President’s Report
To the
State Board of Community Colleges
May 18, 2007
This has been a very difficult month for me personally and for our System. All of us worked very hard with the House of Representatives as they put together their version of the budget, with very disappointing results. When budget allocations were made among the educational institutions, we were told that we would have $6.8 million available for expansion requests. When we expressed our concern that this left many of our priorities completely unfunded, we were told that the only way additional expansion items could be funded would be if greater availability of funds could be found. We reluctantly worked with legislative staff to come up with $8.7 million in additional availability through a modest tuition increase and the loss of a faculty salary adjustment fund. Imagine our disappointment when we did not get back that money in full. In fact, we only received $2.1 million of that additional availability back. House members have said that we got the full $8.7 million back, but that the original availability was cut. Since time immemorial, the community college share of the total education budget has been approximately 8 percent. The $6.8 million was approximately 8 percent and in keeping with that long tradition. So if you buy the House argument that we got all of the tuition and salary money back in expansion items, then our availability from General Fund resources was cut from 8 percent to approximately 2 percent of the total education budget. This is unprecedented and unfair. We are working to address this unfairness in the Senate budget. We need your help – every one of you – in contacting every Senator you know to pass on the message that we should get at least our 8 percent of the total availability for education, plus any availability that comes from cuts in our existing programs or tuition increases. Once the Senate has completed its work, we will need to work on the Conference Committee, whoever that happens to be.
You and my successor will have to work on the overall distribution of the Education Budget. We are educating more and more freshmen and sophomores for transfer to the university, but the money has not followed those students. Since I have been in this job, college transfer has increased more than 35 percent, with no additional funding for that expanded mission. We are expected to do more and more in providing the allied health workforce, but we have received no additional funding for that much greater expectation of production and much greater expense. We have retrained thousands of workers and given new skills and new hopes to them and thousands more who are transitioning to the knowledge economy, but we have not been given appropriate funding for this expanded mission.
The month started off better than it has ended. I especially thank those of you who were able to stay to participate in Dr. Ed Wilson’s retirement dinner. It was a great event for an outstanding president!
Several days later, some of you were able to participate in the Academic Excellence Luncheon, one of my favorite events of the year. It does my heart good to honor such outstanding students from all of our colleges. I sincerely appreciate the NC Association of Community College Presidents leadership and the hard work of our staff in making this happen. I also appreciate our legislative friends who attended and supported their students.
In addition to the three students who made remarks at the luncheon (Marti Curtis from Beaufort County Community College, Angela Robinson from Montgomery Community College, and Christian Conway from Southwestern Community College), we also recognized two Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship recipients (Andrew McAllister of Southwestern Community College and Adam Lance of Blue Ridge Community College). This is the most generous national scholarship for community college transfer students of which I am aware. USA Today recognizes an All-USA Academic Team. We are pleased that three North Carolina community college students placed on this Team: Sharon Smith and Wendy Gade from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and Robin Potawsky of Catawba Valley Community College. They were recognized as well.
The Presidents’ Association had a good meeting in Pinehurst. As always, President John Dempsey did a great job hosting a very important and substantive meeting. Among the program topics discussed were the Wachovia Partnership East, the legislative and finance update, and the problems of credit card security.
Following the Presidents’ Association meeting the Community College Leadership graduation was conducted. This is an excellent professional development opportunity for future leaders in our System. This year there were 38 graduates, the highest number in the 19 years of this program.
On the afternoon following the Presidents’ Association meeting, I met in Chapel Hill with the Advisory Board of the Citizen Soldier Support Program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill was given a $5 million earmarked appropriation by Congressman David Price to develop various programs of support of families of citizen soldiers activated to go to Iraq or Afghanistan. This initiative has had problems getting off the ground which has led to some frustration on the part of many. It is an important initiative and I am happy to support it in whatever way possible.
The following week I flew to Phoenix, Arizona, to participate in the National Commission on the Community College which has been funded by the College Board. The College Board continues to be very interested in increasing its support for community colleges, but this Commission is looking much more broadly than that interest and is, in fact, looking at what the mission of community colleges should be nationwide. I am the only state president serving on the Commission.
Matt Meyer and I met with Dr. Ken Tindall and Steven Burke from The Biotechnology Center with regard to Innovation Centers which they have proposed to create across the state. I am significantly concerned that these Innovation Centers will detract from our Biotech Centers, create confusion among the legislature and the public, and be redundant in some respects. As is often the case, these Centers were proposed publicly without any input from the BioNetwork or the Community College System.
Dr. Ben Fountain, the second president of this System, received the John Tyler Caldwell Humanities Award from the North Carolina Humanities Council at an impressive ceremony at Wake Technical Community College. I was not aware that Dr. Fountain had been one of the founders of the North Carolina Humanities Council. The accolades he received were impressive and well deserved.
The Public School Forum Executive Committee met the first Monday in May to discuss a number of initiatives, including the possibility of a massive bond referendum to include public school funding, water and sewer, highways, open space, and other assorted needs of the state. Unfortunately, community colleges and universities have not been included in the coalition talks to this point. It was reported that this bond referendum would absorb all of the available debt servicing funding for 10 years. I made it clear that unless the community colleges received a fair shake in the allocation of bond resources that I would oppose the bond referendum idea in the legislature and with the public. I am getting feisty in my old age!
Several of us spoke to the Edgecombe Community College Leadership Institute which met at the Sheraton in downtown Raleigh. I talked about where our community colleges have been and where we might be headed in the future. Other System Office staff spoke on other issues as did several Presidents.
Fred Williams, Larry Keen, and I met with Kjell Christophersen of CC Benefits to hear about the significant upgrades in its economic analysis capabilities.
