President's Report
to the
State Board of
Community Colleges
November 19, 1999
I have been on the road so much this month that I do not feel that I have accomplished much in the office. Hopefully, some of the out-of-office meetings will have a positive impact on what we do in this building.
On the Monday following our last meeting, we hosted the School Improvement Panel Executive Committee meeting in this room. Donny Hunter, Beth Johns (now Delores Parker) and I are very active in working with the public schools as they seek ways to improve public education, hopefully with our cooperation and collaboration. Just this week Dr. Hunter and I have attended that Panel's annual retreat at Pinehurst.
That Monday night I met with the Trustees of Nash Community College to give your assessment of their finalist for their new president. An excellent exchange took place between their Board and me with regard to your assessment. I did not meet with the McDowell Board before they made their choice. Both Nash and McDowell chose very well. This is truly an historic occasion for the State Board of Community Colleges to approve two new presidents at a single meeting, both of whom are women. I am pleased that we have gone from two women presidents to seven since you called me to this position. I am disappointed that we have not made similar progress in ethnic diversity, though we have made some! Later in the month I met with the Randolph Community College Trustees to discuss the procedure to be used in selection of their new president, since Dr. Larry Linker has announced his retirement
I participated in the Economic Development Board meeting in Boone in mid-October and in the Workforce Development Commission meeting, also in Boone last week. Since economic and workforce development are such an important part of our mission, these are important meetings for me to participate in.
On my second trip to Boone, Chancellor Frank Borkowski and I videotaped his monthly television program focusing on the Appalachian Learning Alliance. I am happy to report to you that the collaborative effort between Appalachian and the eight community colleges in ASU's service area has been nominated and is a finalist for the 2000 Bellwether Award to be presented at a Futures Conference in Orlando, Florida sometime after the first of the year. That evening the Chancellor asked Alice and me to join him and faculty members at dinner in his home, a monthly affair for them. Because of our growing relationship with Appalachian State, it was very good to have this opportunity to meet a number of faculty members who will be involved in the Appalachian Learning Alliance initiatives.
I returned early from the Economic Development Board meeting to attend the Education Cabinet meeting which focused largely on public school accountability and consideration of the "report card" which will soon become the major way in which that accountability is shared with the public.
Dr. Carolyn Girardeau and I met with Massage Therapy Board leaders to explore ways in which to clarify the respective responsibilities of that Board and our Board regarding the licensing of massage therapy schools. We are exploring various options with that Board, including our continuing to license those schools until a statutory clarification can be made or immediately turning the responsibility over to them which is implicit in the statute.
Our Strategic Planning Conference had a very successful meeting in our Fifth Floor Conference Room with broad participation from business and industry, the community college family, legislators, and representatives of the public schools and university families.
Though I was scheduled to attend several of the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry membership luncheons across the state, pressing business kept me from attending any except for the one at Elon College. It was an excellent meeting at which their chairman, Phil Phillips, said wonderful things about community colleges and strongly endorsed facilities bonds for the University and the Community College Systems. I am told that he and their president, Phil Kirk, did the same at all of their meetings.
I had occasion to have lunch with Dr. Jock Tate, Chairman of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation which to date has given us the largest Foundation gift. I had wanted to renew my acquaintance with Dr. Tate from the days I sat with him on the Z. Smith Reynolds Advisory Board and to thank him for their generous contribution and for the important work that their Executive Director, Tom Lambeth, is doing for our Foundation. The Foundation is now well over $2 million in pledges and we have just begun seriously soliciting companies and foundations not connected to Board members. Though it is unlikely that we will wrap up the campaign by Christmas, we believe that we will have proposals outstanding well in excess of our goal by then. Several of my road trips this month have been to call on potential givers. The annual Foundation Board meeting was held in Chapel Hill at the Alumni Center hosted by President Bill Friday.
