H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System
Statement to General Assembly on 2007-2009 Appropriations
March 23, 2007
Chairs and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for allowing me to appear before you this morning to talk about the budget priorities of the North Carolina Community College System and to thank you for your past generous support of community colleges. Through your appropriations we have created a community college system which is the envy, not just of other states, but of the world.
The priorities which are the basis of our budget request were set by a very intense and intentional process of collaboration and cooperation with all members of the community college family: presidents, trustees, faculty, administrators, students, and of course, the State Board of Community Colleges. It is a very ambitious request, the most ambitious of any submitted during my ten years as President of the System. At my first appearance before you ten years ago I stated that I would always propose budgets that spelled out our needs, needs that would often exceed the resources available, and it would be up to you as the State’s policy makers and appropriators to judge our priority requests and fund the priorities which you in your wisdom embraced, taking into account resources and demands by other agencies. In years past I have spelled out our priorities, but often did not request everything we needed because I realized that resources were scarce and other needs were great. However, this year is different and I want to begin by spelling out that difference.
This will be the last biennial budget I will present to you. Sometime before the end of this biennium I will be stepping down as President. I cannot in good conscience go without having first laid out for you what I believe the full needs of our System are if we are to fulfill our mission. We must prepare the workforce for the future and retrain the workforce of the past which is made up of workers of great dedication and ability and with years of work life left. To meet the needs of the new global, knowledge based economy our colleges must give these workers new skills and a global perspective. Unless we have a workforce prepared for the future, that future will never come to North Carolina. We will stagnate in the backwaters of the past and the incredible momentum which has been growing in recent years will come to a grinding halt. Furthermore, the only hope for broadly based economic growth in even our smallest and most rural counties depends on every county and community having a well prepared workforce; the only hope for this to occur is through our state-wide Community College System where almost every resident in the state is within an easy drive of one of our campuses or dedicated teaching site. This great access demonstrates the wisdom of those who created this system; today’s leaders have extended this access in to every living room or nearest internet access location through aggressive pursuit of learning using technology. Therefore, I would like to lay out for you those needs in the hopes that before I leave you, you will find the resources to meet those needs.
Governor’s Proposed Budget
I am pleased that Governor Easley, in his budget request, has endorsed a significant number of our priorities and has proposed funding them at an appropriate level. I would like to begin by spelling out those priorities which are in the Governor’s budget in hopes that you will, likewise, see the needs to be met and include these items in the final budget you pass this June.
The Governor has made as a centerpiece of his request greater connectivity of our state through the internet and the use of distance technologies in the delivery of education, at the public school, community college, and university levels. He has requested funding for our technology/distance learning priorities and I applaud him for doing so. I sincerely request that you will support these and other items in his request:
l. Without increased bandwidth we have achieved as much growth as possible through distance learning for students and course management for faculty. The Governor proposed $3.8 million to increase and improve the technology infrastructure which will give us the connectivity and capacity we need to take courses to every public school in the state and into every living room and to share these resources with our university partners. This increased bandwidth will give us the connectivity required to link the community colleges with our university and public school partners. Data exchange, analysis and transfer for decision making and course development and collaboration with the universities will be the outcome of this infrastructure growth. These collaboration efforts are critical for us to become a twenty first century System.
2. We can have all of the technology infrastructure in the world, but if we do not have the courses to offer our students at all levels, that technology is wasted. Therefore, we request that you approve the proposed funding for our Virtual Learning Community course development initiative which expands the current course development centers from two to six to greatly increase the number of and speed with which new courses can be offered and to keep current the courses already developed. The request is for $1.2 million and is in the Governor’s request.
3. One of the ways in which these on-line courses and traditional face-to-face courses can be enhanced for increased learning is through a digital library of web-based learning resources called a “Learning Objects Repository” (LOR). The LOR is composed of learning objects that can be integrated into an on-line course or used by a traditional lecturer to enhance lectures and in-class activities. The LOR will provide a state of the art online teaching and learning platform that provides learning, web and text resources that can be customized by instructors and used for multiple purposes. These learning objects can include graphics, video clips, movie fragments, digital pictures, sounds, etc. For the initial development of the learning objects of the LOR, we have been working with SAS Institute and our university partners. We propose to work with faculty at the universities to design these learning objects so that they can be used with online or classroom instruction by both community college and university faculty. To fund the next level of this development we need the $624,000 proposed by the Governor.
