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President’s Report
To the
State Board of Community Colleges
October 21, 2005
The week after your last Board meeting, we celebrated Employee
Appreciation Day at the System Office. We are incredibly fortunate
to have such a hard working, dedicated staff. We do not often enough
celebrate what they mean to us and do not adequately say thank you
to them. In addition to recognizing employees for their longevity
and recognizing outstanding professional and staff positions, we
honor employees on their 5th, 10th, etc., anniversary year. Dr.
Stephanie Deese received the President’s Award in the professional
category and Terry Satterwhite received the President’s Award in the
support staff category. We also generally celebrate the conclusion
on our State Employees Combined Campaign. As I have told you before,
we have the most generous staff in state government. This year
pledges totaled $23,327, 26 percent above our informal goal and more
than $3,000 above our highest previous level of contribution. This
was on top of contributions from the staff to Katrina/Rita relief of
more than $3,000. Total hurricane relief contributions from all
sources totaled more than $7,000.
That week we also had a delegation from Northern Ireland visiting
with us to learn more about our BioNetwork program. They have
invited Susan Seymour to go to Northern Ireland to make a
presentation on our program.
The Public School Forum Executive Committee met that week and then
last week had its annual retreat at Wrightsville Beach. I was also
pleased to be a part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the
Public School Forum the week before. I am proud to have been one of
the founders of that organization when I was in the General
Assembly.
I had breakfast with the trustees at their fall meeting, but a
number of your staff made presentations to them while they were in
Raleigh.
Chairman Howard Lee of the State Board of Education, Dr. Richard
Thompson (representing Molly Broad), John Dornan of the Public
School Forum, Weaver Rogers, and I participated in a conference
sponsored and funded by the Education Commission of the States on
the role of community colleges in teacher education. We were asked
to develop a comprehensive plan, which we have done. This was
especially valuable given the need for the development of a lateral
entry program by next summer and additional enhancements of our
other roles. You will be hearing more about this in the future.
I met with the trustees at Catawba Valley Community College as they
begin the process of choosing a successor to Dr. Cuyler Dunbar who
has announced his retirement for next summer.
Having not gotten acquainted with Dr. Richard Brodhead, the new
president of Duke University, I took him to lunch and had a most
interesting and productive time. I was very impressed.
The US Secretary of Education has appointed a Higher Education Task
Force, which includes Governor Jim Hunt. Since the American
Association of Community Colleges (AACC) was not involved in any way
in the planning of this commission and did not even know about it
until it was announced, George Boggs, the President of AACC, asked
if I would set up a meeting with Governor Hunt to discuss issues
which might come before the commission. George came down to North
Carolina and we had a very productive session with Governor Hunt.
Following the Public School Forum Retreat, I traveled across the
state to Charlotte to videotape the Carolina Business Review program
which is seen on Public Television stations across the state. I hope
some of you saw the program.
Elizabeth Isler, who is back on staff temporarily helping us out
until the new allied health staff person begins work, and I met with
Dr. Brenda Cleary and other members of the North Carolina Center for
Nursing about matters of mutual interest. It was an unusually
positive and beneficial meeting.
Last week I participated in the opening of the Eastern Office of the
North Carolina Biotechnology Center and participated in the regular
Board meeting of the Center. I was unable to be present for the
opening of the Southeastern Office in Wilmington the day before.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has obtained a
federal grant to establish a Citizen Soldier Support Initiative to
develop various means of support for the families of military
reserve and National Guard personnel who are deployed. I have been
asked to serve on the National Advisory Panel and met with that
panel for the first time last week.
The Hispanic Initiative Committee met earlier this week to begin
exploring how we might continue its important work without funding
and without staff. I am optimistic that we will be able to continue
to make a difference. I met earlier in the month with Dr. Maria
Fraser-Molina of Durham Technical Community College, a member of the
panel and one interested in helping us find ways to keep the
Initiative going. She will chair the new group.
Fred Williams and I attended an area meeting of NC Citizens for
Business and Industry in Fayetteville.
I spoke to the Raleigh Exchange Club last week.
