President’s Report
To the
State Board of Community Colleges
July 19, 2002
With having no meeting in June except to approve Scott Ralls as president of Craven Community College, this President’s Report will cover two months.
As has been the case with almost every month for the past two years, I begin again by saying "the legislature is still in session and we do not know what our budget situation is." Little consensus is evident with regard to a revenue package that can be passed in the House and the Senate and without a clear revenue picture, appropriations cannot be made. We rejoice that the Senate passed a package that gave us our full enrollment growth and made modest cuts that had been identified in negotiations between our System and the Governor’s Office. We were the only agency in state government to get a small net budget increase. At this point we do not know whether we will hold onto that enrollment growth or whether we might face additional cuts. Your continued communication with friends in the General Assembly is earnestly requested.
Your Legislative Strategy Working Group has been meeting every other week and will continue to do so until the legislature adjourns and goes home. This is a very effective way of communicating and setting strategy for the community college efforts in the General Assembly. Several demonstrations of curricula have been well received in the General Assembly. This includes the Equine Technology Program at Martin Community College, the Paralegal Technology, Aquaculture, and Photography Technology programs at Carteret Community College, the Early Childhood and Teacher Education programs at Fayetteville Technical Community College, and the Electrical/Electronics and Industrial Technology programs at Bladen Community College. The NC Community College Faculty Association staged a "thank you" rally, which led to considerable media coverage of the positive approach we are taking with the legislature.
Kennon Briggs, Suzanne Williams and I are in constant contact with legislative staff, legislative leaders, and legislative rank-and-file members in making our case for appropriate funding of programs and approval of policy changes.
Since our meeting in May, we have had the formal announcement of the GlaxoSmithKline challenge grant of $1 million to our Foundation to fund an enhanced role for community colleges in teacher preparation. This grant must be matched by a similar amount appropriated by the General Assembly. Your help in obtaining that appropriation would be appreciated as well.
In the week following the May meeting, our System Office had a very successful American Red Cross blood drive with 28 units having been donated. This is just another example of your wonderful staff’s generosity and public-spiritedness.
I have met again with Charles Wilkins, the attorney for the Massage Therapy Board and have scheduled a time in the near future to meet with his Board, since we continue to have controversies and apparent significant bias against community college massage therapy programs. I have recently received a letter from Al Adams representing that Board threatening a lawsuit because he alleges that the State Board has improvidently approved massage therapy programs which do not meet the criteria of community need. I will keep you informed of both developments.
During this two-month period I have spoken at the Lee County Chamber of Commerce, the Rocky Mount Kiwanis Club, the Wilmington Rotary Club, the Community College Student Leadership Institute, the Coastal Carolina Foundation Donor Appreciation Reception, and the Hickory/Catawba County Legislative Dinner. Our enrollment growth and the attendant funding challenges it presents have been the centerpieces of those remarks.
In June you did meet by telephone to approve Dr. Scott Ralls as president of Craven Community College. I have attended a very nice retirement dinner honoring Dr. Steve Redd who has stepped down as president. I have also spent a significant amount of time interviewing candidates and doing background investigations on those candidates for Scott’s replacement. I thank you and commend you for your action in approving Dr. Larry Keen for that position and believe that the North Carolina Community College System will be well served by his leadership.
A very successful JobLink Conference was hosted by Randolph Community College and attracted more than 200 people. All of the partners represented at JobLink sites were participants. Following my remarks to the group, I had an opportunity to spend some time with President Richard Heckman and to tour their fine campus.
Earlier this week I traveled to Rose Hill to visit with Dr. Dallas Herring to get his input as we begin our planning for the 40th anniversary of community colleges, which will occur next year. You will be pleased to know that he continues to be ardent in support of community colleges and always thinking about our future.
The North Carolina Economic Developers Association Conference had as its theme this summer "Workforce Development Is Economic Development." Dr. Scott Ralls and his staff were prominent in this conference and Dr. Jim Owen spoke on behalf of the presidents.
We are proud that Barbara Boyce, our Director of Human Resource Development, was presented the "Shining Light" award at the annual Fatherhood Initiative Conference in Durham, an award presented to a female who has been instrumental across the state in promoting fatherhood.
Thirty Small Business directors and instructors have been taking part this week in a training session at Sandhills Community College to focus our dislocated workers programs on entrepreneurial training. This session was funded by a grant Dr. Ralls was able to obtain from the Kaufman Foundation for Entrepreneurial Leadership and was jointly sponsored with the Council for Entrepreneurial Development.
Approximately 20 colleges around the state participated in a Train-the-Trainer program to support implementation of Level II Manufacturing Certification programs in metals and plastics.
The Training Initiatives Program within Dr. Ralls’ division has launched a new initiative similar to the manufacturing certification program to support warehouse and distribution operations. The Training Initiatives Programs also hosted representatives of the National Skill Standards Board on a recent visit to North Carolina.
Dr. Delores Parker and Sillar Smith recently announced the receipt of a $4000 grant from the American Foundation for the Blind to conduct three regional training session for instructors who work with students with low vision and literacy skills.
Dr. Parker has also been successful in obtaining from the Rural Economic Development Center an award of $24,290 to the North Carolina Literacy Education and Development Study project to determine the feasibility of creating a sustainable plan of action to support literacy needs in rural North Carolina.
We are very proud that Dr. Parker recently completed the Leadership North Carolina program and was chosen by her other class members to receive the 2002 Stanley Frank Award in recognition of her leadership in the program, in the community and in the state. She also has been named to the Leadership North Carolina Board for a 3-year term and will chair its Program Committee.
Kennon Briggs, Larry Morgan, Alice Smith, Annette Dishner and their staffs are to be commended for successfully bringing to a close the most difficult fiscal year in anyone’s memory. What began in September as a late budget start quickly moved to mandatory reversions, budget holdbacks, cash shortfalls, identification of permanent budget cuts for the coming year and working with eight pilot colleges in implementing the financial system of our College Information System initiative. What a challenge they had, but one successfully completed.
Phil Albano and his staff continue to work closely with the colleges and the Higher Education Bond Oversight Committee to "tweak" the Cash Flow Model, write the first annual report to the General Assembly, and monitor and report on minority contracting.
Kim Van Metre has worked diligently to bring the financial piece of sixteen additional colleges into the College Information System effective July 1 and to provide expertise in resolving several major operational issues with the Phase I colleges.
The Program Audit staff completed 56 community college audits, with two being delayed because of budget problems. Of those completed, 38 colleges were audits with no exceptions and no concerns. This is an incredible record of good management and leadership.
The Planning and Research staff has completed the 2002 Critical Success Factors report, posted it to the Web and delivered it to the General Assembly along with the Performance Funding Measures report.
Dr. Larry Gracie has been invited to present a session, along with Rick Smyre, on "building capacities for transformation" at the World Future Society Conference in Philadelphia.
Dr. So-Young Yim, Research Project Coordinator, will have an article entitled "A Comparative Study of Community College Faculty Leadership Styles" published in the Journal of Applied Research Community Colleges, Fall 2002.
The Data Warehouse Team has successfully completed Phase 2 of that project. Phase 3 has been deferred to focus resources on beginning the training plan for the College Information System Phase 2A.
As you can see from this report, your incredibly hard working and competent staff has been busy since we last met. We are fortunate to have them continue to be so dedicated in the face of budget and staff cuts.
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.