President’s Report
To the
State Board of Community Colleges
January 20, 2006
The January President’s Report always seems a bit long since we do
not meet in December. However, things do slow down a bit during the
month of December, so even though it is a two-month report, maybe it
will not be too lengthy.
Alice and I took some much needed vacation time immediately
following the November Board meeting, taking our family to Spain for
a week. Alice and I then spent a week without our daughters and
sons-in-law in England. We returned to Christmas parties and
Christmas functions, many of them in the System Office. We trust
that you and your families had wonderful holidays.
Perhaps the most exciting event since our last meeting was the
taking of office by Erskine Bowles as President of the University
System. At his first meeting with the Board of Governors, your
Chair, Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, and I attended and Hilda spoke. Hilda
did a great job! Erskine and I are long-time friends and look
forward to working with each other to remove any impediments to a
seamless higher education pathway for students who may wish to begin
that journey at a community college. We are also looking forward to
working to improve and implement the recommendations of the Pappas
Study on the role of higher education in economic development.
December and January have been a time of transition. In addition to
President Molly Broad’s retiring, Phil Kirk resigned from the North
Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry (NCCBI), and Dave
Benevides retired from IBM. We will miss our relationship with each
of these people, but look forward to working with their successors.
I had lunch with Barry Eveland, the interim president of NCCBI. He
is also an old friend and a member of our North Carolina Community
Colleges Foundation Board. I am certain that he and I will have a
good relationship as well.
We also lost to cancer a great friend of community colleges, Brenda
Dougherty with Sprint. Brenda was the person with whom we worked
most closely on the Sprint scholarships each year. She was always a
consistent supporter of community colleges.
Among my speaking engagements in December and January were to North
Carolina State University’s Young Farmers Leadership Institute, the
North Carolina Economic Developers Association, and just this week
in St. Louis to the Southern Growth Policies Board meeting on
workforce development. I spoke specifically on the BioNetwork joint
initiative of the University System, our System and industry.
Another exciting event in December was speaking at Craven Community
College at a ceremony honoring the first cohort of teachers to
receive their degrees from East Carolina through the Wachovia
Partnership East. There will be more of these celebrations as
additional classes graduate. The best thing about meeting these
teachers was to learn that almost every one of them already has a
job as a credentialed teacher in Craven or surrounding counties.
The Planning Council continues its effective work in developing the
update of our Strategic Plan. Dr. Betty Adams is doing a wonderful
job.
David Worters, President & CEO of the North Carolina Symphony, met
with Fred Williams and me to discuss an idea of placing individual
musicians and ensembles from the North Carolina Symphony on
community college campuses for short residencies. We are excited
about the potential for this idea and will be working with David on
funding sources. Fred was a strong supporter of our Visiting Artist
program during the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s.
Secretary Libba Evans of the Department of Cultural Resources and
Mary Regan, Director of the State Arts Council, met with me to
discuss ideas for our involvement in encouraging creative clusters
around the state. This is a term for industry and individuals who
are using their creative skills for economic development. In the
Pappas Group Study, it is pointed out that professions in art and
design are the 11th fastest growing job category in the state.
Earlier this week before departing for St. Louis where I spoke to
the Southern Growth Policies Board, I spoke at a forum at the North
Carolina Arts Museum on North Carolina’s creative economy. This was
a follow-up to my meeting with Secretary Libba Evans and Mary Regan.
Bob Melville of the North Carolina Progress Board met with me to
discuss its recent report which was a significant disappointment to
me. We learned that it had been hastily put together and that was
the only reason that there was little reference to community
colleges in it. I impressed upon Mr. Melville, and I hope the Board
through him, that North Carolina’s progress is dependent on an
educated workforce and that a significant majority of the jobs in
North Carolina in the future will require education beyond high
school, but not necessarily a four-year degree.
