President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
January 16, 2003
It has been a long time since we met and a lot has happened.
Soon after the November meeting, I participated in a two-day conference convened by Chancellor Jim Leutze at Wrightsville Beach on "North Carolina: An Uncertain Future." At this conference a number of people, including Bob Scott and Vic Hackley, were engaged in serious discussions about North Carolina’s future, including its workforce.
Later that week, I participated in one of several public discussions being scheduled by the North Carolina Progress Board around the state to explore similar issues as a part of its work.
With the addition of Paul Carr to the Foundation staff on a part-time basis, the pace of Foundation calls has picked back up, with a number of visits in November, December and January. We are still committed to completing our $5 million endowment goal by May 17, the 40th anniversary of our System.
On December 1, I went to Brussels to participate in an economic development conference organized by the University of Staffordshire, England, for members of the European Union. My topic was "The Role of Higher Education in Economic Development." I returned by way of Atlanta where I spoke to the State Relations Conference on how North Carolina approached its legislative efforts in a very tight budget year. Representatives from colleges and universities all over the country participated.
The following week I was in Washington for a two-day conference organized by Dr. Stuart Rosenfeld to engage community college leaders from around the country in responding to his research and imminent report on clusters development. Increasingly, economic developers see industries of similar types clustering in a geographic area because of the synergistic benefits of co-location. Stuart is doing groundbreaking work in this important area. In early January, I participated in a two-day retreat at the Rizzo Center in Chapel Hill on a similar report produced by Dr. Michael Porter at Harvard called "Clusters of Innovation." One of the case studies in his report was the Research Triangle. The Research Triangle Economic Development Partnership has asked Governor Jim Hunt and President Molly Broad to head up a task force that will explore the implementation of some of the recommendations of Dr. Porter’s report.
While in Washington, I also attended a board meeting of the Former Members of Congress Association and a reception and dinner honoring Congresswoman Eva Clayton on her retirement.
Kennon Briggs, Suzanne Williams, Larry Norris (representing the presidents), Bill Disher (representing the trustees), and Don Wildman (representing the Faculty Association) met with Governor Easley and his budget leadership and staff with regard to our financial needs for the coming biennium. This is the first time that we have had an opportunity for such a high-level meeting in advance of the Governor’s budget release. We believe that it was a very positive meeting, though the prospects for the next biennial budget are not very bright. The Legislative Strategy Group has begun its meetings in preparation for the upcoming session. We know that we have our work cut out for us. The Finance and Legislative Committees of the Presidents’ Association have also worked with Kennon on the cuts to be recommended to you at this meeting and ultimately to be submitted to the Governor for his consideration in putting together the next biennial budget.
I participated in a visit to North Carolina by the President of Moldova. Southeastern Community College and other community colleges have been involved for several years in doing entrepreneurial training for residents of that former Soviet Republic. Tim Brewer, representing the System Office, accompanied others to Moldova in the fall.
The week of Christmas I took some time off for a much-needed vacation with my family.
In early January, several of the System Office staff accompanied me a luncheon sponsored by North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry and the North Carolina Bankers Association, which featured speakers focused on the economy and prospects for the coming year. Your colleague and our Treasurer, Richard Moore, was one of the presenters. He and the economists on the program gave us some reason to have hope.
The Bioprocess Education and Training Center design team has begun its work. Several of us were involved in a planning meeting earlier this week.
In December, Dr. Delores Parker spoke at the fall commencement of the College of Education at North Carolina State University.
She and her Basic Skills staff are proud to announce a $100,000 grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services to fund a pilot an employment-training component within the Compensatory Education Program. Sillar Smith will manage the grant.
Dr. Randy Whitfield has been invited by Dr. Carol D’Amico, Assistant Secretary of US Department of Education, to attend a meeting of adult education experts to discuss reauthorization of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act.
Kenneth Chandler was awarded a scholarship to participate in the annual SACS meeting in Texas in December and Doug Long was awarded a scholarship to attend a conference of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
We are pleased that Cathy Franklin-Griffin, a Ph.D. student at UNC-Greensboro, will serve a practicum this semester with Dr. Parker. Kathy has worked as a nurse educator, program director and division dean at community colleges for almost 15 years. We hope that this will be a mutually beneficial experience.
Cindy Pannill and Bob Blackmun are working on a number of problems related to the wireless licenses obtained from the Federal Communications Commission a couple of years ago. There are challenges to developing this important resource, but we are confident that Cindy and Bob will work things out.
Keith Brown has been asked to serve on the Advisory Board for the Academy of Excellence in Institutional Assessment at North Carolina State University.
Dr. Saundra Williams recently had published a chapter entitled, "Instructional Design Factors and the Effectiveness of Web-based Training And Education" in a book recently published.
Dr. Williams, Keith Brown, Arthur Hohnsbehn, Rick Newsome and members of the Educational Information Technology Coordination Council are working with SAS Institute on a data warehouse project that will serve faculty, staff, and students in North Carolina and will be a model for replication in the rest of the country.
Dr. Williams and Dr. Parker are working with US Networks, Inc. to develop Information Technology internship and cooperative education opportunities for community college students.
Dr. Williams and Kennon Briggs and their respective staffs continue to be challenged by the implementation of the CIS project. We appreciate the work of these important staff members and the work of the Information Systems for Future Steering Committee, chaired by Dr. Doug Eason.
In December, Kennon Briggs and Phil Albano drove to Charlotte to meet with the co-chairs of the Bond Oversight Committee who have particular responsibility for community college projects. We are blessed to have Ruth Shaw and Mac Everette in this important role. They have been consistently impressed with the reports they have received from Kennon, Phil and our reporting Presidents. At this meeting, South Piedmont Community College and Central Piedmont Community College gave reports on their projects. I hope that you noted in what Kennon has provided you at this meeting, that we have reached the 10 percent floor of Historically Underutilized Business participation in these projects.
Kennon and his staff have been working closely with the Fiscal Research Division in the selection of a vendor to study the structure of the Community College System, including organization, administration, and multi-campus colleges and centers. The Finance Committee had a special meeting on December 18 to appropriate the funds for the study and you have given final approval of that action today. MGT, the consulting firm that has done other studies for us, was chosen for this contract.
For many years we have had a warehouse in Kernersville used for storing equipment purchased through New and Expanding Industry and other initiatives. This was costing us significant rental fees each year. Thanks to the work of Dr. Larry Keen and his staff all of that equipment has been successfully distributed to the System Office and 18 community colleges and the warehouse lease has been terminated.
The Small Business Center Network State Advisory Committee has completed a review of the Small Business Centers across the state and have chosen award winners. We regret that the weather prevented our making those presentations at this meeting, but you can look forward to congratulating the winners when we meet in March.
The Training Initiative staff who came to us more than a year ago from the NC Department of Labor continues to prove their worth and value to our System by developing new programs and doing important research to enhance other programs.
Thank you for coming today. Please drive carefully going home. Each of you is too valuable to us to risk losing even one of you!
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