The President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
April 20, 2007
Our hearts go out to the Virginia Tech family which has been devastated by the tragic gun attacks on their students, faculty, and staff. NC Attorney General Roy Cooper, UNC President Erskine Bowles, UNC Board of Governors’ Chairman Jim Phillips, NC Independent Colleges and Universities President Hope Williams, and I held a news conference on Wednesday to talk about our individual and system efforts to address campus security. A task force is being established to look at our emergency response plans, at best practices that can be incorporated into our plans, and modification of training programs that we offer. We will move quickly to deal with any problems we identify.
The legislative session is well underway, but at this point not going in the direction we need. Unless the taxes which are set to expire this July 1 are renewed, availability will be very limited. Almost none of our priorities will be funded, I regret to say. A great concern to me is that the ratio between community colleges, public schools, and universities seems to be cast in stone, despite our being called on more and more to take a larger and larger role in the economic transition our state is going through. When the legislature continues to adhere to those ratios year after year, we get less and less money. The same percentages applied to our much smaller budget than either of the other two results in our getting a much smaller dollar increase. At a committee meeting on Monday, discussions of how to allocate additional availability were encouraging. However, there does not appear to be any additional dollars, further exacerbating my concerns. Perhaps the legislature recognizes the critical role we are playing in our state’s economic transition and may change those ratios to reflect our role as to new dollars. I do not want to take a single penny away from universities or public schools, but the ratio as to new money should be altered to take into account the reality of our role in the economic transition and the fact that we get only small dollar increases when the same ratio is applied. The most critical moment in the House budget process is next week. Therefore, I strongly urge you to contact your legislators and impress upon them the impossibility of our continuing to do more and more with less and less.
I have been calling on legislative leaders for one-on-one conversations since they arrived back in town. These conversations had been so positive that I was in absolute shock when I saw the preliminary figures that are under consideration. Every member with whom I spoke praised the community colleges and the role that they play in our state’s economic transition and in meeting the higher education needs and aspirations of our people. Obviously, something happened between those conversations and the preliminary allocations of the resources available.
Your Legislative Strategy Group continues to meet to discuss these legislative challenges. As we met on Wednesday afternoon, we all felt a sense of urgency to engage our Presidents, Trustees, faculty, staff and students in this critical legislative process.
The presidential searches continue to move along. You have today approved Dr. Kay Albertson as President of Wayne Community College and have assessed the candidates for the presidency of Isothermal Community College. I had anticipated many more assessments for this meeting, since a number of presidents are stepping down July 1. Since you do not meet in June, there may be great difficulty in getting new presidents in place by the date the old presidents leave.
Richard Sullins put together an excellent orientation program for recently hired presidents which involved the major players here at the System Office. Our colleges have hired some excellent new presidents in recent months and I am sure more will soon follow.
Jim Jacobs and Judy Taylor of Jobs for the Future visited with us with regard to our exciting Achieving the Dream project. They seemed very pleased with the manner in which we are using their money.
I met with a significant number of Latino leaders who wanted to visit with me about the need for providing educational opportunity for a significant portion of the workforce which is now denied access to our programs. The Terry Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University is doing a study of the economic impact of either educating or not educating students at the post secondary level who have completed their high school diploma in North Carolina, but are undocumented. It is hard for me to see North Carolina becoming a knowledge-based economy if we refuse to fully educate one-fourth of the future workforce of the state.
Several of your staff, including myself, participated in a visit by the James Sprunt Community College Leadership Development Academy when they visited Raleigh late last month.
I participated in two meetings focused on biotechnology which were held in late March: the Biotechnology Center Board met, as did the Biomanufacturing and Pharmaceutical Training Consortium. North Carolina continues to make amazing strides in growing its biotechnology workforce thanks to the hard work of many of our colleges and our BioNetwork.
Denise Baker from Sandhills Community College and our exchange faculty member to Northern Ireland brought a colleague of hers from Newry Institute, Tammy Fullerton, with whom she is working on ongoing projects which were dreamed up during her exchange.
Erskine Bowles, Howard Lee, and I were on a panel which spoke at the North Carolina Association of School Administrators annual meeting in the Triangle.
Executives from Comark Building, Inc. met with facilities leaders from community colleges and public schools to discuss the use of modular building components for permanent academic buildings. Though they are headquartered in Texas, the modules are manufactured in Robeson County.
