Remarks for H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System
Business and Industry Partner of the Year Award honoring Johnston Memorial Hospital
Johnston Community College
Smithfield, NC
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Thank you, President Reichard. As always, I am pleased to be with friends and colleagues from Johnston Community College, one of North Carolina's finest community colleges.
I confess to some nostalgia this morning, because this is likely to be my last "official" visit to Johnston before I retire as President of the System the first of May.
I have been here often, at least in part because Johnston Community College is way out front in so many of the efforts that define our community college system. Economic development? You got it. Keeping up with explosive growth? You got it. Scoping out exciting new programs? You got it. Showcasing visual and performing arts and preserving exceptional natural resources? You got that, too. Developing a global perspective? You're leading the way in our systemwide partnerships with Thailand and the United Kingdom. When we call, you ANSWER, promptly and well.
In my decade as president of the North Carolina Community College System, I have often been asked -- so what do community colleges really DO? In North Carolina, that's easy to answer. We're about JOBS. We're known for helping our state attract and grow good jobs and for helping our people to prepare to get and keep good jobs -- and be ready for even better ones! And you are the people who provide the most direct connection between our STUDENTS and the JOB MARKETS that define our work. College leaders, faculty and staff -- and the outstanding business partner we honor this morning, Johnston Memorial Hospital.
State leaders established our system after World War II to help prepare workers moving off the farm for new jobs in manufacturing. Now we're making sure North Carolinian's prosper in today's knowledge-based economy -- I call that Farm to Factory to Pharma. By "Pharma" I mean high-tech, biotech, and, of course, the incredibly fast-growing health care industry.
If that's all you remember from today -- then that's plenty. And according to N and O writer Rob Christensen, we're doing OUR job pretty well! Rob wrote this in 2003:
"In the post-World War II era, no government initiative has had a more positive effect on the lives of North Carolinians than the creation of the community college system.”
One of the keys to our success is the willingness of North Carolina's business leaders to become and REMAIN real PARTNERS of community college education. Of course involvement of people outside the "academy" is important everywhere -- and everybody does it to some extent.
But it's one thing to have placement offices that help graduates find jobs and development offices that secure financial support from private companies. It's another thing to have people who do the WORK of 21st century business and industry working side by side with our deans and instructors to make sure that our education and training prepare students for what you need right now -- right HERE, in the community that Johnston Community College serves.
"Community" matters. In our colleges, program development rests with the COLLEGES -- their charge is to provide the skills and training needed in their service areas.
The best definition of that charge I've ever heard came from the late Dallas Herring, truly the spiritual father of North Carolina's community colleges. A few years ago, he said:
“A community college in North Carolina has one essential job --- to work with your community to determine what product or service your community can make or provide that will offer good jobs for the people of your community. You must help them find the next great idea and make sure that your college provides the education and training that your people must have to develop the skills to get those jobs and to keep them.”
Seems to me that the men and women in this room are BURSTING with great ideas about what it takes to keep Johnston County prosperous -- and I know President Reichard and his colleagues are tremendously grateful for your willingness to share those ideas.
President Reichard has asked me to share a few thoughts today about where community colleges are right now, most important -- what's NEXT as we do indeed help North Carolina find that "next great idea."
North Carolina's community colleges are known for size and scope. Today, the North Carolina Community College System enrolls more than 800,000 students each year in 58 institutions, offering the most comprehensive community college program in the United States.
We have a community college facility within easy traveling distance (in most cases less than 30 minutes) of every citizen in the state. The Higher Education bonds passed in 2000 have put even more facilities in place, and tremendous strides in distance learning technology, particularly on-line, have made our colleges even more accessible.
We're also known for unflagging commitment to Economic and Workforce Development through customized industry training for new, expanding and existing industries, excellent occupational extension and active small business centers.
Focus on technical training in curriculum is also a hallmark for our system -- training that leads to good pay and great job satisfaction in fast-growing industries. Biotech, in which Johnston Community College is a very important player, deserves special mention, with 125,000 jobs projected in our state within 20 years -- and of course, health care is huge now.
Huge, in fact, doesn't begin to capture the impact of health-related businesses throughout North Carolina or the importance of allied health programs to our community colleges.
When we prepared the budget request to the General Assembly last year, we noted that demand for health care workers had never been greater in North Carolina -- 60,000 new jobs created since 2001, with current urgent shortages in nursing and imminent shortages in many other health-related fields.
Every one of our 58 community colleges has at least ONE allied health program. Statewide, we now have more than 20,800 full-time equivalent (FTEs) students in about fifty associate degree and diploma programs in health. That's registered and practical nursing; dental hygiene and assisting; therapy assisting; emergency medical technology and much more.
The research we see shows MORE growth in health care, as baby boomers age and retirees continue to flock to our state's beaches, mountains and golf courses.
All of you know how proud community colleges are of our successful allied health programs. Who wouldn't be proud of the excellent passing rates Johnston Community Colleges nurses post on their licensing exams? Who wouldn't be proud that almost two thirds of the new RNS and almost all the practical nurses and nurses aides in our state come from community colleges? We must not, however, take that excellence for GRANTED as the need for health care workers escalates.
We have had the benefit of superb faculty for decades – despite faculty salaries that stay stubbornly near the bottom on regional and national scales. Now, those talented instructors are retiring with their 30 or 40 years of service – and we must find ways to replace them with dedicated teachers with the right credentials.
We’re challenged STILL by salary issues. Yes, the General Assembly has recognized our dilemma in recent years and boosted salaries in community colleges, but we haven’t gained much ground compared to other states – and we are in danger of LOSING ground to universities, public schools and private industry.
