H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System
General Assembly Hearing
May 16, 2006
Thank you for this opportunity. Thank you also for your generous support of the North Carolina Community College System over the years. Your willingness to invest last year in the Community College BioNetwork is just one example of the support that has earned your community colleges an international reputation in innovative economic and workforce development.
I have one word that I hope you
remember today. It isn't plastics. It isn't even biotechnology.
It's JOBS. If you don't remember anything else of what I say in my
allotted ten minutes, I want you to remember that. JOBS.
North Carolina's community colleges are about JOBS -- helping
our state attract, grow, keep and IMPROVE good jobs with great
futures AND making sure our people have the skills they MUST have to
get and keep those jobs and to prepare for the next opportunity.
Dr. Dallas Herring, one of the most important founders of the NC Community College System, says that community colleges have to help their communities find the NEXT GREAT IDEA for economic prosperity -- and prepare their people to get the good jobs that idea will generate.
I think it's pretty easy to agree that the Research Center represents a TRULY great idea for the people of Kannapolis -- and by extension, the whole state. Our challenge is to make sure we connect that great idea to the reality -- and to the HOPE -- that our people need.
Mr. Murdock's proposal represents JOBS on a breathtaking scale -- jobs right now on the site in Kannapolis, a place that so desperately needs them; jobs in the future, as the project takes off; and jobs all over the state, as our state's farmers embrace the new crops as Dole suppliers.
Some of those jobs are high-level
research jobs that demand advanced degrees. Most, however, are NOT,
and these are the jobs for which community colleges prepare people.
The centerpiece of our participation in the North Carolina
Research Campus will be the Rowan-Cabarrus Biotechnology Training
center and Greenhouse, operated by Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
in partnership with Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte;
Gaston College and other community colleges in surrounding
counties.
With guidance from experts in our statewide BioNetwork initiative, the Rowan-Cabarrus Center will respond to workforce training needs specific to biotech research and development. The labs need technicians and support staff as well as PhDs.
Once
the labs come up with new plants and products, they have to be
packaged to get to market -- and packaging plants, such as the one
already in Gaston County and another anticipated for Eastern North
Carolina -- need skilled employees.
The greenhouse is a particularly important aspect of the
proposed training center, because it has a very focused purpose --
giving farmers hands-on training with new varieties of fruits and
vegetables so they know what's expected if they want to be Dole
suppliers.
As an eastern North Carolina native who grew up on a tobacco farm, I am particularly pleased that this visionary project offers the promise of connecting the tremendous potential of bio-research with the agonizing needs of our farmers.
The Rowan-Cabarrus Center will also include training for jobs important in any industrial sector -- computer technology, industrial systems; allied health, building maintenance; construction -- even child care. Some research models suggest that every biotech research job creates a demand for SIX additional infrastructure jobs like those. These jobs are very, very important because not every laid-off textile worker will land a biotech job. Some don't have the background or interest; others prefer different kinds of work; many need jobs right away and can't wait for labs to be up and running.
The expansion budget proposal from the North Carolina Community College System includes $3.445 million for the Rowan-Cabarrus Biotechnology Training Center. About half of that is for equipment. The balance is a little bit less than a million dollars for faculty and staff; about $260,000 for operating costs and the balance for leasing the space.
Yes, this is a significant request, and you have many worthwhile requests before you. However, once or twice in a generation, we come to a decision that truly represents a turning point -- an opportunity to make a lasting change of great benefit. A half-century ago, a handful of men and women from business, government and education looked at pine forests and rolling hills tucked among universities on the eastern shelf of the Piedmont and imagined what has become the Research Triangle Park. At about the same time, our state's leaders laid the foundation for today's community college system. Now, we have the chance to join hands in one of the first great partnerships of the 21st century in North Carolina.
Thank you.
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