President’s Report
To the
State Board of Community Colleges
Central Piedmont Community College
Charlotte, NC
April 15, 2004
Spring has sprung, and with it the pace is picking up as we approach the Short Session of the General Assembly.
Immediately following the conclusion of last month’s State Board Meeting, Helga Mattei and I traveled to Brunswick Community College for the dedication of La Plaza Comunitaria, a new Hispanic center that will integrate programs for the Brunswick County Latino community from the public schools, to the community colleges, to the larger community.
I am pleased that a number of our colleges are hosting legislators on their campuses to make the case for our "short session agenda." I wish that all of the colleges would do so. I spoke at a regional luncheon hosted by Nash, Wilson, Edgecombe and Halifax Community Colleges. Earlier this week, I spoke to the Piedmont Community College Foundation on similar topics. With community leadership present, the message was disseminated in that service area and, hopefully, will be shared with legislators.
Also, earlier this week, Dr. Saundra Williams, Kennon Briggs and I met with Secretary of Administration, Gwynn Swinson , the Governor’s Chief of Staff, Susan Raybon and the State Chief Information Officer, George Bakolia about the implementation of CIS and issues related to it, including procurement processes.
Unfortunately, I was out of the office more than I should have been during the last month. As usual, I accompanied Secretary Jim Fain and a delegation to Europe to recruit industry to come to North Carolina or expand, if they are already here. Secretary Fain and staff visited Belgium, The Netherlands, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and Israel. Most of delegation, including me, visited companies in Germany and England. In addition to focusing on new and expanding industries, we also visited several companies that have recently come to North Carolina or companies that may be experiencing pressures to go off-shore. These visits were to determine their satisfaction with State services, including workforce development, and to explore ways that we might solidify their presence in North Carolina for the long term. I came back encouraged to think that with the economy showing signs of recovery, significant new jobs can be created through this initiative.
On personal time, I went to Waterville, Maine, last week for two days to participate in a Congress to Campus Residency at Colby College. I was a part of creating this program, but for the seven years I have been here, I have not been able to work in such a residency. The program involves visiting a college with a Republican former member of Congress to give a bi-partisan view of current congressional issues and how members of congress deal with those issues. I taught seven classes, spoke to a community civic club, and was interviewed by the campus newspaper and radio station. Also, I had breakfast with community college leaders in the area. I visited the University of New Mexico just before I came here, and found the experience incredibly stimulating. Since being in this job, I have scheduled residencies for other members of Campus to Congress to Asheville-Buncombe, Sandhills and Cape Fear Community College. I finally broke down and scheduled this residency last fall, not knowing that it would come on the heels of the economic development trip to Europe. Thank goodness we have Fred Williams to run the show when I must be out of town and an incredibly dedicated staff led by excellent vice presidents to help him. They worked hard and effectively in my absence.
Following the successful grant at McDowell Technical Community College, which was funded by Duke Energy to equip a BioWorks Lab, Duke is now exploring other ways in which to cooperate with community colleges on economic development. I met with executives of Duke in the past month as we explore these options.
I met with Dr. Vivian Mott from East Carolina University to discuss their initiative to boost their enrollment in programs that will ultimately prepare faculty for community colleges, first through a certificate program and later through a Master’s Degree. This follows similar initiatives at North Carolina State and Western Carolina. Though little focus has been given to this issue, in my opinion in the next three to five years, we will face a crisis in faculty retention and recruitment, not unlike that currently being faced by the public schools. Of course, salaries are an important issue, but almost as critical is the need to actually produce more potential faculty with the appropriate credentials for teaching at a community college.
Since our last meeting, significant time has been spent on crafting a proposal which will satisfy the Governor’s Crime Commission and the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety that would allow us to participate in homeland security training. Homeland Security is a classic example of lots of money being available, lots of well-intentioned folks wanting to help, but little clear direction on how to proceed to access those funds and to use them. We are eager to be helpful in this process in the short term and in the long term.
Fred Williams spoke at the N. C. Association of Community Colleges Instructional Administrators and Student Development Administrators Association at their joint Spring conference in Wrightsville Beach. He also represented the System at President Bush’s visit to Central Piedmont Community College last week.
Dr. Saundra Williams, Kennon Briggs, and their staffs have spent incredible hours in the last month working on the negotiations for extension of the CIS contract and further implementation of the system.
Kennon’s staff has been involved in two regional meetings of business officers. In addition, he and his staff have been hard at work developing the information necessary for the 2004 Session of the General Assembly with great assistance from staff in all divisions.
Dr. Larry Keen and Susan Seymour have done a magnificent job in the last month in processing the responses to the request for proposals on the BioNetwork initiative. Joanne Steiner, Ann Turlington, and Stuart Fountain and representatives of the biotechnology community, the Biotech Center, and the Golden Leaf Foundation reviewed the proposals and made recommendations to you on appropriate funding. This involved an incredible amount of work for which we are all appreciative.
Our new and expanding industry teams across the state are hard at work. We are happy to announce that more than 850 jobs have been created since our last meeting. More than 800 additional jobs are under consideration in various counties where proposals are outstanding.
The North Carolina Community College Association of Adult Educators held their spring conference this week in the Research Triangle Park. A pre-conference session of the Basic Skills Directors’ Institute was also held.
Dr. Delores Parker and her staff continue to provide excellent leadership for the N. C. Transfer Assistance in the Biomedical Sciences program funded by the National Institutes of Health. This is a collaborative effort with universities that we lead. Earlier this week, they met at UNC-Pembroke.
We are happy to announce that Wanda C. White has been chosen as Director of Student Development Services, filling the vacancy created by the promotion of Ken Whitehurst. She has twenty-five years experience in higher education at Shaw University, North Carolina State University, Livingstone College and St. Augustine’s College.
The Governor’s Crime Commission has awarded to the System Office a grant of $125,000 to continue the second year of the Minority Male Mentoring Initiative. Durham Tech, Mitchell, Piedmont, Southeastern, and Wayne Community Colleges are all involved in this exciting initiative.
The next time we meet, the General Assembly will be in Session. Let me implore you again to make every effort to contact every legislator whom you know to discuss our appropriations and non-appropriations legislative priorities.
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.