President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
September 12, 2003
I had thought when the legislature adjourned that things would settle down to a dull roar around here, but the pace seems to have accelerated. When the legislature is in town, I postpone as many meetings as possible to leave myself free to be responsive to whatever is happening across the street. As a result, it has been almost back-to-back meetings since you were last here.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Ward and Chairman of the State Board of Education Howard Lee, Chairman Woody, and I met with regard to several issues that continue to irritate our relationship. These include lateral entry of teachers, weighted grades, degree completion/teacher preparation, etc. Fortunately, we share an excellent relationship and will be working through these issues. You have approved today Lynda McCulloch’s employment as Special Assistant to the President for Education Policy. Her responsibility will be primarily interfacing with education agencies, including public schools, public and private universities and colleges, and groups such as the Public School Forum in the setting of policy and advocating our role in seamless education delivery.
Preparations have begun for a statewide initiative to enter into dialogue with business and industry with regard to the current level of community college service to business and industry and what we might do to enhance that for the future. We anticipate a "roundtable" in each of the economic development regions of the state with the purpose of listening and learning.
We are also considering inviting congressional education staff members to visit North Carolina community colleges. We want them to learn more about what we are doing and how Congress might help us do it better.
Susan Seymour, Larry Keen, and I met with Dr. Charles Hamner, the former CEO of the NC Biotechnology Center, to brief him on the community college piece of the Biotechnology Initiative and to seek his advice, counsel, and assistance. The meeting went very well.
Senator Marc Basnight convened representatives of the various partners in the Biotechnology Initiative to assure us of his continuing support for our efforts and to encourage full cooperation between the partners in the implementation of this Initiative. He pledged his best efforts to obtain continuing funding for this Initiative once the Golden LEAF Foundation funds are exhausted.
You will recall that our System received an unsolicited appropriation for enhancing our auto technician programs across the state. We have met with Bob Glaser of the Automobile Dealers Association with regard to the purpose of this grant and are working to flesh out his ideas with specific programs.
Larry Keen and I attended the Economic Development Board meeting in Asheville. Our economic development efforts continue to be aggressive and continue to show some success. However, the economy continues to be a challenge for our state, as we continue to lose traditional manufacturing jobs.
Governor Easley announced the receipt of a Gates Foundation grant to create innovative high schools across the state. We expect to be an important partner in this initiative as new ways to engage high school students and to set them on the route to success are explored.
Several of us met with officials at Cisco to explore ways in which community colleges, Communities in Schools, and ExplorNet can cooperate in providing technology education in the public schools.
Kennon Briggs and I attended one of the NC Citizens for Business and Industry membership luncheon, this one in Raleigh. I will be attending others across the state to show my support for this important partner in all of our efforts.
Several presidents (present and former) and I attended the retirement reception for Dr. Frank Eagles. You will be interested to know that a recent addition to the Wilson Technology Community College campus built with bond funds was named for Dr. Eagles on that occasion.
Last week I spoke at the Angier Kiwanis Club and was pleased that several members of that club teach either at the Harnett campus of Central Carolina Community College or at Wake Technical Community College. They were very helpful in providing support for my presentation on community colleges and their value in the current economy.
Earlier this week I attended the Board meeting of the NC Center for Applied Textile Technology. As legislative and press inquiries have come our way in recent weeks with regard to the operation of that Center, we were unable to fully respond to the inquiries since we have not traditionally done programmatic audits of that institution as we have our other colleges. In order to better inform ourselves about its work and to be able to respond to inquiries, Bill Cole was contracted to provide a baseline program audit of the Center’s programs. I explored with the Textile Center Board options for enhancing its programs for the future.
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week Tim Brewer, Fred Williams, and your staff organized an excellent orientation program for new presidents and new State Board members. We believe that this was a very beneficial program. We were pleased that several State Board members (new and old) were able to participate and appreciate the hard work of our staff.
Fred Williams represented the System Office in Beaufort County where that college had a signing ceremony of agencies partnering to begin a new Construction Equipment Systems Program funded in part by Golden LEAF Foundation funds. This program, among other things, will provide a trained workforce for NC Department of Transportation maintenance workers. Private industry will be represented by PCS Phosphate and Gregory Poole Equipment Company. We are excited about this collaborative program.
Mr. Williams also represented the System Office at the Vance-Granville Community College stop on the "Listen and Learn" tour of freshmen Democratic Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives. This statewide tour exposed these legislators to a wide variety of issues and programs. We are pleased that they included several community colleges on their tour. The focus at the Franklin County stop was on biotechnology and Joanne Steiner did a great job talking about our role in this initiative.
Dr. Parker and her division have been working with the North Carolina State University Department of Adult and Community College Education to create a Department Chair Institute as a professional development opportunity for faculty members who may wish to be department chairs. We are pleased by this excellent program and the cooperation it represents.
Dr. John Pettitt is our new Director of Proprietary Schools and Resource Development, coming to us from North Carolina State University and the Adult and Community College Education program there.
Ms. Helga Mattei has been employed as Director of the Hispanic/Latino Initiative and will begin working soon, coming to us from the Houston Community College System in Texas. You will recall that this initiative was funded by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
With Carl Perkins funding, a new manual and orientation sessions have been developed to meet the needs of new nursing program directors.
You have noticed that Dr. Larry Keen is not with us at this meeting. He is representing the System in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova. During the Clinton Administration the Partnership for Peace was created which pairs National Guards of various states with former Soviet republics to modernize their military, governmental, and economic infrastructure. Southeastern Community College has been involved in this initiative from the beginning in providing entrepreneurial training for small business people from Moldova. Johnston Community College is in discussion with the National Guard on how it might become involved. Larry is in Moldova to further this partnership.
Vance-Granville Community College, the originator of the BioWork curriculum, hosted a Train-the-Trainer Program August 21-22. This was incredibly well attended and was an excellent program. There is great interest in expanding BioWork offerings across the state.
Kennon Briggs and his staff have been working with community colleges to implement several initiatives that came out of the recent legislative session, including the Community College Trust Fund for distributing funds to foundations to match their fund raising efforts, the Youth Development Scholarships, and the Automotive Technician Training Program previously mentioned. He and Fred Williams continue to work with their staff to address salary equity issues and to upgrade salaries when funds are available based on their equity plan.
Kim Van Metre has been working with colleges in the preparation, completion, and submission of their annual financial statements to the Office of the State Controller.
Dr. Saundra Williams and Herb Watkins continue to provide incredible leadership as we work through various CIS issues, including ARCR Cash reporting. A task force made up of vendor staff, System Office staff, and college staff is meeting on a weekly basis to address these and other issues. Eighteen colleges in Phase 2B have begun their training for "going live" with the Human Resources component in January.
As a part of the work of the Education Information Technology Collaboration Council, which includes public school and university leaders, Dr. Williams participated in developing and presenting a report to the North Carolina Information Resources Management Commission on education IT funding and needs.
Keith Brown has been selected by the National Center for Education Statistics to serve on a national Technical Review Panel that will redesign the federal data collection system known as IPEDS. He was selected based on his expertise in the field of community college research and data.
As you well know, we have an incredibly hard working and effective staff working here at the System Office. You, the colleges, and all North Carolinians are blessed.
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.