4. The Community College System and the University System continue to look for ways to collaborate in technology. As licenses for the current course management systems (CMS) of both the Community College and the University Systems expire in mid-2008, we need to collaborate on a new partnership, and the recommended $250,000 will accomplish that purpose. A joint CMS will allow for faculty and students of both systems to manage course materials distribution, assignments, communications, and other aspects of instruction for their courses. Once these courses have been created, community college and university instructors all over the state will have access to this rich array of resources. We have developed this proposed initiative in collaboration with the University System and will use it to enhance our cross use of these resources.
5.The Virtual Computing Lab, modeled after the North Carolina State University Virtual Computing Lab, will provide a state of the art, secure computing service for students, either as a part of classroom instruction or as individualized instruction. The Virtual Computing Lab allows students remote access service that will reserve a computer with a desired set of applications which the student can remotely access over the Internet. It is intended to address the increasing needs of both local and distance students and faculty by providing 24x7 access to these advanced computing laboratory facilities. It is estimated that the Virtual Computing Lab will serve up to 3,000 students per semester. The Virtual Computing Lab is being developed in cooperation with the University System and will require the $631,000 proposed.
6. The Pappas Group’s study of the role of the Community College and University Systems in economic development proposed the creation of a technology consulting capability which will cost $500,000 as proposed by the Governor. This capability is particularly important for full utilization of our technology infrastructure by our smaller, rural colleges.
7. The distance learning support of Learn and Earn Online, the NCCCS Virtual Learning Community, and the joint NCCCS and UNC initiatives will require additional personnel at the System level. The Governor has proposed and we request that you approve three positions costing $262,000. These funds will support these positions – an instructional designer, an applications integrator, and an information technical services support analyst. As noted in another section of this statement, almost all of these distance learning initiatives are collaborative efforts with the university system and the public schools.
8. If we are to fulfill our mandate to prepare tomorrow’s workforce for a new global/knowledge-based economy, we must do more in preparing our own instructional staff to meet that challenge. Last year we were appropriated $504,000 for the professional development of our entire staff system-wide or $83.65 per faculty member or even less if we also try to upgrade or keep current the skills of all other staff. This is about one-half of one percent of our budget. A private company spending such a small portion of its budget on professional development and keeping its employees on the cutting edge would be out of business before the end of the year! The Governor has become convinced and I hope you will be convinced that this deplorable situation should be addressed. The $3 million appropriation request for professional development will allow our faculty and staff to become armed with the tools they so desperately need to prepare our workers to compete in a global environment by taking graduate courses in their fields and in learning to infuse their courses with a global perspective.
9. Likewise, if we are to train tomorrow’s workforce, we need tomorrow’s instructional equipment to fill our shops and classrooms. We applaud the Governor’s request for $5 million dollars of expansion of our continuation budget for equipment. Of course, we need far more than that amount. We have requested and can justify equipment funding in the first year of the biennium of $16,092,511. We prefer recurring funds for better planning, but some or all of this funding could come from non-recurring resources.
10. Retention of students to completion of their program, whether it is a degree, certificate or diploma, should be a high priority for all of us. One of the great challenges that students who are the first-time college goers in their families or students returning to college after working many years is how to navigate the often confusing waters of college/academic life. During the lean years of the start of this century, in order to keep funding at full levels for the classroom, academic and student services funding was cut dramatically. Last year you made an installment on recovering some of that lost funding by appropriating additional resources for the all important financial aid staff. This year we are requesting and are happy that the Governor proposes $3.6 million for counselor positions, positions which will lead to improved chances for success and completion of programs by our most challenged students. When Pillowtex closed, federal funds were made available through our Congressional delegation. Significant resources from these federal grants were put into academic and student services and the results were dramatic. These were some of our most traumatized and ill-prepared students ever, but through significantly enhanced academic and student services, these students succeeded at a higher than normal rate. With increased funding in this important area, I am convinced more students will persist to completion, a happy result for the student and for our economy!