You may have heard two recently broadcasted radio interviews of me,
one on the North Carolina News Network by Bruce Ferrell and one by
the Curtis Group Radio Stations conducted by Don Curtis, the owner
of those stations. UNC-TV recently ran a two-part interview with me
on their nightly magazine, North Carolina Now.
You may also have seen Rob Christenson’s interview of me with regard
to my work with the US Army Corps of Engineers.
We have been working with the Chronicle of Higher Education on a
major story on the North Carolina bond referendum and its
implementation which is in this week’s issue. As you might imagine,
Kennon Briggs has provided significant material for the writing of
the article in this week’s Chronicle.
We were all encouraged by what we heard at the North Carolina
Citizens for Business and Industry Economic Forecast Luncheon. It
was very positive in its predictions for economic growth in the
coming year and revenue collections by the state.
At a meeting of the North Carolina Public School Forum, David Crotts,
the legislative economist, gave a similarly encouraging report.
Week before last Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue of this Board hosted an
announcement of the Virtual High School and its new director, which
was followed by an impressive presentation to the North Carolina
Board of Education. Dr. Saundra Williams, Dr. Bill Randall and Mr.
Ken Whitehurst have represented the Community College System in the
development of the Virtual High School.
Last week Luther Hodges, a member of our Foundation Board, hosted
Scott Daugherty and me at dinner in an effort to develop greater
cooperation between our Small Business Center Network and the
University Small Business Technology and Development Center. The
relationship between our competing organizations has been of
significant concern to many people, including Luther Hodges and me.
I hope that something good will come out of our dinner.
With the coming of Dr. Mark Milliron to SAS as its Vice President of
Education Practices, a much closer relationship has developed
between our System and that important company. Mark hosted a one-day
conference on successful approaches to fund raising and development
for 119 participants from our colleges across the System.
We are pleased with the progress Glynda Lawrence is making in trying
to revamp our numbered memo system, a system which interprets policy
for our campuses. These interpretations may be of statute,
regulation, or informal policies of the Board. We hope that this
coherence and a searchable database will be of significant benefit
to our colleges as they attempt to comply with the policies of this
Board and the statutes passed by the legislature.
Fred Williams recently attended the dedication Wallace W. Gee
Building at Alamance Community College. Mr. Gee is a former chair of
the Board of Trustees. Fred also participated in the annual Economic
Development meeting in his home county of Robeson at which meeting
Hector McLean was recognized for his contributions to the economic
growth and development of the county.
Fred has also been involved in responding to the many calls we have
received from colleges, local school systems, parents and other with
regard to the significant difficulties the legislatively mandated
schedule has created for students who wish to take college-level
courses from community colleges. Our colleges are doing the best
they can, but the conflicts between the law which prohibits a person
from enrolling as a full-time student until that person has
graduated from high school has created one problem we did not
anticipate. We knew that there would be challenges created by the
difference in schedule since students who enroll in our courses had
to start classes several weeks before the high schools started.
Those students completed those college courses at Christmas while
they were still in the fall semester at their high school. Since our
colleges begin their spring semester while the students were still
in their fall semester, it has been difficult to juggle schedules
and maximize the enrollment of high school students in our programs.
The unanticipated problem was that many high school students on the
block schedule can graduate at the end of the fall semester and many
of those in the recent past have enrolled as full-time students in
the spring semester. Unfortunately, there is a statute which
prohibits high school students from enrolling full-time at community
colleges. Since they do not finish high school until two or three
weeks after our spring semester begins, they cannot enroll as
full-time students until summer or the next fall.
Once again your System office has demonstrated their generosity,
this time by giving their very blood. Richard Sullins and Mary
Gardner organized another excellent blood drive, collecting 27
units, 7 more than our goal.
Last Saturday I watched the Mayland Community College basketball
team play the Carolina junior varsity team. Though Carolina won
handily, the Mayland team acquitted themselves well by never giving
up and keeping their spirits high. I must admit that it was hard for
me to pull for red uniforms against Carolina blue uniforms.
