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President’s Report |
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to the |
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State Board of Community Colleges |
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July 28, 2000 |
It seems like forever since we last met and it has been the longest time between meetings since I have been here, because of no June meeting and a one-week delay in the July meeting. I join you in welcoming our newest State Board members, Norris Tolson (recently appointed by the North Carolina House of Representatives), and Daryl Mitchell, the new student representative. Both will be outstanding members and I wish them well in their service.
The week after we last met, I testified in the General Assembly and from that time onward, your staff and I have expended incredible time and energy on legislative issues. Later that same week the Governor signed the bill calling for a referendum in November on bonds to meet higher education facility needs. We had all worked hard for passage of those bonds since the regular session ended a year ago. Though it was technically not a rally, but a bill signing, the occasion took on all the trappings of a kickoff, with banners, placards, and more than a thousand enthusiastic supporters in attendance. I was very proud of the turnout of community college advocates, including students, trustees, presidents and several of you. We have devoted significant attention to the bonds here on the staff since then, but that activity will intensify between now and November. We are excited about this opportunity and certainly hope that you will be involved with us in formal and informal ways in your communities and across the state between now and November.
Phil Kirk scheduled a dinner for me with a number of business lobbyists to discuss the bonds and various programs that we offer for businesses in North Carolina. I have begun a fairly busy speaking schedule already with regard to the bonds. I have already spoken to the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry Executive Committee, the Goldsboro Golden K Kiwanis Club, the North Carolina Hospital Association Annual Convention, the North Carolina Broadcasters Association Convention, and the Elizabeth City Rotary Club. I was able to schedule the speech in Elizabeth City to coincide with a meeting of the Board of Governors at Elizabeth City State University, so that I spoke to them in the same vein that their chairman, Ben Ruffin, spoke to you at your last meeting, pledging our full support to work jointly and enthusiastically with the university advocates on behalf of the bonds.
In addition to the passage of the bond referendum, the legislature was much better to us in the short session than we anticipated when they came to Raleigh. In addition to enrollment growth and the bonds, the legislature also made the first installment on summer school funding and the second installment on continuing education parity funding. Several studies were ordered which have the potential for good things happening for us in the future. A major joint study of university and community college salaries and a study of the regulation and licensing of proprietary schools are among them.
I spoke at the Trustees’ retreat of James Sprunt Community College. I had a number of meetings of organizations on whose boards I sit during this time, including the North Carolina Global Center, the Public School Forum, the Information Resource Management Commission (by the way, the legislature added me in the short session to this Commission, which sits in judgment of all information technology purchases and developments in state government), the North Carolina Geographic Information Coordinating Council, the North Carolina Education Cabinet, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center Board, the Southern Growth Policies Board (in Puerto Rico), the North Carolina Vision 2030 Task Force, the North Carolina Global TransPark Authority, and the North Carolina Economic Development Board.
Cuyler Dunbar and I continue to work with the Department of Correction to ensure the continuation of the furniture program at Catawba Valley Community College as that department closes old prisons and opens new ones.
I participated in the installation of two new presidents, Dr. Katherine Johnson at Nash Community College and Dr. Martin Nadelman at Alamance Community College. Both ceremonies were very impressive.
Clyde Higgs coordinated an American Red Cross blood drive among System Office staff at the Red Cross Headquarters in Raleigh. We are working on another blood visit for the fall which will be held in our fifth floor conference center for greater convenience of the staff. I regret to inform you that Clyde will be leaving us in early August to accept a position with North Carolina A & T University so that he might be closer to his wife, who is a doctor doing a fellowship at Baptist Hospital, and their nine year-old son, both of whom live in Winston-Salem. Of course, you have approved today Tim Brewer, currently at Wayne Community College, coming on board to replace Clyde on August 1. We are happy for Clyde that he will be nearer his family and sincerely appreciate his excellent work during the past year. We are excited about Tim’s coming to join us. You will enjoy working with him very much. Todd Parker, another long-time employee and friend of mine since his days at Wayne Community College, is retiring at the end of this month from our auditing staff.
Steve Zelnak, Greg Poole, Chancy Kapp and I have concluded our interviews with public relations firms who have made proposals for re-imaging our System and creating a statewide marketing campaign, a major goal of the North Carolina Community Colleges Foundation. A final decision will be made with regard to that firm in the near future. I am happy to report that the Foundation is now at the $3.5 million level. Several visits have been made in the last two months with foundations and major businesses in North Carolina with regard to their contributions.
