds to DEI Dismantling and Discrimination Complaints

Second Such Complaint Filed Against MATC in 2025

The speakers addressed:

• The loss of culturally grounded student support

• A long string of retaliation concerns at MATC involving employees who raised issues of race, equity, or workplace culture

• Harmful and confusing public messaging surrounding diversity and federal guidance

• The broader cultural crisis at MATC

• Coalition demands for transparency, accountability, and restoration of the eliminated positions

MATC's statement: "Like other universities and colleges across the country, we continue to work to carefully balance and incorporate directives coming from the U.S. Department of Education, aligning federal guidance with local priorities. Our goal, which we believe we are achieving through the office of Community Impact and other programs, is to avoid jeopardizing the critical funding needed to maintain operations and student aid at MATC, while still providing the necessary support to our students."

Multiple federal courts have ruled that Trump's era  elimination of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs at universities and colleges, and threatening to hold back federal funding, if they don't comply is unenforceable and unconstitutional because it violates instructors free speech in the classrooms.

It seems, that the MATC administration wants to continue to comply with Trump's unenforceable federal guidelines that eliminate DEI programs, eventhough multiple federal courts say it's illegal.

MATC student population stats: The technical college has 63% majority minority student population with 24% being Latino/Hispanic students.