I spoke at the NC Association of Community College Instructional Administrators/Student Development Administrators Association Conference in Atlantic Beach which brought together student services and academic administrators from throughout the System. I spoke primarily about our legislative agenda. Dr. Saundra Williams tried to address some of the frustrations being felt by our leaders in the field about the continuing challenges with CIS implementation.
I met with Norma Turnage, Dr. Bill Carver and Nash-Rocky Mount Superintendent Rick McMahon about how Wesleyan College might become a public institution under the UNC-Board of Governors. I do not think that another traditional university model can be economically or academically justified. However, I have suggested that thinking outside the box might result in a model which would work. I have suggested that this institution become an upper division college only, with community colleges, particularly in the east, but potentially from all over the state, becoming feeder institutions to this college with rich collaborative programs developed that would make the process seamless. Our colleges would provide the freshman and sophomore classes and the new college would provide the junior and senior classes. A follow-up meeting on these ideas was held yesterday hosted by Norma’s husband, Mayor Fred Turnage.
Erskine Bowles’ senior staff and ours met in our State Board Room in early April for its periodic meeting. This has proven to be an excellent communication tool to enhance the seamlessness of higher education to which we all aspire. Among the items on that agenda were the Comprehensive Articulation Agreement, the Educational Data Initiative between DPI, UNC, and our System, the Governor’s initiative for on-line courses for high school students, our joint Marine Science Initiative, legislative and budget issues, and a collaborative approach to bringing down the cost of textbooks.
Dr. Larry Keen and I participated in the regular meeting of the NC Economic Development Board held at The Umstead in Cary.
Despite the fact that the legislature gives us almost no money for the professional development of our faculty and staff, our colleges make creative uses of the limited funds they have to keep their faculty and staff on the cutting edge of their disciplines or of their work. I was happy to be able to speak to an excellent professional development institute which Wake Technical Community College conducts each year for their own staff. I was very pleased that President Steve Scott invited faculty and staff from other colleges to participate. A number of colleges had several of their faculty and staff attend.
I met with Dr. Ellanor Graves, the consultant who has been employed to work on modularization of our curriculum. I was happy that I was able to do so, since I was able to refocus her attention at a critical time in her research.
I also participated in an exciting announcement at Wake Technical Community College made jointly with East Carolina University. One of the topics of discussion when Erskine Bowles and his staff met with ours was the need for greater articulation between our Associate of Applied Science Degrees and university degrees, particularly Bachelors of Applied Science. East Carolina and Wake Tech are leading the way in developing a rich array of degrees that will be made available to Wake Tech applied science graduates at East Carolina University. Much of the degree completion will be available on the Wake Tech campus. We are hopeful that this will be the model used by many of our universities to give additional educational opportunity to our AAS graduates.
I met with Lew Ebert, the CEO of the North Carolina Chamber (formerly known as the NC Citizens for Business and Industry) about the need for the business community to support our allied health budget request, since allied health careers create thousands of new jobs every year and no company wants to locate or remain in a community with inadequate healthcare. We see this as a job creation and economic development tool of the greatest importance. Mr. Ebert agreed and it is my hope that he will be able to obtain endorsement of our budge request by his Executive Committee.
Last week we were visited by a delegation of Scottish college executives who were in this country for the meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges in Tampa, Florida. They wanted to tack on a visit to our state following my speech at their conference last fall. They were pleased to receive briefings at the System Office, but were especially pleased to be able to visit Wake Tech, Sandhills, and Sampson Community Colleges. Our Presidents, faculty and staff at those colleges did a great job. In Tampa, I participated in a panel of some of these Scottish education leaders, talking about global education and the relationship between North Carolina and Scotland.
I also was on three other panels during the course of that conference in Tampa. A number of North Carolina community college folks were on other panels throughout the meeting.
Also last week, the Minority Male Mentoring Conference was held in the Research Triangle Park with 700 participants and incredible speakers of great stature presenting, including Board members Jimmie Ford and Herb Watkins. Addressing the critical issue of minority male enrollment and completion must be one of our highest priorities.
I also participated in an incredible evening with Ken Burns whose series on World War II will be a feature of UNC-TV’s fall lineup. Chancy Kapp, my designee on the UNC-TV Board when I am unable to attend, and I were present. What an incredible wordsmith and thinker Ken Burns is! Be sure to watch the series.
