President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
September 13, 2002
I am not going to make any promises, but when we meet in Edenton in October, I hope the General Assembly will have gone home! After a month of almost no action at all on resolving budget differences, conferees made much progress last week and have pretty much ironed out all the kinks this week. With any luck, they should finish up in the next 10 days or so. That is the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is that the package they have put together will not be able to garner 61 votes in the House and they will go home without any budget. As I have told you before, that will mean no enrollment growth money and the Governor will manage the budget deficits with cuts alone. That will be devastating to our colleges.
We are pleased that Dr. Larry Keen is meeting with us for the first time today since his arrival the day after Labor Day. The staff of the Division of Economic and Workforce Development is busy breaking him in with intense briefing sessions on every subject imaginable. He is already hard at work and getting raving reviews wherever he goes. Scott Ralls is doing well at Craven Community College.
I have participated in two luncheon discussions with automotive assembly plant site consultants and Department of Commerce Economic Developers and spoke at a site consultant conference in Pinehurst since we last met. All of these meetings were focused on what North Carolina needs to do to remain competitive in the industry recruitment game. Of course, community colleges and worker training remain at the centerpiece of these efforts. The good news from Dr. Keen’s division is that August was especially busy in processing New and Expanding Industry proposals. We hope that many of the companies for whom proposals were done will decide to come to North Carolina and boost our economy.
I journeyed to Elizabeth City to meet with the College of The Albemarle Board of Trustees as they begin the search for a new president.
Phil Kirk, Molly Broad, Leslie Bevacqua and I met for the initial meeting of the North Carolina Business-Higher Education Foundation, which was set up to receive and disperse the funds left over from the Higher Education Bond Campaign. George Little, Brad Wilson and Darlene Johns have agreed to serve with us on that Board. I will be reporting to you from time to time as action is taken with regard to these funds.
Parker Chesson and I met with the BBQ Club in Wilson. You may remember that these are the community college presidents east of Interstate 95. As are all presidents, they are concerned about the legislative session and the budget.
Last week, I flew to Washington, DC for the day on behalf of the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television. You will recall that one of the arguments we made for passage of the bonds was to have funds to put in place the high definition television infrastructure at UNC-TV. That would permit during non-HDTV hours the splitting of the signal into four separate channels, one of which would be devoted to academic courses offered by television. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is considering a rule which would greatly restrict the time available for these courses. The chief executive officer of the New Jersey Public Television System, officials of the Agency for Public Television and I met with the chairman of the FCC to press our case for a channel dedicated to academic courses.
Dr. Delores Parker has been invited to be a member of the Advisory Board for Graduate Studies in Higher Education at UNC-Greensboro. This Board will work to provide innovative programs in higher education and to prepare leaders for careers in two-year and four-year institutions.
Dr. Randy Whitfield appeared on "Focus On Literacy" which ran on UNC-TV.
Fifty-three outstanding instructors were nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award. The selection process for this award, the Staff Person of the Year Award and the President of the Year Award are all in progress. Of course, you have today approved the I. E. Ready Award winners. The awards luncheon will coincide with our November meeting.
Chuck Barham has done a wonderful job as Interim Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development. The Division has been hard at work on sorting through the grant request for the HRD Computer Empowerment program.
No one goes unscathed in the implementation of our College Information System. The New and Expanding Industry training enhancement is being worked on with implementation within the next 30 days.
Dr. Steve Scott, President of Lenoir Community College, and Dr. Stephanie Deese will be making a presentation to the Virginia 2020 Workforce Development Conference this week in Richmond, Virginia. The focus of the presentation is "Community College’s Role in Workforce Development."
Kennon Briggs and his staff are struggling with our colleges as they are experiencing a second straight year of record-breaking enrollment increases without a final budget. Until the legislature goes home, colleges really cannot address those problems with any confidence. Lack of a definitive budget continues to concern us all, to say nothing of the downgrade in our bond rating and its impact on future bond projects, compensation and benefit adjustments for staff and completion of final budgets on the campuses.
Kennon’s division and finance offices across the System are working with the State Controllers Office in the preparation of financial statements under the Consolidated Annual Financial Report. This is a complex and time-consuming process which has been ably managed by Kim Van Metre, Joe Barefoot, Alice Smith and Annette Dishner. Kennon and the Legislative and Finance Committees of the Presidents’ Association have been hard at work on the 2003-2005 Expansion Budget Request.
Dr. Delores Parker and Bob Blackmun are not with us today because they are participating in the E-Learning Summit sponsored by the Rural Internet Access Authority.
The Administration Division continues to struggle with its own budget challenges including line charges for the North Carolina Information Highway. They are also continuing to work on the development of a wireless network in spite of the financial problems of one of the joint venture partners in this initiative.
Implementation of the College Information System continues to progress. Though there are bumps in the road from time to time, Dr. Williams and System Office and field personnel across the state are doing an incredible job in the most mammoth undertaking ever mounted in implementing such an ambitious system.
One year ago today, Alice and I were in Eastbourne, England, having been turned back on our flight home as a result of the events on September 11. This week our office and the nation have participated in observing and remembering these tragic events of a year ago. Much has happened in the System and in the world in the intervening year.
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.