| President’s Report |
| to the |
| State Board of Community Colleges |
| January 19, 2001 |
It has been a long time since we last met and much has happened at home and at work. I trust that each of you had wonderful holiday seasons as did my family and that you are now well into a new year and hard at work. We certainly are here at the System Office.
Though December is not as frenetic as some months have been, there have been a number of meetings to claim our attention.
Since we last met, I have attended at least three meetings with regard to e-government and how the state government and community colleges will respond to electronic procurement and delivery of services.
I have met with Howard Kramer who represents proprietary massage therapy schools about their continuing concern about competition from our programs.
I met with Dr. John Tashner from Appalachian State University with regard to their interest in helping us produce more and well-qualified community college faculty members. I also met with Dr. Carol Kasworm from North Carolina State University with regard to their interest in qualified community college faculty and other initiatives of the Department of Adult and Community College Education in support of our mission.
Scott Ralls and I met with various representatives of the boat building industry with regard to meeting their workforce needs.
Several meetings in my capacity as a member of the Education Cabinet have revolved around First in America initiatives and completion of a report to the General Assembly with regard to cooperation between the three levels of education.
I met with Craig Souza of the nursing home industry to discuss how we implement the appropriation he obtained to increase the number of certified nursing assistants for that industry.
I met with Governor Easley and his Chief of Staff to discuss community college priorities and programs. Secretary of Administration Katie Dorsett and others met with me and my staff with regard to our deplorable record of using Historically Underutilized Businesses in the purchase of goods and services. Since then I have met with our senior staff in an effort to improve our record.
Dr. Charles Hamner and Dr. Ken Tindall met with me with regard to biotechnology initiatives and how we might expedite getting these programs into the field where they are so greatly needed.
I met with the School Improvement Panel in my continuing effort to provide a seamless path of education from the public schools through college.
Science museums across the state have an association whose members want a closer relationship with community colleges in providing science education opportunities for young people and adults. I met with their leadership to brainstorm ways that colleges and the museums could work together.
The Education Oversight Committee of the General Assembly has met twice since our last meeting at which time they heard our budget priorities for the coming session and focused particular attention on the need for salary increases.
I was pleased to represent our System at the North Carolina Awards dinner at which our special friend Harlan Boyles received North Carolina’s highest award. I also attended a farewell open house for Harlan and a reception honoring Tom Lambeth upon his retirement from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. As you know, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation has been a generous contributor to many projects of our System through the years thanks to Tom Lambeth’s strong commitment to community colleges and our role in North Carolina’s progress. One example of the Reynolds Foundation’s good works was a dinner they organized at Duke to discuss how leadership is and can be developed for communities and the State of North Carolina. I was honored to be one of approximately twenty people gathered for this discussion.
I met with the Trustees of Roanoke-Chowan with regard to their finalists and am happy to report that they have reached a decision on their new president, but they will not be seeking approval of that candidate until your next meeting because of that candidate’s need to work out a longer than usual notice at their leaving school. I also met with the Trustees of Beaufort County Community College as they begin the process of selecting a new president as a result of Dr. Ron Champion’s announced retirement.
As usual, I spoke several times since our last meeting including to the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technology Association annual meeting in Pinehurst and to Leadership North Carolina in Charlotte.
In early December I was in Washington and met with George Boggs, the new president of the American Association of Community Colleges, Senator John Edwards and Congressman David Price. In each case we discussed federal issues that impact community colleges.
We continue to make slow progress on meeting our Foundation goals. Since our last meeting, I have been involved in a number of visits with potential donors with Steve Zelnak, Greg Poole, and Ken Otis.
Of course, ‘tis the season of holiday parties and we had our share. It is a wonderful time to be with friends and colleagues, to thank them for their contributions during the previous year and to wish them well in the new year. We also celebrated with our new governor, Mike Easley, at his inauguration and paid Governor Hunt a fond farewell after twenty years of statewide elective service.
Steve Scott, Scott Ralls and Delores Parker met with officials of Cisco Systems to discuss potential projects with them, including projects that might also involve the South Carolina Technical Colleges and the public schools of the two states. Dr. Barry Russell was involved in those discussions and is doing well. You will be interested to know that Barry was married last Saturday in Columbia.
Dr. Steve Scott also led an orientation session for Dr. Carol Kasworm and members of the faculty and staff of the Department of Adult and Community College Education. Dr. Kasworm has been an excellent new department chair who is genuinely committed to a closer relationship between our System and her department.
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Parker has secured an additional $50,000 grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to support the Global Education Faculty Development Conference, having previously secured a $25,000 grant from the Stanley Foundation. Plans for that exciting program are well underway.
