H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System
October 14, 2002
Greensboro, North Carolina
Thank you. I appreciate the chance to be part of your "team" today. I note that your theme is "Excellence Through Teamwork." That phrase captures well the Faculty Association's ability to work as a team to pull this event together and your willingness to join the larger community college team to work toward common goals. Your commitment to the team is quite remarkable.
Even more remarkable is that, to use the sports analogy, the Faculty Association is very much the "expansion team, " the new folks in the arena of community college organizations. Conventional wisdom is that expansion teams in sports take YEARS to make an impact. Well, tell that to the Carolina Panthers, who made it to the NFC Championship Game in just their second season. And I won't even try to tell it to your great leader Jim Davies, who has built this association from nothing into front-page news in less than four years.
I came to the Presidency of the Community College System in 1997. When I arrived, we had the Trustees' Association, the Presidents' Association, the N-FourC-SGA and an assortment of associations representing various administrative functions and academic disciplines. Those associations were and are important, and they did and do important work.
But which one was the right one to speak for the faculty, to sit down with the State Board, with my staff, and with the other associations to develop the game plan for working with the General Assembly each year?
The problem with having too many choices is that often the easiest thing is to make no choice at all, and simply skip the whole question. And that had to stop.
North Carolina's community college system simply could not secure the public support and the money needed to serve its students without the enthusiastic, informed participation of its instructors.
It is probably not news to you that the first stirrings of organization on behalf of the faculty were not met with universal enthusiasm among a few of those accustomed to drawing up their own game plans. Hey, it's not easy to share power and decisionmaking!
But those who were enthusiastic put the case bluntly:
The faculty are the ones most responsible for doing what we're supposed to do…educating students. There are more than 10,000 of them, and they are going to create an organization. Do we want 10,000 talented, committed, energetic friends, helping define and pass the System's priorities, or do we want 10,000 talented, committed energetic, UNHAPPY instructors, insulted because they have been shut out of leadership?
Fortunately for everyone, your excellent leadership, careful planning, and plain, hard work demonstrated from the earliest days the tremendous value of having the Faculty Association on the team. In just four years, you have earned just about the highest accolade smart legislators can give. According to our government relations director, you have "legs."
What does that mean?
Folks in sales and marketing understand that a product with "legs" is a big seller with longlasting appeal. It "walks" off the shelf on its own and just keeps on running…and running…and running…
In sports, "fresh legs" are what good teams have to have in playoff time, to turn into great champions.
And you folks in the Faculty Association fit both those metaphors! You made an impact right away. You keep going all during the session, year after year. You keep coming up with new ideas, new faces and now, new leadership.
A short list of your great ideas includes curriculum demonstrations that have featured everything from robotics to health to horses! And yes, I did enjoy my horseback jaunt around Halifax Mall, courtesy of Martin Community College, although I would have enjoyed it more had I been wearing jeans and boots instead of my business suit. Your success in getting legislators to saddle up landed photos on the feature pages of state and regional newspapers and in our national trade press. And it wasn't the first time, either.
Also important is your thoughtful, scheduled and organized campaign of letter writing and op-ed columns. Who better to state the case for community college education than community college educators??
You have organized rallies, worked the polls and this year helped the Presidents and Trustees with the legislative barbecue.
Thank you, Don Wildman, for thinking to bring the big fans to keep the tent habitable on a blazing day in June!
And oh yes, you've taught a few classes, too.
What has all that work meant for the Community College System?
- Visibility.
- Real results. The overwhelming approval of the Higher Education Bond referendum two years ago is one outstanding example, and there are many more.
- And in this strange and unsettling year, survival.
Last academic year was without a doubt the worst financial year in the history of the North Carolina Community College System. We endured budget cuts, experienced a reduction in force, and had to chop out classes.
We also had unprecedented enrollment growth -- driven by our success in demonstrating that we ARE the front lines for economic recovery. Tens of thousands of laid-off workers are streaming through our doors. Faculty and staff are underpaid and overworked.
That's what we saw, when we started the 2002 Session of the
General Assembly. We already knew that a budget built on a growth rate of four
percent wasn't going to work, with state revenues in a steep decline. Early in
the year, I was told by the Governor's office to expect cuts of four percent in
the current years' budget. We were able to negotiate that to just under 3
percent. But the picture continued to get bleaker. By February, the Community
College System knew we were facing permanent budget cuts of between $24 and $60
million, just as the same economic woes were driving unemployed adults into our
classrooms in record numbers.
We were all worried.
What happened? Nothing short of a minor miracle.