11. One of the key recommendations of the Pappas study was for additional funding for the creation of new programs to meet anticipated training needs, so that we could be proactive and not reactive in meeting the needs of industry. In the past we have had almost no resources to anticipate needs and create new programs before a crisis was at hand to meet the needs of a new industry sector or of clusters of industry which our economic development efforts were trying to create. Furthermore, since we are funded retroactively, any new program started must usually be developed using local funds (often robbing Peter to pay Paul) and then funded for the first year of operation out of local resources. The colleges are reimbursed the next year for the new courses offered, however, the course development costs never get reimbursed, a cost that must have been absorbed by the college offering the course. On rare occasion the meager State Board Reserve funds or a GoldenLEAF grant might have funded the course development. This was particularly true in our very successful biotech initiative. Please fund the Governor’s request of $500,000 for new program start-ups. We hope that through the use of these funds we might find some other fast-breaking clusters to get ready for!
12. Speaking of biotech, the joint use facility on Centennial Campus at NCSU known as BTECH where our Capstone Center will be located will come on line this year. We have never requested funds for staffing this Center because we didn’t have the Center. (I might add that we have operated an interim facility at Wake Tech which is already the envy of the biotech industry in many states, but did so within existing resources.) This major facility addition will have to have its own dedicated staff and supplies budget which is in the Governor’s budget at $310,000, a critical item if we are to open this facility and go to the next level of biotechnology education and training.
13. Another challenge for first-time college goers in a family is the lack of academic success by other family members in the past on which to model behavior. Many first-time students will take five or six courses, will have car problems or daycare problems or a family illness, or he or she will need to get to work immediately to support the family. It is easy to stop-out and never return. Kentucky has pioneered a concept of modularizing their various curricula so that a student upon completing a prescribed set of courses can be awarded a certificate, for many first time college-goers, this is the first academic success in the family’s history. This certificate can be taken into the workplace as a credential for hiring. As the student/worker sees the value of this certificate and the need for additional credentials to progress on the job, they may go back and get the next certificate. With that certificate they get a promotion and the taste for academic success which then leads to another certificate and before you know it they have completed the courses for a degree! In the past they might have taken enough courses for one or more of these prospective certificates, but without a change in how we do business, they take nothing away except the knowledge they acquired. I hope you will agree with me and the Governor that this is a promising way to increase success and completion by funding $500,000 to begin the course/certificate development which will be required to implement this idea.
14. A program which has begun to show promise of increasing success of our low income/minority students is “Achieving the Dream,” now funded on four of our campuses by the Lumina Foundation. This program supports underserved minority populations, providing such help as mentoring, counseling and placement services to insure their success and graduation. The Governor would like to offer this program at four more colleges using state resources in the amount of $200,000.
15. Perhaps the greatest impediment to success and completion is the lack of student financial resources. The Governor proposes the most ambitious financial aid expansion in my memory with his Earn Scholars. Though this request is in the university system’s budget, since one-third of the scholars will be on community college campuses we join in supporting this request. By replacing burdensome student loans for economically disadvantaged students with grants, success of students in college and in life will be enhanced.
16. Enrollment growth on our campuses is often the result of unanticipated lay-off or closures. Therefore, you last year began appropriating funds into a reserve which a college may draw down to meet the unanticipated instructional needs of these laid-off workers. The Governor endorses your idea and continues it in his budget as a non-recurring item of $2 million.
17. Significant funding for Learn and Earn High Schools has been included in the budget of the Department of Public Instruction, however, $5.3 million dollars of that funding will be to pay for the college level courses which will be offered by our campuses as a part of this important initiative, plus funding for the textbooks and technology fees which the students would otherwise have to pay. We support those items in the DPI appropriation.
18. Included in the Governor’s request is $200,000 for new campus development at Wilkes Community College. We support this request.
19. Our long-term partner in entrepreneurship training is NCReal whose state funding flows through our budget. We support the $250,000 non-recurring request for NCReal and would request that this perennial non-recurring item become recurring for the stability of this important training partner.
20. The System Office administers the Workers Compensation program for all of our campuses. The claims have grown so dramatically in recent years that current staffing is simply inadequate to process and pay these claims in a timely manner. Therefore, the Governor has proposed an additional position at $66,000 which we hope you will fund.
21. Two areas where the Governor has proposed increases in spending which we applaud will be discussed in the section below which deals with unfunded priorities. We appreciate the Governor’s recognition of need, but we do not think the Governor has gone far enough. These are salary increases for our faculty and staff and funding for allied health programs. The Governor has proposed an additional increment of 2 ½% for faculty salaries and scholarships appropriated to the university system to educate more community college nursing faculty, but both needs go far beyond that, as I will discuss below.