In health programs – especially in nursing – we also face the challenge of SUPPLY. We need instructors with graduate degrees , particularly if our system is going to meet the growing demands for national accreditation for all our nursing programs.
Meeting this challenge will take creativity and collaboration – with business partners like Johnston Memorial Hospital, and with the university programs where nurses earn their advanced degrees. Distance learning is part of the answer here – and of course, money matters, too.
Again, we have had some recent success in persuading the General Assembly that our health programs are more expensive to operate than many other programs and deserve MORE funds per student to pay for instructors, facilities and equipment. That’s a good start – and we need to keep working to identify more money to START health programs and to tackle the very difficult issues of student success and retention.
We KNOW North Carolina desperately needs more nurses and other health care workers NOW. We KNOW that our community colleges CAN and DO deliver quality education and training in health. And we need to understand that we have the responsibility to make sure that our health programs do their work EFFICIENTLY as well as EFFECTIVELY – putting top-quality graduates into the workforce as quickly possible.
We call our associate degree programs "two-year” programs. In reality, however, in demanding programs such as nursing, lots of our students don’t come close to finishing in two years.
Some of that is because students aren’t prepared and need remediation and prerequisites before starting the degree. But because we are holding onto the “pure” definition of open door, non-competitive admissions in most of our programs, many of our waiting lists for nursing are years long now. Some students who DO get in don’t have the best chances of success or won’t be able to complete their clinicals, due to criminal records or drug problems.
The harsh reality right now is that a good student who wants to be a nurse can probably get in and get through a four-year bachelor's program at a University before he or she can finish up an associates degree at some of our community colleges. Our friends at the big universities have figured this out and are now aggressively marketing accelerated RN programs for people with bachelors’ degrees in other subjects – and they take just a year and a half.
Yes, we NEED to be open to all kinds of students, at all different stages of life. And yes, we MUST be willing to adapt our practices to meet real needs TODAY – or I think we put our “franchise” in quality health education at risk.
What’s next, on the list of things community colleges should be doing? You don’t need to here from ME about the challenges of serving our newest North Carolinians. Johnston County competes with Wake County for the fastest growing Spanish speaking population in the state – and in the top ranks in the entire COUNTRY. Pick a topic and find a controversy – who enrolls? In what? At what price? What happens to American-born children of undocumented parents? If employers demand workers and we train the workforce – who asks for ID? If half your emergency room patients don’t speak English, who talks to them? There are no easy QUESTIONS about immigration and no simple answers.
One of the most important challenges for our system as a whole is keeping up with TECHNOLOGY – particularly in instruction – and making sure that we truly have the systems in place to teach and SUPPORT teaching in the way current students demand – and that our funders understand that this task is NEVER “finished.” In the first System instructors’ conference I attended, in 1998, I made this statement:
When advances in computers and software come about, we must be careful to incorporate them into our methods of instruction so as to maximize the student's potential to learn. Of course, it may mean that we have to change our methods of instruction so as to utilize the great potential of these new technologies. It may mean that you may need to teach a course over the Internet.
As the young people say -- "duh." In 1998, we had a number of broadcast telecourses in cooperation with UNC-TV, some two-way video and a small handful of experiments with on-line courses.
Last year, our curriculum registrations for distance learning topped 200,000, and by far most of those are on-line. Thousands more busy people sign on for continuing education on-line, too.
Add that all up, and it's a lot of money for technology and the people who are skilled in it. I confess that I've had my doubts about the return on investment for all of this as we struggle to stay on the cutting edge -- but I am now convinced that we MUST keep up -- because our students in this 21st century demand that we do so.
A year ago, the State Board of Community Colleges hosted the annual meeting of the Joint Education Boards. We met at the gorgeous campus of the SAS Institute in Cary, home of the world's largest privately owned software company. Our host, SAS co-founder Dr. Jim Goodnight, welcomed us with a striking thought that has really stuck with me.
He said "Today's students live in an interactive, technology rich, communications dominated environment, with cell phones, iPods, PDAs, computers and video everywhere. They have a very sophisticated understanding of how to use them. And then we send them to school to sit in rows, listen to lectures and look at the blackboard. No wonder they're bored and eager to drop out. We can't keep doing that!" Jim was talking mostly about K-12 schools -- but I was listening, too!
And finally, our system and your community college face the daily challenge of the truly global economy. North Carolina has had nearly $10 billion in foreign investment in NC since 1994. NC products are sold around the world. A quarter century ago, North Carolina’s competition for jobs was Georgia, Pennsylvania, or California Today it is India, China, or Singapore, and we've lost tens of thousands of basic manufacturing jobs off-shore. We MUST prepare our students and our state to compete effectively-- and to KNOW about the wider world.
I can’t begin to tell you how impressed I am by the commitment that President Reichard, your trustees, your faculty, staff and students have made to developing international partnerships that are widely recognized as models for community colleges across the country.
Johnston Community College has helped drive the East-West Community College Partnership with Thailand, which has helped that country build from scratch in less than seven years a community college system that now numbers 19 colleges enrolling more than 35,000 students. Johnston has been equally vital to the establishment of our thriving collaboration with Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, which includes students, faculty and administrator exchanges; transfer programs, sister institutions, joint research, distance education and much more.
Our system and colleges need to heed the wisdom of late Dallas Herring who wrote as our system was growing in the 1960s:
“We are set down at the doorsteps of a teeming universe of people whose problems, whether we like it or not, are our problems, whose sickness and whose health are immediately and permanently our concern. We say with Socrates, but with much more urgency than he, that we are not citizens of Athens or Greece, but citizens of the world.”
I thank you all for your commitment.
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