State Board members, Trustees, Presidents, Faculty, Staff, Students, our friends in business and industry all rolled up our sleeves (quite literally at the day of the Legislative Reception barbecue) and went to work to demonstrate to the Governor and the General Assembly that community colleges are North Carolina's most important tools in the struggle for economic recovery. And legislators listened. They supported us.
I am pleased to report that the North Carolina Community College System is the only entity in state government that actually had a net increase in its budget -- about $26 million, or 4 percent.
The biggest part of the new funding is for enrollment growth. It was not a foregone conclusion that the system would receive a dime. Because of the way we're funded, the $51.8 million for growth pays for LAST YEAR'S growth. Get ready to hear about this again, because of course the numbers are going up and up and up this year, too.
The budget also includes more than $7 million to continue summer term funding. This is a major accomplishment. At one time, that funding was on the block for elimination, and we faced a very difficult task in restoring it.
We also received more than $1.2 million to support community college use of the North Carolina Information Highway, which provides fiber optic connections for data and for two-way video, including many distance learning courses. That's less than we requested, but enough to keep us operating.
New funds include an additional $1 million for financial aid.
Did we escape with no cuts? In a year like this, that was impossible. You already know that professional development and travel funds are so tight as to be nonexistent, and that's why the System Office was forced to cancel the full-fledged Instructors' Conference scheduled for this year. But once again, the faculty team came through in the lurch, and this conference became the substitute instructors' conference with excellent substantive, professional development sessions.
Unfortunately, we've taken deep cuts in programs for faculty to earn degrees and advanced degrees.
Then there are salaries. Salaries continue to be an incredible frustration. Despite all of the hard work, good intentions and actual progress in recent years, salaries in North Carolina's community colleges, especially for the faculty and professional staff, are mired on the bottom rung of any ladder you can find. In the southeast, only Arkansas trails us. Nationally, one of the Dakotas is worse off than North Carolina and Arkansas…and that's about it.
This year, the only raises were for public school teachers, and they were small. State employees and community college faculty and staff got no raises, period, for the first time in ten years. What state employees did get is…two extra weeks of paid vacation. That might be a nice idea, but it's a little hard to work it in, when staffs are already run ragged. In community colleges, we've had to stand on our heads to make sense of it, since contracts and leave systems are quite different.
While it didn't give us any money to do so, certainly the legislature did encourage community colleges to award raises and bonuses in addition to or instead of the extra leave. Unfortunately, no funding came with that authority. But colleges may identify funds within their budgets to fund these benefits. There are also major legislative initiatives to study benefits for part-time employees, and a serious look at alternative retirement systems.
The grinding concern over salaries and our growing inability to recruit and retain top faculty and staff remain enormous gaps in our list of legislative accomplishments.
We have at least progressed to the point where the actual words "faculty and professional staff salaries" are spoken in legislative strategy meetings, written down in our presentation materials, and discussed with decision makers.
I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that is a major accomplishment in itself. For too long, this system cloaked that very real and very big problem in puzzling language about "ensuring the future" and "providing instructional resources." For too long, members of the community college "team" squabbled with each other about flexibility, mandates, schedules, averages and statistics and simply refused to face the fact that our folks don't make enough money. We're losing ground to other states AND to our own public schools.
I'll confess to you that a year or so after I came to the system, I lost patience with that kind of discussion in a strategy meeting and whacked my hand down on the table.
That day, I said -- well, shouted -- "Salaries. I'm going to use that word, I want to see that word printed, and I want to keep hearing the word in every presentation to the Governor and the General Assembly until they all understand what kind of situation North Carolina is in, and DO something about it."
Frankly, I think you members of the Faculty Association are remarkable in your willingness to work so hard to support all the priorities of the community college "team" year after year. The popular image of employee associations, especially in the public sector, is that all they care about and talk about is their own paychecks.
I doubt that there is much truth to that statement in general. I do know, however, that it is demonstrably false, when it comes to the North Carolina Community College Faculty Association. You have year in and year out continued to be a part of the larger community college team--helping us set budget priorities for the System budget and working on those priorities. Not once has the selfish instinct won out over your firm commitment to support what is good for your students and your System.
You set a splendid example of excellence through teamwork, inside and outside the organization.
And the rest of us are extremely fortunate to have you. We will not -- repeat -- will NOT---take your team spirit for granted! It is not enough that you get to ride the bus and play in the game.
You deserve to share the medals, too! And our profound thanks as well.
Thank you.
###
RETURN TO TOP OF CURRENT PAGE
Last modified: Friday, May 20, 2011 01:56:23 PM
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.