We had a wonderful Employee Appreciation Day at which time service awards were presented to long-term employees and we celebrated another incredibly generous response by your staff to the State Combined Campaign. For the third year in a row we went significantly over our goal which had been set modestly at $16,500 (slightly more than last year) because our people had been so generous in personal giving to various organizations in response to Hurricane Floyd. However, we ended up with pledges of $18,299. We have gone from $6,920 in 1995 to $9,755 in 1996, $14,056 in 1997, to $16,491 in 1998. These are dramatic annual increases. Another indication of our response to needs is the preliminary planning we are doing to construct a modular home in Lenoir County in cooperation with the Department of Correction. Our construction trade training programs at the prisons will be building wall sections and other modular components of houses which will then be constructed quickly on sites in communities in the flooded area. We are excited to have the opportunity to put one of these houses together. I am so proud of the way in which your staff responds to needs among their colleagues or to needs of the wider community. You should be proud, too. Last meeting you will recall I went into some detail about these efforts. Ten of our community colleges have begun building trade programs and more are in the process of offering the programs now that the U.S. Department of Labor has approved a training wage and training cost reimbursement for these programs.
It was great to have the Fifth Floor Conference Room available so that we could all meet in one place in our building for our Employee Appreciation program. We went to Pullen Park following our formal program for a pig picking. The chief cook was Ricky Tart of our staff and everyone gorged themselves on pork provided by the Vice Presidents and me and on wonderful desserts provided by our Program Directors and Associate Vice Presidents.
That same night Dr. Scott Ralls entertained his new division in his home, which Alice and I enjoyed as well. The following day they spent most of the time getting acquainted with each other and setting goals and objectives for the future.
I have met with George Miller in his legal capacity representing the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) with regard to their desire to offer retirement and other benefits packages to community college employees as an alternative to benefits packages now available through the State. TIAA-CREF has recently announced that it will move its operations center and several thousand employees to the Charlotte area. It has long offered elective benefits to UNC System employees. The company will be making a proposal to us that we will take first to the presidents to see if there is sufficient interest to justify coming to you with a request.
Doug Eason hosted a very fine Presidents' Association meeting at Mitchell Community College. As always, productive discussions were the order of the day.
The following day, I spoke to The Southern Region Council on Black American Affairs regional meeting in Charlotte. This is the organization that represents African-American employees at all levels in our community colleges here and across the country.
We hosted the Correctional Education Inter-Agency Committee and had productive discussions of new programs beginning, old programs underway, and the need for reliable, up-front, start-up money for new prisons which will be opening in the future. We also discussed the modular housing initiative I mentioned earlier.
I spoke at the Adult Educators Conference in Atlantic Beach and the North Carolina Association of Colleges and Universities in Greensboro. You may have seen me on NC Now, the UNC-TV News and Public Affairs magazine, talking about the community college response to Hurricane Floyd. Of course, that response was another indication of the generous spirit of the System Office staff and the entire community college family across the state.
I met with Dr. Don Spence of East Carolina University who coordinates their international programs. We had met on the trip to Japan and he is eager to put together foreign exchange programs, particularly with Japan, that involve community college students and staff. I have had several encouraging communications from persons with whom I met in Japan showing similar interest there.
I made our initial pitch to the Education Oversight Committee, though I was careful not to indicate any priorities, since we have not yet decided those. I did set forth a number of issues with which we need to deal, but made clear that before any priorities were discussed, we needed to have all our partners on board. The reception from the legislators was very positive.
Steve Scott and I traveled to Wilson for the Barbecue Club monthly luncheon and a good time was had by all.
Last week I was on the Polk Campus of Isothermal Community College celebrating their 10th Anniversary in their beautiful facility. There is very strong community support in Polk County for the programs there. It was good to get to meet these important and enthusiastic supporters. I regret that conflicts prevented my participation in the dedication of two beautiful auditoriums at Isothermal CC and Richmond CC earlier in the month.
This week we have hosted the Family Literacy Conference on the fifth floor with participants from all across the state. Dr. Sharon Darling, CEO of the National Family Literacy Center, was the principal speaker. There are exciting opportunities for us to be involved in meaningful literacy programs across the state. I am pleased to serve on that Board.
The Rural Prosperity Initiative continues to claim much of my attention and that of Dr. Scott Ralls. We hosted a meeting this week of capital area leadership of this initiative as we move towards one of the final meetings of this task force which will be here in Raleigh on December 2-3.
Dr. Scott hosted a group of five visitors from Ireland who are in the state this week looking at our furniture training programs. These Irishmen run similar technical programs in that country.