The next morning, Chancellor John Bardo announced Western Carolina University’s “Western 2Step” which will allow community college graduates to transfer to Western Carolina in their major as full-fledged juniors and to graduate within 2 years. Despite the positive aspects of the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement, many of our students find that upon transfer they have to complete many prerequisites before they can enroll in their major. Western Carolina has taken every single one of their degrees and has created a community college pathway to admission into the department instead of into the University. This is an exciting initiative and one that I hope other universities will emulate. Since we were not involved in developing the pathways, there are a couple of rough spots that need to be addressed, but this is a fantastic initiative and wonderful opportunity for our students. I participated in the news conference and a number of your staff attended.
Dr. Betty Adams and I participated in the UNC Tomorrow Commission, the body that will advise President Erskine Bowles and the Board of Governors on the long-range plans for the University. It was an excellent meeting and we are pleased that we are participating in this effort.
Alice and I traveled to Washington, DC, to participate in the Association of Former Members of Congress Annual Meeting. While there I participated in a conference call with Rocky Mount leaders and Senate staff about ideas which I have proposed about a publicly supported, upper division college at Wesleyan College that would be created to develop programs in cooperation with the community colleges to enable our students to seamlessly pursue a degree in a residential setting. I also met with Celia Sims of Senator Burr’s office to thank her for his leadership in creating a Senate Congressional Caucus and to talk about the logistics of how that Caucus will operate. I also met with Congressman David Price on several issues on which we are working.
Earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security which is considering North Carolina as a site for an agriculture bioterrorism response initiative, heard pitches from us, the University System, the Department of Commerce, etc.
Fred Williams participated in the Brunswick Community College kickoff of its capital construction projects which have begun following the successful passage of a $30 million local bond referendum. Johnston Community College also passed a local bond referendum for additional construction.
Kennon Briggs and his staff continue to shoulder much of the detail work of the appropriations process, answering many legislative requests for information. Kennon, Suzanne Williams, and I meet with anybody who will hear us out about our budget priorities and answering questions which are posed.
Kennon now hosts an annual one-day meeting of business officers, this year hosted by Durham Technical Community College.
Sharon Rosado spoke to the Association of Facilities Operators and to the Higher Education Bond Oversight Committee.
Kennon Briggs and David Sullivan have been intimately involved in a number of contracts and grants since your last meeting. These include the Memorandum of Understanding for the North Carolina Research Campus at Kannapolis, the Golden LEAF Entrepreneurial Grant, the BioNetwork displays, and the UNC 2+2 contracts.
The College Transfer Program Association met at Wake Technical Community College with Edith Lang and Jennifer Frazelle representing the System Office and speaking.
Kim Jernigan is currently participating in an Associate Degree Nursing Discussion Group facilitated by the Center for Nursing. They are focusing on success factors which will improve our retention and completion rates.
We are proud that the North Carolina Associate Degree Nursing Council has established the Judith Mann Nursing Scholarship to honor Dr. Mann for her record of service to nursing education in North Carolina.
Fifty-six community college faculty members have participated in four Late Nite Lab workshops. This on-line resource will be very helpful to hundreds of thousands of students participating in our on-line delivery.
The eighteen Phase 2C colleges are completing their data conversion and testing so as to be ready to register students for the fall and to complete implementation of CIS on schedule. The CIS Release 18 has also made progress with six pilot colleges receiving the migrated software for testing.
Ken Whitehurst, Linda Nelms, Antonio Jordan, Nancy Massey, Karen Yerby, and Bill Randall have all been very involved with Governor Easley’s Learn and Earn online initiative that will enable high school students across the state to take on-line courses as a part of the Learn and Earn Initiative.
We are very proud to announce that our System was presented the Crystal Globe Award for the Outstanding Workforce Development Program at the National ACT WorkKeys Conference in New Orleans. This award recognizes the outstanding work of the Economic and Workforce Development Division in creating and implementing the Career Readiness Certification. North Carolina community college staff presented at five different sessions at that conference.
The BioForum was held at Central Carolina Community College with a 125 participants. Dr. Charles Hamner, former CEO of the NC Biotechnology Center, was the keynote speaker. President Ray Bailey was honored as the BioNetwork Person of the Year, and Rebecca Westbrooks of Southeastern Community College received the BioNetwork Educator of the Year award.
A number of our folks participated in US BIO in Boston. I intended to go, but the Legislature kept me in Raleigh. As always, everyone from all over talked about all we are doing in North Carolina in support of biotechnology.
Many of the Economic and Workforce Development Staff attended the annual North Carolina Community College Adult Educators spring conference in Greensboro. Workshops were facilitated by System program directors to inform colleges of new trends and policies and to challenge them to greater innovation in continuing education and workforce training.
The Continuity of Operations Planning effort continues to move forward under the leadership of the Safety Committee.
May is always a happy month for our System as thousands of our students graduate with certificates, diplomas and degrees. Dr. Delores Parker spoke at Martin Community College and Halifax Community College, Dr. Randy Whitfield spoke at Mitchell Community College, Ken Whitehurst spoke at Brunswick Community College, Kennon Briggs spoke at Montgomery Community College, Dr. Saundra Williams spoke at Lenoir Community College, and I spoke at Nash Community College, Surry Community College, and Harnett Correctional Institute. Your fellow Board member, Herb Watkins spoke at Davidson County Community College. We are pleased that your Chair spoke at Bladen Community College, Randolph Community College, Vance-Granville Community College, and this evening she will speak at Piedmont Community College.
This is the critical time in the entire legislative session for contact with legislators. I am pleased that some of you walked the halls yesterday morning before our meeting began. I would earnestly request that you continue to walk the halls and talk to legislators by phone or in person.
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Tuesday, May 22, 2007 06:06:10 PM
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