State Board’s Expansion Request
Though the State Board and I are pleased with the inclusion of many of our priorities in the Governor’s request, there are a number of high priority and much-needed requests not included in his proposed budget. With regard to our highest priority (salary increases) he proposed a significant increase, but not enough to accomplish our goal of bringing our salaries to the national average; with regard to our second priority (allied health funding), he proposed no funding in our budget, though he did propose an increase in UNC scholarships for nurses seeking to obtain their masters degrees and qualify as faculty in our System. We strongly support this University request.
1. In the Appropriation Act of 2004 the General Assembly committed itself to raising the salaries of community college faculty to the national average. Though each appropriation act since then has included an incremental increase over and above other state employees, the relative position of our faculty and staff has risen only from forty seventh to forty fourth. Not only do we have an obligation to push for the fulfillment of that commitment, but the graying of our faculty and staff (many hired in the seventies when enrollment exploded) means a disproportionate number will retire in the near future. As these dedicated people retire, we will not be able to replace them with faculty and staff of comparable quality without competitive salaries. We will continue to lose valuable people to the public schools and four-year sector where salaries are already significantly higher. Having failed in the commitment to raise the salaries to the national average, the State Board has requested a new three-year commitment which will require first-year funding of $19 million and second-year funding of $38 million. In addition to the needs of our campuses to remain competitive, your System Office is behind the same eight ball—graying staff and salaries now below those paid by our colleges, public schools, four year institutions and UNC-GA. On a person to person comparison of our salaries and UNC-GA salaries, most university personnel make fifty to one hundred per cent more than their counterparts at our System Office. We do not seek parity, but we do seek fairness. We believe fairness and equity can be achieved by an additional appropriation to the System Office salary account of $275, 604.
2. North Carolina’s greatest workforce crisis today is the entire allied health workforce, but particularly nurses. Approximately 80% of all non-doctor allied health workers are educated at a community college. An in-depth study of the cost of educating a person in the allied health fields showed that it cost l.47 times as much to educate such a student as it does to educate someone in general education. Colleges are robbing Peter (often technical and vocational programs) to pay Paul (the additional cost for allied health programs). If our colleges are to meet their obligation to our hospitals, doctor and dental offices, nursing and rest homes, and of course, the people who will work there and those who will be cared for there, we must have enhanced funding. Our greatest disappointment in the Governor’s budget proposal was that he did not include the additional resources needed to fulfill this obligation. Just to fund allied health programs at the level they are now operating and to do so without short-changing other priority programs will require an additional $31 million. However, that is not our only challenge. The North Carolina Board of Nursing is pursuing a rule which will require accreditation of all of our nursing programs by the National League of Nursing by 2015. Our clinical teaching staff is not required now to have masters degrees, but must when NLN accreditation is required. It is incumbent on us to assist those long-term, hardworking clinical faculty to obtain their masters by returning to school while they continue to work. They cannot leave their work for up to two years without income to support their families. The Governor included money in the UNC budget for increased scholarships for community college faculty, but that is simply to meet the needs of growth and attrition, not accreditation. In addition to credentialing our faculty, there are costs to our colleges of going through the accreditation process. Therefore, we need over $7 million just to meet this mandate.
3. Technical and vocational education has been short changed for years in our state, not just at the community college level, but in our public schools as well. We have completed an exhaustive study of the needs of this important sector which demonstrates that these programs often are eliminated or not offered because they are much more expensive to offer than general education and students do not know of the job opportunities in the trades. Just to meet the equipment, supplies and faculty needs of high demand, low enrollment programs such as construction trades will require an additional $7 million. In addition, we desperately need marketing money to convince prospective students that there are great careers with high income potential if they will enroll in our technical and vocational programs. We learned with our excellent media advertising for biotech students that if students know about the potential, they’ll enroll. Therefore, we earnestly request that you fund a marketing budget for these careers in the amount of $634,000. It will be money well spent.
