H. Martin Lancaster,
President
North Carolina Community College System
Pitt Community College Leadership Institute
June 6, 2007
Thank you. It's always a pleasure to spend time with the up and coming leaders of North Carolina's community colleges. I'm pleased to note that more and more of our colleges are following your example in establishing leadership development programs. They have always been a good idea -- now, they are essential. We have to keep good leaders coming as we look toward a future of growing enrollments, exciting new programs, great demand for our services and continuing heavy turn-over at all levels from president to custodian. Here are some numbers that show why I put such a priority on the issue right now -- the average ages of key people in our system.
-
Presidents: 59
-
Senior Administrators: 54
-
Curriculum Faculty: 48
-
Continuing Education Faculty: 50
-
Staff: 48
-
System Office Staff: 48, with almost 40 percent over 50.
The good news in those numbers is that our leaders, teachers and staff members are mature and experienced. The bad news is that a whole lot of them -- like me! -- are already eligible for retirement and many more are knocking on the door.
Your willingness to commit your time to this program -- and Pitt Community College's long-time investment in YOU -- are important statements that your institution understands that continued success depends upon well-prepared people, dedicated to YOUR community.
Other people will talk with you about the nuts and bolts of running community colleges in North Carolina. I've been asked to share with you my thoughts about the "State of the System" today. The best way for me to do that is to touch on a bit of our history, with apologies to those who have lived more of it than I have; to offer you a snapshot of where we are today, and to give you my perspective on what's next.
First, the history:
1789: North Carolina opens nation’s first public university.
1958: North Carolina creates Industrial Education Centers, offering customized industry training, recognizing that our state needed help making the transition from a mostly agricultural to a growing manufacturing economy.
1963: North Carolina merges the IECs into the new comprehensive community college system, combining technical training, adult education and college transfer.
In 1981, the System moved from the jurisdiction of the State Board of Education to the governance of the new State Board of Community Colleges, and our current structure was in place.
What are we known for today?
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! If that's all you remember from today -- then that's plenty. And according to N and O writer Rob Christensen, we're going 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.”
We're known for size and scope, certainly. 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. Our main programs there are:
-
Attracting and Growing Industries: NEIT
-
Strengthening Industries: FIT
-
Keeping Industries: CIT Customized Industrial Training (CIT)
-
Nurturing Entrepreneurs: 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. Health care is huge now and growing at a stunning rate. One of the biggest challenges in our system is finding a way to meet the tremendous demands for health care workers -- especially nurses -- when so many of our faculty are retiring or leaving for better pay elsewhere. Allied health programs are very expensive to run -- but our state has to have the trained people, so we HAVE to find a way to convince the General Assembly to properly fund our capacity.
Biotech deserves special mention, too.
-
North Carolina is home to South’s largest biotechnology community, country’s third-highest concentration
-
7 of top 10 pharmaceutical companies have NC facilities
-
25,000 jobs projected in North Carolina by 2025
-
NC BioNetwork is our system's Cost-efficient, effective way for community colleges to serve biotechnology cluster, biomanufacturing companies and North Carolinians by sharing information, innovations and resources
-
nitial funding largely from GoldenLEAF. Now state-funded through recurring appropriation. In just three years, BioNetwork has reached more than 40 or our colleges -- including yours of course, with its center for bioprocessing -- with grants and programs to boost preparation for this vital industry.
-
While we are not yet widely known for college transfer outside NC, we are certainly boosting it within our borders.
-
Transfer agreements with all UNC campuses, many independent colleges and universities. East Carolina University is one of our strongest and most innovative partners, system-wide.
-
New two-plus-two programs bring university degrees to community college campuses -- vital for teacher preparation, health
North Carolina is becoming national model for access for high school students;
-
College Tech Prep; Learn and Earn; Early and Middle College
-
Huskins Bill
-
Dual/Concurrent Enrollment
-
High School Reform Sites: By far most are on community college campuses or done with heavy CC involvement.
North Carolina… has a sterling national reputation for the quality of our basic skills programs.
-
Our system runs the Sixth-largest Basic Skills program in US. Our major growth area is, of course, in English as a Second Language, especially for Spanish-Speakers. North Carolina has nation’s fastest-growing Hispanic population, many other recent immigrants, so demand for SPANISH instruction it up, too.
-
Serving the immigrant community -- especially Hispanics/Latinos, has challenges that you know well. Tens of thousands take basic skills -- but when it's time to enroll in curriculum programs, out-of-state tuition is a huge obstacle. Somehow, our state has to sort out conflicting laws to enable us to do our job for hardworking people.
WHAT'S NEXT?
The Creative Economy: A lot of research about the key to continued prosperity is innovation, creativity -- and one of the ways we support that in community colleges is support for arts and humanities.
-
Internationally known photography, pottery, jewelry, furniture, other professional crafts
-
AFA in music, musical theatre, visual art
-
Extended, improving courses in arts for all students, community
-
System Office Art Exhibit
Finally, the Global Economy …Globalization is HERE --
-
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.
-
Our response -- many contacts and relationships, with at least two extensive and growing statewide initiatives.
-
East-West Community College Partnership with Thailand. After recruiting trip to Asia, Thailand’s Prime Minister asked us for help in establishing community college systemNovember 2001 – Thai Government created 10 community colleges in rural areas having no access to higher education – 4000 students in first 18 months
-
Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom
Student, faculty, and administrator exchanges
2+2 Programs
Sister institutions
Distance education offerings
Joint research projects
First year in a British institution, followed by second year in North Carolina
Our system and colleges need to heed the wisdom of late Dallas Herring who wrote as 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.”
Your success as leaders has a great deal to do with the eventual success of the citizens of Pitt County -- as citizens of the world. I thank you for your commitment.
Questions?
###
RETURN TO TOP OF CURRENT PAGE
Last modified:
Friday, May 20, 2011 01:55:38 PM
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.