President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
July 20, 2001
When we last met, we had hoped that if the General Assembly had not adjourned by this meeting, it would be very near to it. Unfortunately, we were too optimistic. I do not see the end in sight. Fortunately, most of our substantive legislation has been enacted, but we continue to have very different versions of the budget adopted by the House and Senate. If the House version is passed, this will be a good year; if the Senate version is passed, it will not be as good. Yesterday a worse case scenario was presented that, of course, is worse than either. In my opinion, unless additional revenue is found, this could be a very bad year for us.
We continue to spend a good deal of our time responding to legislative inquiries and talking with members of the General Assembly. That will continue until adjournment.
The week after our last meeting, Tim Brewer and I went to the mountains to help dedicate the new Yancey County campus of Mayland Community College, to visit with their Trustees, faculty and staff, and to explore potential mountain retreat sites for the fall. Our time at Mayland was wonderful and our retreat site visits were successful. Your committee has chosen the Inn at Little Switzerland as that site and Tommy Williams is excited to have Mayland Community College host the retreat.
We continue to give attention to increasing minority contracting. I met with Wayne Lofton, a minority contractor from Wilmington, and Dr. Joe Bell, a minority contractor from Atlanta. We have been in discussions with consultants who would like to help us develop a plan for increasing minority participation in construction contracts as well as those for goods and services.
This has been an active month for the Foundation with successful visits to New Bern and the Craven Regional Medical Center and follow-up visits with Weyerhaeuser, Duke Medical, and Glaxo-Smith-Kline. I also met with Ed Turlington and Wade Hargrove with regard to potential contributions from high technology and telecommunication firms. We anticipate an even more active August and September as loose ends are tied up and new calls are made.
In addition to our saying farewell to our wonderful friend and colleague, Dr. Brenda Rogers, we also said goodbye to Ed Renfrow as he retired from his job as State Controller after a distinguished career in several important state posts.
We have had two meetings this month with Rockett Burkhead and Winslow in preparation for their presentation to you yesterday and their presentation to the presidents next week. We are excited about their proposals and believe that they will be very helpful to us as we seek to enhance the image of community colleges across the state.
Scott Ralls and I met with Gordon Myers, the newly designated Chairman of the Economic Development Commission, with regard to his focus on workforce development.
I met with representatives of the Thai Ministry of Commerce and the Kenan Institute Asia with regard to our ongoing interest in assisting leaders in Thailand in developing a community college system for that country.
Thanks to the hard work of Chancy Kapp and her External Affairs staff, we have had unusually good media coverage during the last month, much of it focused on our legislative priorities, especially faculty and professional staff salaries. We have also had major stories in Community College Week and Community College Times. Excellent attention has been brought to our programs through demonstration programs at the General Assembly arranged by the Faculty Association, the most recent of which was the motor sports program at Catawba Valley Community College, which generated significant interest in the media and among legislators.
Dr. Steve Scott attended the regular meeting of the North Carolina Rural Center at which time special recognition was given to the life and work of Joe Grimsley. Joe’s unexpected and untimely death was a shock to all of us who have known Joe through the years. I have known him for almost 30 years myself. Not only did he do incredible work at Richmond Community College, but he took leaves of absence to run the 1993 Higher Education Bond Campaign, the 1997 Public Education Bond and Clean Water campaigns, and a short leave last year to set up the campaign for our very successful Higher Education Bond Campaign of 2000. His distinguished record of service as Secretary of the Department of Administration and Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Community Development added luster to his record of public service.
I hope that each of you have had an opportunity to read the excellent spring/summer issue of the electronic newsletter of the Division of Economic and Workforce Development. In case you missed the electronic version, a hard copy is in your folder.
Maureen Little, of that division, has continued the work that Scott Ralls and I began in building a closer relationship with the Society of Plastics Industries as we seek their endorsement and partnership in implementing the Level II Plastics Program of the Manufacturing Certification Program.
Peggy Graham is doing an excellent job of putting together the Technology Training Collaborative Committee that will follow the successful model of collaboration with biotechnology industries in North Carolina. Dr. Mike Taylor, President of Stanly Community College, has agreed to chair the committee and Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue will represent you in this effort.
Peggy and Susan Seymour have also been working on a federal grant proposal in partnership with the Capitol Area Workforce Development Board, Wake Technical Community College and Johnston Community College to bring federal funds to the Capitol area through the H1-B Visa program to support accelerated, short-term training in information technology and biotechnology.
A successful partnership with the North Carolina Bottlers Association has been concluded with the recently offered first class for a route salesman-training program. The first class of fifteen students was very successful and it is our hope that this curriculum will be used at other colleges to train route salesmen for the soft drink industry.