Earlier this week, President Erskine Bowles, Chancellors James Oblinger, James Moeser, and James Ammons, and I participated in the Topping Out Ceremony of the UNC Nutrition Research Institute in Kannapolis and the groundbreaking for the NCSU facility. This vision is becoming a reality!
President Gary Green and others participating in the development of a Motorsports Program continue to do good work developing the curriculum and a legislative proposal for funding.
Work also continues on the Internal Audit Control Taskforce, the Intercollegiate Athletics Taskforce, and the Accountability and Audit Committee. Fred Williams has followed the work of these three groups very closely and has made valuable contributions himself.
Fred Williams and I met with the NC Board of Refrigeration Examiners with regard to their desire to withdraw their endowed principal and interest for scholarships and begin awarding the scholarships themselves. We were pleased to learn that there are no hard feelings, but that they want greater control over the process and wish to solicit additional scholarships from venders.
The annual art exhibit continues to pay unexpected dividends! This month about a dozen student and faculty pieces that we have enjoyed through the years are featured in the first ever art exhibit at the new headquarters for the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC-Chapel Hill. The Center is housed in the historic Franklin Street Cottage that once served as the home to the head of the Navy ROTC at the University.
On the retirement of Walter Currie after 30 years, Elizabeth Self will be promoted into his position as lead auditor. We will miss Mr. Currie and thank him for his excellent service to our colleges and the System Office.
The Continuity of Operations planning document is well on the way to completion. Significant input from senior staff has been used by former Auditor Bill Cole who has begun writing the plan. We hope to incorporate suggestions from the Task Force on Campus Security in the final plans.
David B. Gottshall, the founder of the National Great Teachers Movement, was the facilitator for the first annual Basic Skills Great Teachers’ Retreat in Hendersonville, NC, on March 25-28. Over 40 Basic Skills directors and instructors participated and left the meeting greatly energized and refreshed.
Our System and the NC State Education Assistance Authority sponsored FAFSA Day Workshops on April 17-19 at Fayetteville Technical, Sampson, Cape Fear, Roanoke-Chowan, Guildford Technical, and Central Piedmont Community Colleges. These workshops were designed to assist students in completing their application for federal financial aid.
Peggy Teague participated in several conferences in the last month dealing with teaching and Early Childhood Development. She has also been working with the Department of Public Instruction and the Division of Child Development to develop a Memorandum of Agreement to articulate early childhood education programs between the high schools and our similar programs.
Kim Jernigan has been working with the Allied Health Council of NC on a symposium that will showcase the role that the allied health workforce plays in economic development and quality of life. The conference will be held in June at the Friday Center on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.
Colleges continue toward full implementation of CIS this summer. Most will have completed their implementation in April and May and are testing their systems to begin registration of students for the fall term.
CIS Release 18 made much progress in March, with the migrated software to be tested at the beginning of May.
Lt. Governor Beverly Purdue chairs and has provided insightful and passionate leadership to the E-Learning Commission. Dr. Saundra Williams, Dr. Linda Nelms and Dr. Bill Randall represent the community colleges on that Commission. Dr. Williams chairs the Policy and Legislation Subcommittee.
The Homeland Security Grants for National Incident Management Training have been allocated to 43 of our 58 colleges. Amounts ranged from $4,000 to $36,000 for training and $4,000 to $8,000 for equipment.
The NC BioNetwork BioForum was held April 3-5 at Central Carolina Community College in Sanford. The keynote speakers and workshops were excellent and well attended.
We are pleased that at long last our regional training directors for the Southeast Region and the Northeast Region have been hired. A ceremony was held at Craven Community College recently to name a conference room in its new building for Tim Rhodes, the Regional Director for the Eastern Region who has been fighting cancer.
Dr. George Millsaps and Willa Dickens continue to work with representatives from the Rural Center, the UNC System, the Department of Public Instruction, and private colleges on entrepreneurship education.
Kennon Briggs and his staff continue to work very hard on all budget matters in the General Assembly, including participating in a week-long review of our budget before the Joint Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Two weeks later, the House Subcommittee heard over 50 special bills of which 11 were special funding bills for community colleges.
Kennon Briggs has completed a reorganization of his division which netted the reduction of one position, but much greater functionality and efficiency.
Your continued support and personal contacts of legislators will be critically important in the next month. Please call me if you need any information or help in preparing yourself to visit with legislators.
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Friday, April 20, 2007 06:02:49 PM
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.