The Division of Business and Finance continues a torrid pace of study and analysis of issues raised by you or the General Assembly. These include simplifying the State Aid Allocation Formula, the transferring of funds in excess of two percent, reverting funds of up to one percent as required by the Governor's response to Hurricane Floyd, additional funding for multi-campus colleges and the initial funding for off-campus centers, projecting enrollment growth by college site, creating a new capital needs model, and developing priorities for the 2000 budget.
Vice President Kennon Briggs and his staff have traveled as much this month as I have. There was a regional meeting of Southern Association of Institutional Researchers in Chattanooga, the Legislative Issues Study Group and the Presidents' Association meeting in Statesville, the Business Officers Association annual meeting in Asheville, a meeting in Waynesville to look at the continued viability of the Wood Products program at Haywood Technical Community College, a meeting in Wilmington with area citizens and leaders on the regional public safety training facility in the southeast, the Human Resource Officers meeting in Boone, and the Adult Educator's Conference in Atlantic Beach.
The Office of State Budget and Management has recently begun a management study of the Division of Business and Finance to evaluate workload distribution and productivity. It is anticipated that similar studies will take place in all of the divisions ad seriatim.
Dr. Brenda Rogers and her staff have been very involved in the implementation of performance funding with a meeting of the Task Force, a presentation at the Southern Association of Institutional Research in Chattanooga, and numerous presentations to faculty and staff at colleges across the System.
Parks Todd continues to work with the North Carolina National Guard on an initiative to equip and staff distance learning classrooms on community college campuses in the furtherance of the National Guard goal of having distance learning classrooms in close proximity to all of their armories. This has received additional impetus in recent months because of the effective use of the Information Highway and our Information Highway classrooms at colleges in the flooded areas.
The Library Services staff is busy reviewing the proposals for the new library automation system. Because of difficulties in coordinating the contract approval process, it was impossible to bring to you that contract for final approval at this meeting. However, we appreciate your giving approval to the Finance and Capital Needs Committee to approve the contract at their called meeting in December. Related to that, Pam Doyle is working with our library administrators across the System to identify electronic resources commonly used by our colleges in their learning resource centers. We are also moving along with our Management Information System implementation with requests for proposals going out for the new administrative system and the data warehouse. We are now responding to questions and hope to receive those proposals in December.
The Economic and Workforce Development Division continues to garner awards for our System. The National Alliance of Business recently named North Carolina "The State of The Year for Workforce Development." Phil Kirk received the award on behalf of the Governor in Washington, but when he made the formal presentation to the Governor at the recent State Board of Education meeting, he made clear that this was not a public education award, but was an award for all of our training efforts and paid particular attention to the role of community colleges in that effort. In a recent survey of chief executive officers of national corporations, North Carolina was considered to have the number one business climate in the country, with workforce training programs noted as a key factor.
One would think that with the hectic travel schedule that Dr. Scott Ralls has that it would be difficult for him to begin the process of pulling his new division together. However, he appears to be doing a great job at both. In the past month he has represented our System at the North Carolina Economic Development Board meeting, the Executive Committee of the Presidents' Association, the Rural Prosperity Task Force, and the Adult Educators Conference in Atlantic Beach. He has also met with the Roanoke-Chowan Industrial Committee, with companies in the Buncombe area interested in apprenticeship training, and with two community colleges making applications for federal training grants.
Our Small Business Center directors from across the state continue to make us proud as they volunteer their time to assist the Small Business Center directors in the Floyd affected areas as they attempt to meet the needs of small businesses devastated by the floods. Two of Scott's most recent involvements with New and Expanding Industry have been major plant location announcements and training opportunities in Lenoir and Edgecombe counties, the two counties most affected by Floyd. Overall, since our last Board meeting, fifteen New and Expanding Industry training projects have been initiated across the state from Yancey County to Chowan County.
That division continues its work in welfare reform and you have approved today a major initiative in that direction with the approval of grants for Pathways to Employment.
One of our most important training areas is with rescue personnel. The State EMS Education and Training Advisory Committee recently met and agreed on priorities and established a subcommittee to work on performance standards for their training.
Since our last meeting, Dr. Beth Johns departed and Dr. Delores Parker hit the ground running. Of course, we miss having Beth around, but we are excited about the leadership and vision Delores brings to the division.
The interim report on cooperation between high schools and community colleges in the offering of Huskins and dual enrollment courses has been delivered to the General Assembly.