Elizabeth Isler was invited to participate in a two-day review panel by the Institute for Education Inquiry in Seattle, Washington, as they complete their study of practices and policies related to students obtaining college credit for courses completed while enrolled in high school. This appears to be an issue of growing interest. In fact, the Council of State Directors will be making a presentation on a similar topic when AACC next meets.
In our continuing effort to assist colleges in reviewing their program offerings, Elizabeth Isler led a team to Sampson Community College and made several suggestions for enhancing their offerings and expanding programs needed by the community.
Beginning in 2002, a new GED test will be offered. Dr. Dee Boyer is leading the effort to inform the colleges of this change and to help with the transition.
Sillar Smith and Linda Ray conducted a training session at Cape Fear for the compensatory education program staff and others. Patrick Pittman provided regional training in English as a Second Language. Mary Siedow participated in a panel on adult literacy in Washington, DC.
Stephen Athans and Dr. Parker attended the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools annual meeting in Atlanta in December. I regret to inform you that Robeson Community College was placed on probation at that meeting with several recommendations with regard to governance. The good news is that the college had no significant difficulty in the fields of academic and student services.
Lin Frye participated in the Council for Resource Development National Conference in Washington, DC and while there visited several federal agencies prospecting for funds. Eldon Meacham will be coordinating the recruiting efforts between NC Department of Transportation and the community colleges in the fields of civil engineering and surveying technology. There is a significant shortage of technicians in these fields to which we will be responding.
Dr. Brenda Rogers and the Distance Learning Funding Study Group have completed their work and you heard from them yesterday at lunch. The Council continues its work on developing policies related to distance learning.
The Information Resources Management Commission (IRMC) granted a provisional certification of our College Information System project. We will be working on the various questions that must answered as required by that provisional certification. As you know, I am a member of the IRMC.
Parks Todd attended the National Instructional Television Fixed Service Association annual conference and reports that North Carolina is well positioned to take advantage of wireless licenses because of the hard work in the past year across our System. Utilization plans for the licenses are currently being developed.
The Planning and Research staff published the 2000 Critical Success Factors report. This report documents how well the System is achieving the goals and objectives of our 1999-2001 strategic plan.
Though you did not meet in December, your hard working Finance and Capital Needs Committee did. Kennon Briggs and his staff worked diligently in preparation for that meeting to develop a construction management and cash flow model for the use of our bond funds. They have worked closely with the State Treasurer’s Office, the Legislative Research Commission on State Construction, the Department of Public Instruction and the University in developing models for the Finance Committee to use.
Kennon and I also met with the State Budge Officer and the State Controller on legislative initiatives and the implementation of our college information system as they relate to how we report financial data.
Kennon continues to work with UNC-General Administration and community colleges on the use of our facilities for baccalaureate degree completion programs.
Kennon and his staff made a detailed presentation to the Executive Committee of the Trustees Association with regard to how our bond funds will be distributed and last night, with college officials from Edgecombe, Halifax, Nash and Wilson counties, met with legislators in that area to discuss our budget priorities.
During the last week of November, the Economic and Workforce Development Division sponsored an entire week of orientation and training sessions for new college staff from across the state who work in these areas. One hundred and six staff members attended from forty-three different colleges and heard wonderful presentations on practically everything we do that relates to economic and workforce development.
The division published its second issue of the Economic and Workforce Development Update, an electronic newsletter e-mailed to more than a thousand people, including legislators, industry leaders, state and national policy makers, and the community college family.
Scott’s staff from in the field came to Raleigh to meet with in-house staff to review accomplishments of the past year and to develop plans for the coming year. That staff continues to be challenged by another record setting year for New and Expanding Industry Training with approximately 35 percent more projects at the halfway point of the year than we had for the entire year last year. A significant number of these projects are of record size. Corning has announced their second major expansion in the last two years at their Cabarrus County facility and will soon have the largest fiber optic facility in the world in North Carolina. Revlon will be expanding its Oxford facility by 700 employees to become the world’s largest cosmetic facility. Biogen will have the second largest biopharmaceutical plant in the country located in the Research Triangle Park; and Raflotek will be the largest self-adhesive label producer in the world creating 500 new jobs in Hendersonville.
Through the Small Business Center Network, training was provided in the Rapid Response Entrepreneurship Curriculum, the new core curriculum for business start-ups developed by NC REAL and for Export Ready, the new export training program provided by the Small Business Centers in partnership with the Department of Commerce.
Dr. Ralls spoke to the Brunswick County industry leaders at a breakfast sponsored by the college there and appeared on OpenNet, a statewide-televised program, to tout our economic and workforce development programs.
As we look back at the prior year and forward to the coming year, we are all struck by our blessings as a System. We have wonderful opportunities to have a positive impact on the lives of North Carolinians and a wonderful State Board and staff dedicated to maximizing those opportunities.
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.