4. I’m from Eastern North Carolina and represented many small, poor, rural counties when I served in Congress. I have worked tireless in this job and in Congress to enhance the opportunities for development in those areas as well as in our metropolitan areas. However, as I have met with industrial prospects I am repeatedly told that one of the reasons their company will not consider a rural county is the lack of cultural opportunities which their employees (especially managers and supervisors who will be relocating to North Carolina) expect and can get in the Triangle, Triad or Charlotte Metroplex. We must do something to level the playing field. Until the early nineties community colleges provided that cultural enrichment through its Visiting Artist program. Musicians, actors and artists of all kinds spent a year or more on our campuses and filled this great need. I don’t have to tell many of you that industries were more likely to choose a rural county in those years than they are now. Working in collaboration (as we did in the past) with the North Carolina Arts Council, we have developed this request and will partner with them in the execution of this program. We request that you reinstate this program for colleges operating in Tiers 1 and 2 counties at a cost of $1.7 million dollars a year.
5. Our largest enrollment is in the non-credit, work skills area which we call Occupational Continuing Education. It is largely these courses that out of work or underemployed workers enroll in to change or upgrade their skills to make them competitive in this knowledge based economy. Almost all are working or out of work with significant family financial responsibilities. They simply can’t afford to return to work to seek a one year diploma or two year degree. Since these are cutting edge skills they are seeking, the equipment, supplies and other costs of instruction are often greater than general education. However, for years these programs have not been funded at parity with general education. When I came to this job these programs were funded at half the rate of general education/curriculum classes. Knowing that we were being penny wise and pound foolish, you heard my pleas and increased this level to 75% of the for-credit classes. Before I retire, I beg you to increase this funding and the recognition and prestige of these programs by funding them at the same level as for-credit academic programs.
6. It does business and industry no favors to turn out graduates who are not prepared for the jobs of the future. To guarantee that our curricula remain fresh and relevant, we identify one or two curricula each year to study in depth and to modify to meet future instructional needs. These in-depth self-studies are called “Curriculum Improvement Programs.” We need to be doing twice as many reviews each year at a cost of $600,000.
7. You have begun the important work of paying colleges the cost of operating multi-campus college and off-campus centers. These campuses and centers greatly extend access to counties that otherwise would not have a college presence, but Southern Association accreditation standards make them more expensive to operate. To fully fund this initiative you have already embraced an additional $828,166 for the multi-campus colleges and $4.5 million for the off-campus centers.
8. One of the greatest challenges American society faces today is the lack of enrollment of men, especially minority males, in post secondary education. According to the Department of Education, 29% of all students enrolled in degree-granting programs were racial/ethnic minorities. In this pool, more than 60% of the enrollees are women. While this is a wonderful growth for women seeking to achieve an education, there is a great disparity among minority males. Recognizing this deficit, the North Carolina Community College System decided to strategically address some of the factors that impact the lack of enrollment and success of the minority male student. Six community colleges participated in pilot Minority Male Mentoring programs which were funded by the Governor’s Crime Commission. The mission of these programs was to increase the enrollment and success of minority males in the post secondary educational environment. As a result of the success of these programs, an additional five community colleges started programs on their campuses. Though different in design, the results have been intriguing and highly suggestive that a continuation of these programs is warranted and will improve the retention and graduation rates of minority students. In order to insure the future success of these programs within the NCCCS, additional funding is needed as the Crime Commission funding has expired. These funds are needed to expand minority male mentoring programs on other campuses and to provide assessments and best practices for colleges aimed at recruiting and retaining minority male students. To continue and expand this mission, we are requesting $630,000 in additional funding.
9. An estimated $30 million is spent each year on our campuses remediating students who come to us under-prepared to complete college level work. Forty-eight percent of all recent high schools graduates must be remediated in at least one field (math, reading or writing). It is my belief that we need to identify the short-comings of high school students early and let the high schools address these problems prior to graduation. Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College for several years has tested all high school students at the end of the tenth grade, giving them the same assessment test that all colleges give to entering students. Students are then able to identify and improve the areas of deficiency during their last two years of high school. By doing so, this will increase the student’s success during their first year of college (community college or four-year college). This saves valuable time and money as they pursue their postsecondary education goals. It also saves the colleges tremendous resources that can be redirected to meeting their higher education goals. We are proposing to begin this program on a voluntary basis at a cost of $300,000, in order to assess its broader success before going state-wide. Interestingly, the University System has a similar proposal in their budget. We propose to use the same assessment instruments now in use on our campuses. These instruments are nationally validated (COMPASS and ACCUPLACER); the University proposes to use a math assessment developed at East Carolina University, but not yet validated and a language arts assessment developed by the California State University System. We need to work with the University System to carry out one program using one set of assessment instruments, but we are pursuing a joint strategy and hope to come to you with a single approach before the end of the budget work.