In addition to the short-term training in construction trades which is being undertaken in Floyd affected areas, the division is working on COPA, Construction Occupation Programs for Articulation, a nationally standardized construction trades program that involves articulation in those trades from public high schools to the community colleges. This is another area where the full cooperation and partnership of the construction industry in North Carolina is essential to its success.
An exciting new training initiative for BellSouth is underway with eight community colleges across the state.
I have recently received several comments from outside the community college family praising a recent school violence conference that we cooperated in conducting which was in response to the Columbine tragedy. This involved law enforcement and emergency management personnel from across the state.
In criminal justice, a new certification program will be made available beginning in February using traditional classroom, Internet, and Information Highway for delivery.
School-to-Work has been an important initiative in providing career identification opportunities for public school students. Allocations have recently been made of the last federal dollars to be used for this program. We are now, along with other agencies, trying to identify funds to continue this program in the future.
Dr. Carolyn Girardeau of that division recently presented at the Minority Activities and Programs in Science Symposium at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society. Dr. Girardeau has provided leadership for the North Carolina Transition Program in Biomedical Sciences. She was the only community college representative to appear at that national meeting.
The second class of the Institute for Senior Administrators has been selected. Twenty-seven mid-level managers from twenty colleges will begin their work in January. The first class of that Institute held their graduation activity in conjunction with the Presidents meeting in Statesville. Twenty-eight graduates have prepared themselves through a very rigorous academic and practical program for senior positions in our System. Forty-eight faculty members from thirty colleges have been chosen as recipients of the tuition assistance to permit them to obtain baccalaureate degrees. Of course, these faculty members are in technical and vocational fields and will now be able to add an academic credential to their excellent and long-term experience in their respective fields.
Two other issues of some controversy involving our sister education agencies have been barriers raised to the transfer of our students to four-year institutions and treatment by those institutions of dual enrollment and Huskins Bill courses taught by our faculty. The University of North Carolina has announced that they will accept no transfer students who have not taken the SAT, which means that non-traditional students transferring from community colleges will be expected to sit for the SAT even after having successfully completed an Associate of Arts degree perhaps with straight A's. Of course, the SAT by its own statement of purpose is to predict success as a freshman in college, not to predict success as a junior in college. The potential for success as a junior in college has already been demonstrated by the successful completion of our programs. We see this as a direct slap at the quality of our graduates and a not so subtle barrier to transfer. Preliminary discussions have occurred with Chancellor McCoy and we believe that this issue can be worked out.
The East Carolina University Art Department has recently announced that they will accept art courses taken at community colleges only as electives and not in satisfaction of the requirement for a degree in art. They have encouraged, in writing, community college students to transfer at the end of their freshman year rather than complete a community college associate's degree. Both of these we believe are perhaps in violation of the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement and certainly are a violation of the spirit of that agreement. I have begun discussions with Chancellor Eakin and hope that this matter can be resolved.
The State Board of Education was about to consider at its November meeting a recommendation from staff that only Advance Placement courses taken in the high school would receive additional quality points for computing a high school student's academic average. Of course, no high school student would take a dual enrollment or Huskins Bill course if the best they could get out of an A was four quality points when they could get five quality points for a similar Advance Placement course. That item has been pulled from the agenda and will be, along with the other two issues mentioned above, on the agenda for discussion at an informal meeting among Molly Broad, Mike Ward, Hope Williams and myself in early December.
Some of you may have heard that Charlotte Todd has been reassigned on the Legislative Staff to provide fiscal and legislative analysis to the Appropriations Committee on University programs. No one ever served in this role for community colleges who was more knowledgeable of our programs or cared more deeply about the programs which are so important to our students across the state than Charlotte. She will be missed. The good news is that Mona Moon, Charlotte's replacement, comes with the highest recommendation from Legislative Staff leadership and from the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, the agency for whom she has previously provided analysis. We look forward to working with Mona and welcome her into the community college family.
On the week before Thanksgiving, each of us has much to be thankful for. However, among the things I am most thankful for is the continuing opportunity to work with you and the wonderful staff of the System Office and the people in our System from across the state. North Carolina is truly blessed, as am I, to have a Community College System that so effectively serves the educational and workforce development needs of our people. Thank you for letting me be a part of that effort.
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.