Dr. Delores Parker and her Academic and Student Services Division
continues to struggle with the appropriate way to deal with how
placement tests are used by our colleges to determine who must be in
developmental programs. It is critically important that consistency
be achieved. We cannot argue with universities who will not
recognize the quality of our programs and courses if our own
colleges will not recognize a determination on another community
college campus that the requirements of developmental education have
been met. Recommendations from a committee working on this issue
will be presented to the presidents at their January meeting at
South Piedmont Community College.
Ken Whitehurst was invited to participate in the Conference of
American Council on International and Intercultural Exchange. Dr.
John Pettitt represented our System Office at the Conference of the
Council for Resource Development in Washington, DC. Dr. Peggy Teague
attended the Annual Conference of the National Association for the
Education of Young Children in Washington, DC. It is good that our
professional staff is recognized for its excellence and is invited
to participate in these national conferences.
The transition of responsibility for managing the software support
for the CIS Project from ACS to the System Office’s Information
Services staff officially occurred on January 1, 2006 as scheduled.
This transition actually began several months ago and has been going
very well.
The 18 colleges in Phase 2B of the CIS Project have made
considerable progress with converting their student data files and
are beginning to use that data to test the new system.
Dr. Delores Parker and Dr. Saundra Williams joined with their
University counterparts to present to the Joint Legislative
Education Oversight Committee on our distance learning initiatives
and their needs. They did a wonderful job. The legislature really
likes to see this level of cooperation between our systems.
The Human Resource Development/Career Start Training Academy was
held in December with more than 220 participants from across the
state. These participants were from our System, the Department of
Social Services, the Employment Securities Commission and others.
Jimmie Ford, your colleague on the State Board, was the keynote
speaker at this Academy.
The BioNetwork staff is working on proposals received for grants for
equipment and innovation. Twenty-five proposals were received for
equipment totaling almost $3 million in requests and 12 proposals
were received for innovation grants totaling over $400,000 (of
course, we don’t have that kind of money). The review process
continues with final decisions to be made the end of January.
Dr. Keen’s division continues to be very busy responding to requests
for proposals in important economic development initiatives.
Counties are aggressively pursuing new and expanding industries and
our customized training is critical to their success.
We are pleased with the work of Andy Nehila who is directing our
Strategic Energy Initiative with funding from the State Energy
Division. Six pilot community colleges will participate in a
comprehensive program to achieve energy savings.
Several meetings have been held since November of the Tuition
Exchange Study which will enable community college staff to take
courses on UNC campuses and vice versa. Kennon Briggs co-chairs this
task force with participation by Dr. Saundra Williams and Mr. David
Sullivan. This will be a tremendous opportunity for our faculty and
staff to obtain degrees and higher degrees at little or no cost.
Kennon Briggs and his staff are working with Barbara Boyce in
Continuing Education to develop the Community College Finance
Institute. This endeavor was already underway before similar
suggestion was made by the State Auditor in his Management Letter
following the Special Audit at Halifax Community College. This is an
exciting professional development opportunity for employees in
finance offices across the System.
Sharon Rosado and Chancy Kapp have been putting together a
PowerPoint presentation that promises to be a mind-blowing
presentation to the Higher Education Bond Oversight Committee when
it meets next week at Sandhills Community College. We are happy to
have the opportunity to present such a positive report on our
efforts to appropriately use these funds.
Kennon Briggs has recently reorganized his division following
several retirements in his division. The details of that
reorganization were presented to the Finance Committee yesterday and
promised to bring significant efficiencies and additional
effectiveness to that already well-run division.
We continue to work with our various constituent parts of the
Community College System family in developing our 2006 Consensus
Budget Request.
2006 promises many exciting opportunities for us. We are looking
forward to an enhanced relationship with the University System and
we hope additional resources in the Short Session will address many
of our important needs. Your support in these efforts in the coming
year will be much appreciated.
Last modified:
Friday, January 20, 2006 01:58:07 PM
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.