10. Students with disabilities are coming to our campuses every year in greater numbers demanding the education which they are due as citizens of our state, but accommodating their special needs is very expensive. To meet the needs of these students for counseling, assistive technologies, interpretive services, etc. we require $3 million.
11. One of the most farsighted developments since the beginning of the Research Triangle Park is the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis. This vision of David Murdock which he has backed up with a significant personal investment will turn the former Cannon Mills/Pillowtex complex in Kannapolis into a research center focused on food and nutrition biotechonology, an incredibly exciting and promising field of exploration and development. It will recruit many companies to locate in Kannapolis and make investments in jobs which are sorely needed to replace the lost textile and other manufacturing jobs in the region. This will be a collaborative approach between universities, community colleges and industry. This will call on our community colleges, especially Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, to educate almost two-thirds of the entire workforce. These technicians with post-secondary education, many with associate degrees, will earn far more than they ever did as textile workers. However, the success of this initiative and the future of this workforce require the funding of our request for $2,387,952.
12. The motorsports industry employs tens of thousands of North Carolinians, but this industry has been educationally underserved by community colleges and universities. A collaborative effort involving community colleges, universities and industry is underway which will lay out a strategy to meet this need. However, we do not have the plan ready at this time, nor do we know what that plan will cost. Therefore, a supplemental request will be made, hopefully with the Governor’s endorsement, before the end of the session to fund this initiative.
13. When the 2000 Higher Education Bond Referendum passed, community colleges were ill-prepared to take advantage of that funding immediately because facilities had always been a local responsibility and our colleges did not have advanced planning in place. The Bond Oversight Committee, anticipating the need for another higher education bond referendum in the near future, has recommended and we enthusiastically request that advanced planning money in the amount of $58,558,05l be appropriated so that community colleges will not have the lag-time experienced in 2000 which resulted in our missing the window of opportunity for low construction costs. This money will allow colleges to upgrade their long-range facilities needs plans and to begin planning their highest priority buildings which might be funded by such a bond. Though we have done significant work to determine facility needs System-wide and believe that we need more than a billion dollars, we recognize that such a request is premature, though we have included this figure in our budget request. Until we do the in-depth studies and until we are closer to the day when a referendum is called, we are not requesting actual funding. We believe that this $58 million dollars would be a wise investment of non-recurring money, should any be available.
14. There have been several recent initiatives of the State Auditor’s office and the State Controller’s Internal Control Task Force that prompt the request for the establishment of Internal Auditor positions within the System Office. First, in October 2005, the State Auditor wrote the Chairwoman of the State Board of Community Colleges and recommended that the State Board “assess the need for a system-wide internal audit function.” The State Board, following an in-depth study by a special Task Force, preferred to expand the scope and increase the number of Program Auditors that have been in place for many years. Subsequently, in September 2006, the State Auditor released a performance audit entitled “Internal Auditing in North Carolina Agencies and Institutions,” in which the Community College System was cited for having no internal audit system. Following these two communications we have met with Auditor Les Merritt and have his agreement to proceed with beefing up our program audit staff and giving those personnel internal audit functions to support all 58 of our colleges on a consultative basis instead of incurring the great expense of having 58 internal auditors spread around the state. We committed to Mr. Merritt that we would request these six positions instead of asking you for millions to implement his suggestion of an internal auditor on each campus. To fulfill our commitment to Mr. Merritt we are requesting funding to add six (6) Program Auditors ($517,206) whose responsibilities will include working with every campus on the internal audit functions spelled out in Mr. Merritt’s communications. The complement of both existing and newly-established auditors would be trained in the internal audit function, and would carry out the work of the State Controller’s Internal Control Task Force recommendations to the 2007 Session of the General Assembly. It is the intent of the State Board to address the State Auditor’s concerns and the State Controller’s recommendations, but it will be impossible to do so without this additional staff.
I think you will agree that this is an ambitious request, but that you will further agree that each request is reasonable and well justified if our System is to continue to meet the needs of our students and the businesses and industries where they will be employed. We earnestly plea that these requests be funded. My staff and I look forward to working with you to further refine this request and to find ways within existing resources to meet these critical needs.
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