President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
February 20, 2003
We are off to a rollicking start with the General Assembly with new developments claiming our attention everyday. Two Speakers and a closely divided House will create special challenges for us, but the good news is that both Speakers are strong community college supporters and all of the new members of the General Assembly whom I have met are strong supporters as well. Except for there being no money, we are encouraged by what we see in this new General Assembly.
We continue to work through the turnover in community college presidencies, with a meeting with the Wilson Technical Community College Board of Trustees as they begin the process of replacing Dr. Frank Eagles. We have consulted with individuals and with Dr. Hockaday about other searches underway. Today we assessed the finalists for South Piedmont Community College.
Work also continues in wrapping up our Foundation endowment drive. Paul Carr, our fund raising consultant, and I have held productive meetings during the last month. We continue to push for a conclusion to this drive by our 40th anniversary on May 17. Several meetings have taken place during the month with regard to our budget, with budget, legislative and community college leaders involved in this process. The Legislative Strategy Group has also met to begin working on that strategy.
I have had board meetings this month with the North Carolina Science and Technology Board, the UNC Center for Public Television Board, the North Carolina Economic Development Board, and the North Carolina Global Center.
Molly Broad, Hope Williams and I spoke to Leadership North Carolina at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte. This gave us an opportunity to show the ways in which public and private colleges and universities work with community colleges and to meet a number of North Carolina's future leaders.
I joined presidents and trustees at the Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC last week where I met with a number of Congressmen and staff members with regard to the upcoming session. This will be a particularly challenging session for Congress and for us. The Higher Education Act, the Carl Perkins Act, and the Workforce Investment Act will be reauthorized this year and will claim a good bit of Suzanne Williams' attention and mine.
A number of your staff, led by Mr. Fred Williams, participated in the Emerging Issues Forum at North Carolina State University. The focus was on university level workforce development, something we wrote the book on!
The North Carolina Institute of Medicine has convened a nursing task force to look at the growing shortage of nurses across the state. I spoke to that task force at its first meeting and will be a participating member. Elizabeth Isler will be assisting me in that effort. Since we produce a significant majority of all of the registered nurses and all of the licensed practical nurses in the state, our work is cut out for us!
Industrial recruitment efforts continue with some success. The Governor, Dr. Larry Keen and I participated in the groundbreaking for a major Honda expansion in Alamance County last week.
The BioManufacturing Study, which the Golden LEAF Foundation funded, is in high gear. We are pleased by the work that Regional Technology Strategies, Inc. is doing for us and anticipate a good report that will serve as a blueprint for our moving forward in biomanufacturing training.
Our training initiatives staff has worked out a way with the Department of Public Instruction to enable our experienced teacher assistants to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind federal legislation by the completion of a WorkKeys Assessment and the satisfactory completion of continuing education courses. Over 30,000 individuals are affected by this legislation in North Carolina who otherwise would have to complete a two-year Associate of Arts degree.
A task force met in January to review and discuss recently completed proposed revisions of the core modules in our Manufacturing Certification Program. To date, there are over 900 individuals who have enrolled and completed the requirements for certificate, but as always, what we do well can be done better. These revisions seek that result.
Kennon Briggs and his staff have been working with MGT of America, Inc. on the regional meetings that are a part of the Education Oversight Committee and State Board study of the organization and structure of community colleges. These meetings allow for trustee, presidential, faculty, staff, and citizen input.
In early February, Mr. Briggs’ staff and that of Dr. Saundra Williams’ division met with the Finance and Capital Needs Committee on issues related to the implementation of the Finance module and the Student Services module and their interface. Chairman Herbert Watkins led that meeting and will give a full report next month.
Mr. Briggs, Mr. Williams and I have met with the State Budget Office as it puts together the Governor's recommended budget for the 2003-05 biennium. We are responding to requests for additional information and are encouraged by our conversations.
Cindy Pannill and Bob Blackmun have coordinated the completion of the work to verify and update the Federal Communication Commission's information on our wireless licenses. They also will attend the annual conference of the National ITFS Association to learn about ways that other educational organizations are moving forward to provide wireless Internet access. The Presidents' Association Technology Committee continues to work with the staff on this initiative.
Dr. Saundra Williams conducted four distance learning workshops on Online Testing and Assessment for the faculty here at Surry Community College and she was the keynote speaker at the North Carolina Community College Planning and Research Organization Conference in Charlotte.
High definition television will offer us many more opportunities for telecourses. Dr. Delores Parker and members of her staff visited UNC-TV's Bryan Center to learn about these capabilities. She and her staff are putting together proposals on how we might generate more telecourses to fill the hours that will be available to us in the future.
Using Kellogg grant funds, Dr. Parker organized a "Strengths Discovery Workshop" presented by the Gallup Organization. Using questionnaires prior to the workshop and exciting presentations on January 28, a number of our staff had a wonderful opportunity for leadership growth and development.
Bob Witchger is in the process of working with representatives from the Department of Public Instruction on revising the North Carolina Tech Prep Strategic Plan. Seven focus groups have been conducted across the state to develop the priorities for the plan.
Dr. John Roueche, noted speaker from the University of Texas at Austin, was the keynote speaker at the Instructional Administrators and Student Development Administrators Conference held at Guilford Technical Community College.
Your staff and I are eager for a return to normalcy with our State Board meetings. January and February have been very discombobulating to us. We appreciate your patience, as we have had to deal with unanticipated exigencies.
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.