H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System
Charlotte, NC
October 29, 1999
Good morning. I am happy to be with you today to extend greetings from the North Carolina Community College System office. I recall speaking before the North Carolina Chapter meeting in Fayetteville in 1998 and receiving many questions from that group. I understand the Central Piedmont Chapter is the host of this regional meeting. It is quite a testament to have two strong chapters of your organization in our state. But this is also another indication that there are important concerns to address.
Here in North Carolina we are acutely aware of diversity issues. A quick environmental scan of our system shows that while we have made some progress, there is much yet to do.
Three of our 59 presidents are African American and overall, 12% of our personnel in executive, managerial or administrative positions are black. On the faculty side, the figure is 9% with 18% in professional, non-teaching positions. We want to do better
Since I came on board as president, two programs have been initiated by the System. They provide a method to strengthen minority leadership in our community colleges and are both under the strong direction of Bob Allen at the System office. We can and will improve these figures as we provide more professional development opportunities to minority staff. These programs have aggressively recruited and will continue to recruit minority participation, and successful completion will make these persons much more attractive candidates to become Deans, Vice Presidents and Presidents.
The Institute for Senior Administrators identifies and grooms a diverse group of middle managers and provides them with promotional support and in-depth training experiences. The Institute for Future Presidents provides highly qualified and competent candidates for local community college boards of trustees to consider when selecting a president or chief executive officer. Both of these programs are directed to focus on participation by minorities and women.
Incidentally, Bob Allen is not here at this meeting because he is with the latest ISA class which graduates today at the Presidents' Association meeting. I am proud to report that 24% of the graduates are African American.
The System Office also provides considerable support to the North Carolina Community College Leadership Program, which develops future community college leaders. Again, special emphasis is given to women and minority applicants.
Why do we do it? Simple - The future of the North Carolina Community College System is dependent upon the quality and diversity of its future leaders. I would hope that some of you here today from North Carolina have already participated in these programs. If you have not, I hope you will. I would encourage those of you from other states to take a look at these programs and perhaps model similar ones in your state if they do not already exist
Excellence with equity is the goal in leadership and also in our educational services. African-American students at our colleges account for about 22% of Extension and 23% of Curriculum enrollment, on par with the population. However, we know that the percentages are down with respect to retention and completion of programs. Improvement of these statistics is, I know, an important item on your agenda.
The NCCCS has an ongoing interest in the retention and graduation of minority students. The system conducted a study of African-American enrollment and retention rates in our colleges last year and several conclusions can be drawn from the data.
A comparison of enrollment rates shows that a greater percentage of white students are in college transfer programs than African-American, 27.0% of white students enrolled in our community colleges and 18.5% of Black. But in Vocational Programs, it is just the opposite; 18% of Black students compared to 10.5% of white. In technical and General Education, rates are about the same.
Retention rates for African-American students enrolled in our community colleges were consistently below the retention rates for white students enrolled from fall of 1996 through the fall of 1997 and the disparity appears to increase over time.
Several initiatives are planned to address this issue, including establishing a data collection and reporting method on retention system-wide. We need to expand the representation of African-American faculty and administrators and we must provide support for African-American retention starting from the top office down on our campuses.
What does all this mean? It means there is much work to do and your strategic goals indicate that you are committed to improve the reality for African-American students, faculty, staff and administrators in our colleges.
In an ideal world, an organization like yours would not be necessary. But this is of course, not an ideal world. It is a world of harsh realities that hopefully will one day be changed. We must work together.
I commend you for your interest, dedication and activism and I offer my support to you to make your objectives a reality.
I do hope that while those of you who are visiting North Carolina have an opportunity to experience the culture of the area and, of course, visit Central Piedmont Community College. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to spend some time with you today.
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