October 15, 1999
This report will be as short as last month's was long.
I am pleased to report that the System Office staff and colleges all across the state have responded magnificently to the needs of eastern colleges impacted by Hurricane Floyd. Dr. Larry Gracie has coordinated the effort for the System and has done a marvelous job. Colleges and individuals throughout the state have given unstintingly of their time and resources to help their colleagues who are less fortunate. Your action today to encourage accelerated building trades training will further our efforts to assist. You will read details of our assistance in your next issue of Connections, our newsletter.
I left for Japan the morning after the September meeting and was gone for a week. I had expected to accompany the Governor to the meeting of the Southeast U.S. / Japan Association at which I had been invited to speak on North Carolina's workforce development program. This was in recognition of our recent Education Commission of the States award and our being named again this year as the number one workforce development program by Expansion Management magazine. The hurricane resulted in the Governor's canceling his trip, but I went ahead and in addition to the speech, participated in a very intense schedule of investment calls at many Japanese companies already doing business in North Carolina and at businesses being recruited by North Carolina. I was gratified by each of those visits and believe that a number of the calls will result in new jobs in North Carolina. I do not think I made a single call at which the reputation of our System had not preceded me. In fact, our visit to Toyota was set up by another Japanese company that makes automobile components. They had such a good experience with Mitchell Community College that they wanted to share our story with Toyota. A number of the calls we made were to companies already in North Carolina which are being encouraged to expand their operations here. Without exception, they all gave high marks to the community college which had helped them with their initial training. Many Japanese companies have commended us to other companies which might consider a presence in North Carolina in the future. It made me very proud.
When I returned, I spoke to the North Carolina Community College Faculty Association's annual meeting at which approximately 300 faculty members participated in a full day of professional development activities. Not only was I struck by their enthusiasm, but by the seriousness of their professional development efforts. It is my hope that presidents will see this annual meeting as a professional development opportunity similar to other association meetings for which reimbursement for travel expenses is routinely given.
The Foundation work continues to go well with Greg Poole and other Foundation board members making numerous calls since our report. Greg and I met yesterday with Luther Hodges Jr., now living in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Substantive Change Visit of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has been concluded this week. This visit covered distance learning programs at 38 colleges across the state with approximately 40 SACS team members fanned out across the state. It began with a teleconference at four sites on Sunday and concluded with the exit report to our colleges, also a teleconference, on Thursday morning. Dr. Janyth Fredrickson and her team did an incredible job in organizing this effort and in seeing it to conclusion. In addition to many members of our staff being involved, over 1000 faculty and staff from the various colleges worked hard, too. We were especially pleased that we were able to go forward with the visit as scheduled despite the disruption of Hurricane Floyd throughout the east. In fact, Pitt Community College, one of the hardest hit colleges, went forward with their hosting one of the teams and being a regional center for the visit.
Dr. Johns has kept a blistering pace in her last month and has overseen an equally busy time for her staff, with the SACS visit already described at the top of that list. We will all miss Beth's energy, leadership and pie-making skills. Thank you for your resolution honoring her on her departure.
Dr. Johns and her staff met with the Emergency Medical personnel at their annual conference in Greensboro. Regional task forces have been established to deal with the poor passing rates for state licensure. They also met with community college and Department of Correction's personnel from across the state responsible for our educational programs in prisons. Both were excellent opportunities for exchange with important constituencies.
Dr. Johns, Elizabeth Jones, and Bryan Brooks recently represented our System and its nursing programs very well before the North Carolina Board of Nurses as they considered licensure proposals which could have had a negative impact on those programs. I am pleased to report that they were successful in at least temporarily staving off these changes.
Dr. Johns and Dr. Donny Hunter continue to work closely with the School Improvement Panel as they address various issues of interface with the public schools from career readiness programs to the ABCs to "First In America."
Dr. Johns recently presented at the North Carolina Women In Higher Education Leadership Forum and will present at the League of Innovation Information Technology Conference in Chicago next week.
We are all very proud of Bob Allen who recently received a national award presented by the National Council for Staff, Program and Organizational Development in San Diego for his design and implementation of the Future Presidents Institute and the Senior Administrators Institute. I might add that Bob is at Rex Hospital today for exploratory surgery. Please keep him in your prayers.
Work on special provisions adopted by the General Assembly has claimed much of the attention of the Division of Administration in recent weeks. Bob Blackmun is working with the new Vice Chancellor for Information Technology at UNC-General Administration and her counterpart at the Department of Public Instruction on the interface between the three education agencies on information resources and technology.
Dr. Rogers and Keith Brown have been leading the effort to establish the new performance funding mechanism using performance measures and standards. They have presented their initial ideas at several regional and statewide conferences. Keith has also attended a workshop on privacy issues in Washington, D.C. to keep us out of trouble, but also to guarantee that we have the necessary data to do appropriate research and follow-up.
The Administration Division continues in its planning for the Futures Conference, the follow-up to our strategic planning initiative of last year, which will be held here on October 21. Again, I hope that many of you will be able to attend.
That division continues to work with UNC-GA on enrollment projection models that can be used for planning higher education facilities and program needs for the future.
The Administration Division continues to provide invaluable support to the Presidents' Association in its study of faculty workload and the Rural Center's study on "Rural Communities in a Digital Economy." Dr. Steve Scott and Dr. Rogers are both chairing working groups related to that effort.
Work continues on planning for our management information system with a fall meeting of computer support staff from across the state and extensive planning efforts with regard to the data warehouse project.
Dr. Rogers and Kennon Briggs are co-chairing a task force on performance based budgeting which will be presented to you in January for adoption in February.
Vice President Briggs and his staff have worked closely with colleges affected by Hurricane Floyd, including campus visits and almost daily telephone contact. That hurricane has resulted in the Governor calling back a portion of our funds. After some initial confusion, capital projects and other specially funded programs were exempted from the freeze and callback. The eastern regional meeting of business officers naturally focused on hurricane related issues.
As you know from earlier reports, the Finance Committee has begun its work on the 2001 budget.
The Finance Division continues to work on issues raised by the General Assembly including the establishment of a regional fire training center, funding for off-campus centers and multi-campus colleges, monitoring and analyzing budget transfers, and improving the receipts and depositing process.
Dr. Scott recently hosted six German university educators who visited our System to study our workforce development programs, recognizing the national reputation we enjoy in that area.
The new Division of Economic and Workforce Development has been at work putting their division together and responding to the Hurricane Floyd disaster. The Small Business Centers have been at the heart of the community college response, working one-on-one with small business owners in applying for SBA emergency loans and state "bridge" grants. The centers have conducted two information highway sessions and a third is scheduled for next week, with participation by the U.S. Small Business Administration to inform business owners about opportunities and how to access them. These sessions were downlinked to eight of our colleges and were well attended. Likewise, we have trained approximately thirty SBC directors from as far away as Gaston College in how to counsel and assist small business owners and those directors are volunteering their time to Small Business Centers in the east to assist with the workload.
The New and Expanding Industry program continues to boom. Since our last scheduled meeting, thirteen new projects have been initiated all across the state.
I am always proud to be associated with community colleges and the wonderful people who work in this office and at our colleges across the state. However, you and I should all be even more proud of them now, having seen the manner in which they have responded to the devastation of the east. Thank you for making it possible for me to be a part of this great team.
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