Fred Williams and Richard Sullins participated in various events at
Mayland Community College celebrating the successful tenure of Tommy
Williams as president of Mayland. In his eight years of leadership,
enrollment grew from 661 to more than 1400 FTE. Additional
off-campus facilities were built in Avery and Yancey counties. The
college has played a very important role in an area hard hit by
layoffs.
Peggy Beach led our System Office effort to recognize Constitution
Day, a recognition mandated by Congress.
Mr. Fred Williams, Dr. Stephanie Deese, and Ms. Diane Steinbeiser
prepared and submitted a grant proposal to the US Department of
Health and Human Services that will encourage minority students to
pursue allied health degrees and assist minority faculty members to
receive additional credentials.
Training continues to be aggressively pursued in our CIS Project,
with 18 Phase 2B colleges preparing to use the system for admissions
and financial aid in the spring and for registration online next
summer. All of our colleges are benefiting from CIS training centers
at Wayne Community College and Center Piedmont Community College. As
we move towards our assuming more and more responsibility for
managing the software support for CIS, our information services
staff is bulking up and learning more.
Some of you have been participating in Dr. Betty Adams’ excellent
strategic planning efforts through the Planning Council.
Dr. Bill Randall, Mr. Ken Whitehurst, and Dr. Saundra Williams are
representing the System on the E-Learning Commission.
We had hoped that Kennon Briggs and his staff would be able to take
a breath once the legislature went home and budget allocations were
made. However, it appears that things have only gotten more hectic.
Among the things claiming the attention of Kennon and his staff have
been collecting and analyzing budget summaries; exploring the
establishment of an internal auditor position; helping Catawba
Valley find a replacement for its retiring Chief Financial Officer;
preparing the Higher Education Bond Oversight Quarterly Report;
transitioning the BioNetwork from Golden L.E.A.F. funding to state
funding; hosting the Association of Community College Business
Officers Executive Committee meeting; developing and implementing
Credit Card Security Standards; providing training to all 58
colleges with regard to compliance with federal regulations related
to non-resident aliens; participating in specialized training
provided by the State Controller and the State Auditor on the
disbursement of funds to non-state entities; evaluating the data and
survey results with regards to capital needs on our campuses;
reporting to the General Assembly and State Budget Office on
multi-campus and off-campus center funding; and presenting at a
workshop on multi-campus colleges and off-campus centers at the
Adult Educators Conference.
Dr. Delores Parker and her staff continue to be very much involved
in the implementation of Early College High Schools, including
attending its conference in late September.
Ken Whitehurst and Blake Reynolds continue their involvement and
leadership of the Lumina Foundation programs, including attending a
meeting of a policy summit in Charlotte.
Focus group meetings are taking place across the state as we attempt
to validate placement tests and the appropriate score so as to
achieve a level of consistency across the System. We cannot complain
about universities not accepting credit from our colleges when our
colleges will not accept as valid the developmental studies
completed on other campuses. This is an important issue that must be
addressed and resolved.
Dr. Delores Parker participated in the North Carolina Space Grant
Consortium meeting at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
near Brevard.
Dr. Parker has written an article that will appear in the
fall/winter issue of SEEN (Southeast Education Network) Magazine on
our 2+2 programs that will highlight our NC TABS (North Carolina
Transfer Assistance in Biomedical Sciences) program and our teacher
education programs.
Dr. Larry Keen participated in the 2005 National Association of
Industry-Specific Training Director’s Annual Conference in New
Jersey. Dr. Keen was a presenter at the Conference.
The Career Readiness Certification program has published a Request
for Proposals and Dr. Keen’s staff is now reviewing those proposals.
Twelve pilot sites will be chosen.
Joanne Steiner chaired the BioNetwork Industry Advisory Board
meeting hosted by Novozymes at the Franklin County facility on
September 30.
Dr. Stephanie Deese represented North Carolina at the 2005 Fall
Conference of the Southeastern Employment and Training Association.
She serves as a member of the Executive Board.
As you can see, your staff continues to be very busy!
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