Elizabeth Jones and I met with the Dean of the UNC Dental School and other dental leadership to discuss our role in enhancing dental care in North Carolina. Martin Community College and Halifax Community College currently have grants pending with the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to add a new dental assisting and a new dental hygiene program at those two colleges. Wake Technical Community College will be adding a dental hygiene program as soon as the new building is completed and equipped. We have also met with nursing home leadership to discuss the acute shortage of certified nursing assistants in North Carolina. In fact, they have obtained a $500,000 legislative grant for us to develop innovative programs for addressing this shortage.
I met with Bill Williams, Director of Aviation for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, to discuss that department’s various initiatives to celebrate the centennial of flight in North Carolina and how community colleges might be involved.
Dr. Mike Woods, an education consultant from New Zealand, met with me with regard to global education, a subject which is receiving increasing attention in our System. I believe that I have told you previously about our hosting a national global education conference next spring with assistance from the Stanley Foundation and others.
North Carolina hosted the Association of Community College Trustees’ Eastern United States Meeting in Charlotte. Of course, the Trustees of Central Piedmont Community College did a magnificent job in hosting this convention and I was honored to appear on a panel during the meeting.
On July 4, Mary Kirk, Mike Ferree, and I represented the North Carolina Community College System at the 4th of July reception at the United States Ambassador’s Residence in Ottawa, Canada. North Carolina was invited to host this year’s reception. Mike and his faculty and students at Montgomery Community College threw more than 300 pots to be given to members of the diplomatic corps and other important officials in Ottawa as a part of this celebration of the 4th.
During the last month I have met with Richard Vinroot, the Republican candidate for governor, and Peter Reichard of the Mike Easley campaign, to discuss community college issues as the gubernatorial campaign goes forward. I will be meeting with Attorney General Easley in the near future.
We continue to work on the U.S. Army initiative to provide the first two years of college to all soldiers during their first enlistment using on-line courses, registration, student services, etc. We will be sending a team to Washington in early August to further pursue our participation in this initiative.
The President’s Association had another excellent meeting, this year hosted by Cape Fear Community College at the Wilmington Hilton. All of your vice presidents and I participated in that meeting and enjoyed it very much. Eric McKeithan and his staff and trustees were wonderful hosts.
Earlier this week, your vice presidents and I put on an orientation program for the new community college presidents who have been hired since our last orientation session. Mr. Tolson and Tim Brewer also participated.
Dr. Steve Scott represented the System at the North Carolina Business Summit for Education held in the Research Triangle Park and hosted by the Governor. Topics on the agenda included the bond referendum and the First in America initiative of the Governor. Dr. Scott has also met with Dr. Bobby Kanoy of UNC-General Administration to plan this year’s public school counselor workshops across the state, an opportunity for us to make our case to counselors that community colleges are an alternative that every student should consider. Steve also spoke at Central Piedmont’s Leadership Development Conference and the Summer IIPS Conference.
Dr. Brenda Rogers had a planning retreat for her directors and associated vice presidents to review the accomplishments of the past year and to plan for next year.
Wireless licenses for our colleges have been a major project of Parks Todd for the last several years. We are happy to say that through Herculean efforts on Parks’ part, he and the colleges were able to settle all competing applications for licenses so that our colleges have avoided the auction of the licenses by the Federal Communication Commission. Attorney Robert Rini met with the Wireless Communication Consortium during the presidents’ meeting and highly commended and complimented Parks for the fine job he had done.
The Distance Learning Alliance broke all records for attendance at its annual conference in New Bern. Interest in distance learning is increasing dramatically and the Virtual Learning Community initiatives are going well.
For the first time librarians met in conjunction with the Distance Learning Alliance and worked on the conversion to the new library automation system. That conversion occurred effective July 1 and this was an excellent opportunity to work out some of the bugs.
At the Institutional Information Processing System meeting much time was spent on talking about the new College Information System project with the partners from ACS, Datatel, and Alphanumeric Systems. An appeal to the awarding of that contract is pending and we will keep you informed as to the status of that. In the meantime, we go forward with implementation. Eight colleges that will serve as pilots were announced at that meeting. They are Catawba Valley, Caldwell, South Piedmont, Guilford Technical, Central Piedmont, Wayne, Mayland, and Pitt. This will be a mammoth undertaking and perhaps the most important thing that will happen during my tenure. At long last we will have the management information system needed to do the job we have been given.
