President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
August 16, 2002
This sounds like a broken record, but the legislature is still in town! However, progress is being made and we are very pleased at this point with that progress. The Senate Appropriations was very good to us and the House has improved on that! The money is about the same, with a small increase to cover our final enrollment numbers, but the House has made adjustments to the cuts and has restored our full summer school funding. We now must work on the Conference Committee to make certain that we hold onto our money and that the allocations provide us maximum benefit.
Dr. Delores Parker, Elizabeth Isler, Judith Mann and I met with members of the Massage Therapy Board to discuss our ongoing difficulties and to try to smooth the way for better relations in the future. I believe that it was a positive meeting.
Dr. Nolo Martinez, the Governor’s Latino advisor, Tim Brewer, Dr. Parker and I continue to work on modifying our Latino Initiative to bring it within the money approved by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
I have met with the North Carolina Pharmacy Board to address its concern about our pharmacy tech curriculum and the declining number of colleges where it is offered. We explained to the Board that it is difficult to recruit persons into a two-year curriculum when pharmacies give very little value in compensation to those they hire who have completed the program versus people they hire off the street.
Dr. Bruce Howell and Wake Technical Community College hosted the Education Bond Oversight Committee. Phil Albano did his usual wonderful job in explaining our use of the funds and the Committee heard from several of our presidents about how the funds are being used on specific campuses.
Last week I was in Kentucky for the annual meeting of the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges. We had an excellent meeting with interesting and helpful speakers and lively discussions on many issues. We spent a good deal of time talking about the reauthorization of Perkins and the Workforce Investment Act, plus the universal problem of bad budgets, inadequate funding and dramatic enrollment growth. You will be getting a separate memo about this meeting.
On Wednesday of this week, the Golden Leaf Foundation announced its Biotechnology Initiative that we believe will have a dramatic and positive impact on the development of biotechnology programs across the System.
Dr. Randy Whitfield was the graduation speaker for the GED graduation at Guilford Technical Community College at which time two of the recipients received scholarships worth more than $20,000 from High Point University. Leadership High Point donated personal computers to 63 of the GED graduates.
We are excited about a program with the North Carolina Department of Correction which Karen Yerby will be heading up to assist released offenders in their transition back into the community. The Department of Correction received a $1.3 million grant to fund the program.
Kristi Snuggs hosted a follow-up teleconference, via the NC Information Highway, on the No Child Left Behind federal legislation.
Chuck Barham is doing an excellent job filling in as vice president of Economic and Workforce Development. We are excited to have Dr. John Keen coming and to have him visit with you today.
The Rural Internet Access Authority awarded our Human Resources Development Program a Digital Literacy Training Grant in the amount of $52,000 to implement Phase I of a three-year project called HRD Computer Empowerment. Additional grants will be submitted for phases II and III. Nine of our colleges received "Public Access Site Grants" totaling $108,000 or 14 percent of all grants awarded. Fifteen of our colleges received "Digital Literacy Training Grants" totaling $402,229 or 57 percent of all grants.
Gayle Harvey of the Small Business Center Network conducted workshops for Small Business Center directors to implement an entrepreneurial training program funded by the Kauffman Center. This will give entrepreneurial training to displaced workers as an alternative to their returning to lost manufacturing jobs.
Our System has received a $200,000 Public Health Preparedness and Response for Bioterrorism Grant to evaluate existing course offerings and to develop, produce and disseminate new courses to target Bioterrorism issues. Peggy Graham and Ray Harrington have developed and will implement the proposal.
The College Information System has reached two very significant milestones since our last meeting. Fifteen colleges in Phase 2A have successfully implemented the financial system for the new fiscal year and seven Phase 1 colleges have registered students for the fall semester in the student information system. Training continues for the Phase 2A colleges so that they might implement the human resources component in January and the student information system later in the spring.
Bob Blackmun and Cindy Pannill continue work with the development of wireless networks through a partnership between our colleges and a private company. They have also been working on continuing our Information Highway sites and we are pleased to announce that the House has included funding for continuing these sites with state-funded line charges.
Dr. Saundra Williams conducted workshops at Surry Community College during their Faculty/Staff Development Day. Glynda Lawrence conducted professional development workshops at McDowell Technical Community College for their staff.
The Division of Business and Finance completed another successful year by closing out the books at the same time they were responding to requests for information and lobbying for our appropriation in the legislature. Kennon Briggs, Larry Morgan, Alice Smith, Annette Dishner and others are to be commended for their fine work.
We are pleased to tell you that thanks to the hard work of Kennon Briggs, we were able to justify to the State Budget Office carrying forward $8.3 million in unspent funds for the College Information System project, instructional equipment and books, summer term contractual obligations, and New and Expanding Industry funding.
Local colleges are going through significant changes in financial reporting prompted by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. Kim Van Metre and John Malia have invested countless hours in this effort.
We have been very fortunate to have Dr. Parker Chesson serving in an interim role as Chief Operating Officer. Having a person with his background and experience has been truly invaluable given the time I spent in Colorado for my daughter’s wedding and in Lexington, Kentucky for the State Directors’ meeting. The office ran like the well-oiled machine it is thanks to Parker’s leadership. In addition to the busy schedule he has maintained in just keeping the train on the track and on time, he has also been the keynote speaker at the opening of the Cary campus of Strayer University, and chaired the meeting of the Accountability Monitoring Committee to review the 2002 performance measures report.
I was on away for seven working days during the month for the wedding and the meeting in Lexington, but thanks to Dr. Chesson, our wonderful other vice presidents, and our dedicated hardworking staff, not a beat was skipped. I know that it gives you great confidence and pride to know what a competent staff you have. It certainly does me!
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.