[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 8731-8732]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   PAYING TRIBUTE TO DR. JAMES JACOBS

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. SANDER M. LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 6, 2017

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Dr. James 
Jacobs, who is retiring at the end of June from a 50-year career at 
Macomb Community College (MCC). Since 2008, Dr. Jacobs has served as 
President of MCC.
  On its face, the pairing of Dr. Jacobs and Macomb Community College 
was improbable. A native of Brooklyn, New York with a Ph.D. in Politics 
from Princeton University, the notion that Dr. Jacobs would accept a 
faculty position at a Midwestern community college seemed, to his 
university peers at least, to be highly unlikely. As Dr. Jacobs told 
the Detroit Free Press in January of 2016, ``They said, `Do you need 
help finding a job? We can help you find something.'''
  What those colleagues did not understand was that Jim Jacobs' passion 
for activism and his belief that, as a profile written about him for 
Advancing Macomb put it, ``. . . as a college professor he could be a 
positive change agent for the country,'' was deeply held. At the 
request of a friend, Dr. Jacobs accepted an invitation to speak to 
students at MCC. As he explained in the same profile, ``Two things 
immediately impressed me. First, the students were real people and 
included Vietnam veterans, auto workers and homemakers, who

[[Page 8732]]

were in college asking good questions based on their life experiences. 
They brought a refreshing perspective that was dramatically different 
to my experience at Princeton.'' So, when he was offered a part-time 
position at MCC as a professor of economics, Dr. Jacobs brought his 
commitment to helping working class people build their futures to 
Macomb County.
  Dr. Jacobs has been an enthusiastic advocate for the importance of 
helping people to deal with the challenges of a changing economy 
through new skills training. During his tenure as President, MCC has 
enhanced its reputation as a pre-eminent institution for workers 
displaced by economic change to gain the skills needed to achieve 
career success. As a testament to the high regard in which MCC is held, 
former President Barack Obama visited the college three times to 
highlight the importance of workforce development and worker 
retraining.
  Dr. Jacobs is also widely known for his annual ``Macomb County 
Economic Forecast,'' which he delivers to a coalition of the county's 
local chambers of commerce. In his report, Dr. Jacobs delves deeply 
into the state of the county's economy--including employment, wages, 
home values, demographic changes, and more--which he places in context 
with state and national economic trends, and projects future economic 
change based on his analysis of the data. This report is highly valued 
not only by chamber of commerce members, but by county, state and 
federal policy makers.
  My office and I have turned to Dr. Jacobs on innumerable occasions to 
better understand an education or economic issue, to fully immerse 
ourselves in local demographic developments, and to collaborate on 
local economic development issues. He was instrumental as chair of the 
local committee that oversaw the return of federal property to the City 
of Warren for economic development during a Base Closure and 
Realignment Commission (BRAC) process. He was proactive in talking 
about the economic opportunities that exist in the defense sector for 
Macomb County and Southeast Michigan, and in ensuring a vital role for 
MCC in training and re-training efforts in this sector. In recent 
years, he has spoken out eloquently about the role of new immigrants in 
the County and at the College. Each of these examples highlights how 
Dr. Jacobs combines a unique ability to look to the future, with an 
appreciation of the past and always a grounding in the realities of 
working families. We have benefitted tremendously from his expertise, 
but more importantly from his passion and commitment for all of these 
issues.
  While he is retiring from Macomb Community College, he will continue 
the important work to which he has been committed for five decades. He 
will join the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, which focuses its 
philanthropic efforts in Southeast Michigan and in Western New York, 
advising it on how it can best support programs which will help working 
class families receive skills training and education to better secure 
their futures.
  The President of the Center for Automotive Research, Jay Baron, told 
the Detroit Free Press, ``Jim can talk to presidents and he can talk to 
the guy in the tool and die shop.'' Jim Jacobs has always known that 
presidents are important, but his life's work has been to help that 
person in the tool and die shop achieve economic security for his or 
her family in an ever-changing economy. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my 
colleagues to join me in thanking Dr. James Jacobs for his immeasurable 
contributions to Macomb Community College and to the people of Macomb 
County, and in wishing him the very best as he retires from the 
important institution which he served for 50 years.

                          ____________________