Implementation of performance measures and performance funding continues to progress. Colleges must declare by July 31 the sixth performance measure to be used for performance funding.
Dr. Randy Whitfield attended the Migrant Family Conference in Washington, D.C., along with staff from the Department of Public Instruction. She also attended the Adult Literacy Media Alliance Board meeting in New York City. That board won an Emmy Award for its educational series that was distributed to all Basic Skills programs in the state.
Sillar Smith, the Compensatory Education Coordinator, did an excellent job with three regional training sessions for Compensatory Education instructors and presented at Appalachian State University’s Summer Institute. Linda Ray also spoke at that Institute, attended the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System Institute in San Diego and planned with Barbara Boyce, the HRD Coordinator, the Basic Skills/HRD Professional Development Institute.
Dr. Mary Siedow, the NC Literacy Resource Center Director, completed a six-year term on the Training and Certification Committee of Laubach Literacy Action, including a year as committee chair. She was also program chair for the Adult Literacy and Technology Conference in Washington, D.C., in June.
Dr. Jim Young and Lin Frye have completed the first three Resource Development Leadership seminars across the state to rave reviews. They also presented to the Student Services Administrators at their June meeting. The NCMENTOR Website became operational on June 20 in cooperation with UNC-General Administration and North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities. This Internet access will make it possible for high school students and their parents to access an incredible array of information about college opportunities.
Karen Yerby, formerly Student Activities Counselor at Stanly Community College, began her duties as Associate Director of Student Development Services at the System Office.
Bill Muench co-chaired the first JobReady Leadership Summit, with more than 50 percent of the participants being from the business community. Dr. Delores Parker and Elizabeth Isler also participated.
The consultant’s report has been received which makes recommendations with regard to siting the Southeastern Regional Training Facility for fire training and emergency services. We will now continue the studies with regard to the design of the program at the facility.
Bob Allen organized a professional development planning meeting at which I spoke.
This is always a busy time for the Division of Business and Finance as it closes out the fiscal year, makes allocations for the coming year, and deals with the just adjourned session of the General Assembly. Working nights, days, and weekends, that division completed its task in record time and should be commended for its hard and effective work. Even as they wrap up the prior fiscal year and begin the current fiscal year, they are already hard at work on the next biennial budget.
That division staff has rewritten the Equipment Procedures Manual, the Accounting Procedures Manual and other publications of importance to colleges affecting budget allocations and guidelines. Meetings with equipment coordinators, financial aid officers and business officials have been held to discuss these changes and next year’s budget.
Thanks to the effectiveness of the Economic and Workforce Development Division and the hard work of Stephanie Deese, Director of Workforce Initiatives, the System received another national workforce development award. This time the System, in partnership with the Employment Security Commission, received a 2000 Showcase Award from the U.S. Department of Labor in recognition of the State Accountability and Reporting System for the Workforce Investment Act.
That division is implementing a new computer system that enables on-line management of the New and Expanding Industry Training Program, as well as providing an on-line search engine of available training resources throughout the state.
The division also continues to work closely with the North Carolina Electronics and Information Technology Association and with the non-profit, ExplorNet, on an information technology initiative similar to the biotechnology initiative already in place. Much of this work will come together at a statewide IT Workforce Conference to be held in September.
The division continues to work with the trucking and heavy equipment industries to better meet their needs. An excellent meeting was held with individuals in those industries by way of the Information Highway.
Dr. Scott Ralls represented community colleges nationwide when he was selected to serve on the Community Audit Expert Panel recently in Washington. This panel is a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Governors’ Association to determine resources needed by local Workforce Development Boards to enhance their impact on community economic and workforce development.
Gayle Harvey, Small Business Center Director, and NC REAL are developing a proposal for the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation to provide small business training to potential and existing Hispanic entrepreneurs in the state.
The Manufacturing Certification Program continues to be received enthusiastically across the state. North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry have now added its endorsement of this program to that previously received from the National Association of Manufacturers.
All in all, it has been a busy and productive two months. I hope that your summer is going well, too.
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.