Gayle Harvey has completed her evaluation of all Small Business Centers. Though each is unique, we are pleased with the excellence of these programs in all of their diversity.
Stephanie Deese recently spoke at a conference in Baltimore on the North Carolina State Training and Accountability Reporting System, a joint program with the Employment Security Commission that won an award presented by the US Department of Labor.
Barbara Boyce has done an excellent job of reorganizing the HRD program in response to legislative changes in that program.
Scott Ralls’ biggest news for the month was the birth of a new son, Lucas Johnson Ralls.
The biggest news of the month for the Division of Business and Finance was obtaining approval from the State Budget Office to carry forward approximately $17.2 million of unexpended funds. This could have been accomplished only by Kennon Briggs and his staff who enjoy such great respect in the Budget Office and did such an excellent job of justifying the carry forward of each of our pots of money.
Kennon and his staff and the business offices throughout the System worked night and day to close out the year financially. With release of cash by the State Budget Office and the Office of the State Controller, colleges were able to pay as many bills as possible and did not begin the new fiscal year in the hole. No major problems were encountered in the closeout.
Of course, Kennon and that division will continue to be intimately involved in all of the budget discussions going on in General Assembly.
Since the last meeting, Dr. Brenda Rogers has departed and Dr. Saundra Williams has arrived. Because both are such excellent leaders, the transition has been a smooth one. Dr. Williams has been busy familiarizing herself with her staff and the various responsibilities of her division and attending many meetings, including the Institutional Information Processing Systems Conference in Greensboro, the Information Resource Management Commission and countless briefings within the division.
The new College Information System continues to move forward with the implementation of the financial system in July at seven colleges. The human resources and student service and academic components will be implemented in January and March, respectively. Sixteen colleges have been selected to participate in Phase 2A. The first phase of the data warehouse project has been completed and the second phase is beginning with the contract approved by this board in June.
Glynda Lawrence and her staff of program auditors have completed all of the program audits for the 2000-2001 year and are now finalizing the documentation process. The Community College Libraries In North Carolina (CCLINC) Acquisitions Subcommittee will begin training for library acquisitions later this month. The Steering Committee has completed work on the Cooperative Agreement which will address the role of each participant in the consortium, including the State Board, the System Office, and the participating colleges.
The Telecommunications Section is hard at work planning and implementing the North Carolina Distance Learning Alliance Conference that will address issues of distance learning at all three educational systems and many state agencies later this month at Fayetteville Technical Community College. Dr. Delores Parker and her staff are also collaborating in the planning and implementation of that conference.
Ken Farmer, Jennifer Frazelle, and Carolyn Snell have been hard at work with UNC-Pembroke on offering an Associate in Arts/Business Administration degree on-line next year. This will be the first cooperative effort that offers the associate and baccalaureate degrees, both on line and in a structured collaboration between a community college and a university.
Dr. Parker’s staff is also working with the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center to develop on-line classes in Early Childhood Development.
The Virtual Learning Community will soon be selecting four to six centers to oversee the development of 50 more on-line courses for next year that will culminate a three-year effort to create on-line degrees in various curricula.
Following a meeting I had with Gary Bartlett, Director of the North Carolina Board of Elections, we have begun work on developing a statewide training project to educate local election officials using the Information Highway system and Internet courses.
Perkins Vocational Technical Education funds were used to conduct training in Blackboard software, the software used for on-line teaching.
Mike Pittman, Glynda Lawrence and Dr. Parker met with the Central Deans at Guilford Technical Community College.
Dr. Parker and Dr. Gretchen Bataille, Chief Academic Officer of the University System have formed a task force to explore ways in which the two systems can work together to improve the delivery of higher education in North Carolina. In addition to representatives from the field, Dr. Donny Hunter and Elizabeth Isler will represent the System Office on the task force.
Dr. Parker has been appointed to the Governor’s Education First Task Force. Her focus will be on teacher recruiting, retention and training.
The Basic Skills/HRD/Even Start Institute is holding its conference in Winston-Salem as we speak. Conference chairs were Linda Ray and Barbara Boyce. This was the largest staff development event for the year for these important programs.
Linda Ray attended the annual conference for the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System in San Diego.
Katie Waters prepared and Lin Frye reviewed a System Office proposal for the North Carolina Early Childhood Educators Professional Development Project. This project will provide professional development in language and literacy development for early childhood professionals who work with disadvantaged children.
Ray Harrington met with the State Highway Patrol Employee Training Delivery Team to explore the possibility of community colleges providing Radar/Vascar Re-certification training. Pilot programs are likely to be established at an eastern and western site.
As a record number of new State Board members begin their terms of office, I complete my fourth year as your president. For those new members, I hope that their experience will be just half as positive as mine has been and that together we might continue the rich tradition of excellence in adult education in North Carolina.
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.