President’s Report
To the
State Board of Community Colleges
July 15, 2005
The legislature seems to be winding down its work, but no one knows precisely how long that will take. At this point we can say with some confidence that this session will have been one of our best thanks to the hard work of the State Board, presidents, trustees, faculty, staff, and System Office staff. The Legislative Strategy Sessions have continued with increased frequency since our last meeting, but we do not anticipate the need for another. One of the most significant contributors to the success of our efforts in the General Assembly this year has been the excellent curriculum demonstrations organized by the Faculty Association. These demonstrations have shown the depth and breadth of our great programs.
GlaxoSmithKline announced a major gift to establish endowments at each of the community colleges, which will provide significant education and training for their employees. We sincerely appreciate this kind of support.
The Kellogg Foundation announced in late May a major gift to the Rural Center for rural entrepreneurialship. Our community colleges and their Small Business Centers will be the primary partners in this initiative.
We regret that the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation rejected our application for a continuation of our grant which has supported our Latino Initiative. The Advisory Board, which as been active during the pendency of this grant, will be working with us on strategies to continue our efforts despite our loss of funding and staff. We appreciate the work of Helga Mattei on this initiative.
Our Biotechnology Initiative continues to go well with major participation in NC Biotech 2005 in the Research Triangle and BIO 2005 in Philadelphia. However, the most exciting thing in our biotechnology initiative was the groundbreaking for the Bio-manufacturing Training and Education Center on the North Carolina State University Centennial Campus. This will be a joint-use facility by our BioNetwork and the North Carolina State programs. Full-scale bio-manufacturing equipment and an aseptic suite will make it possible for our students and university students to receive realistic training for the workplace. The Coordinating Council of the Biotechnology Initiative held its regular meeting. This group of community college, university, and industry leaders in biotechnology coordinate the collaborative effort in support of biotechnology.
In the international realm, Fayetteville Technical Community College, Wake Technical Community College, the System Office, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and the University of North Carolina Office of the President hosted a delegation of Chinese higher education leaders on a recent visit to North Carolina.
Of course, you have heard more than you want to hear about my visit to Northern Ireland and the receipt of an honorary doctorate from the University of Ulster. I am happy to report that there is great excitement about the possibility of student, faculty, and staff exchanges between our System and their two-year colleges. There is also the possibility of significant collaboration between our Virtual Learning Community and the University of Ulster’s on-line programs. Michael Gould, the representative of Northern Ireland in Washington, met with me earlier this week to plan subsequent visits from educational leaders in Northern Ireland who wish to look at several issues in greater depth which have been the subject of discussions in our various meetings.
The SAS Institute hosted a meeting of leaders of the Community College System, the University System, and Department of Public Instruction focused on collaboration in the use of information technology and data warehouse operations.
A number of our people and two of our Instructor of the Year finalists and their spouses attended the North Carolina Education Ball, a major fundraising event for the Communities in Schools (CIS) program. As you know, a number of our colleges work closely with local CIS programs.
Our Student Leadership Conference met in mid-June on the Peace College campus with a number of your staff participating in their sessions. It is always good to be with enthusiastic student leaders who are developing their leadership skills.
We think of Dr. Dallas Herring and two governors (Luther Hodges and Terry Sanford) as the fathers of the Community College System. I was able to participate in the opening reception of a wonderful new exhibit honoring Governor Hodges, which was put together by the Chapel Hill Museum. I was interested to note that the first gubernatorial appointment received by Governor Hodges was in the 1930s when he was named to the North Carolina Vocational Education Committee. This demonstrates a very long commitment on his part to vocational and technical education.
Last week I met with David Worters, the CEO of the North Carolina Symphony, to explore ways in which the Symphony and our System can work together in mutually beneficial ways. We kicked around some really exciting ideas that we want to share with the instructional administrators when they next meet.
I convened a meeting of Dr. Russ Lea of the UNC-Office of the President; Scott Dorney, director of the Military Business Center at Fayetteville Technical Community College; Bob Ervin, Vice President at Fayetteville Technical Community College; and Dr. Larry Keen, Vice President of the System Office’s Division of Economic and Workforce Development. We met to explore ways in which the University System and our Military Business Center can cooperate in the support of Department of Defense installations in North Carolina and to provide additional procurement opportunities for North Carolina businesses.
Throughout the two-month period since we last met, I have attended many meetings and given speeches in various venues including at the Pitt Community College Leadership Institute, the dinner honoring President John Dempsey (Sandhills Community College) preceding the naming of its Student Center in his honor, the Business and Higher Education Foundation Board meeting, the Future Hispanic Presidents Institute at North Carolina State University, the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Legislative Luncheon, the Workforce Development Commission, the UNC-TV Long-Range Planning Committee, the GlaxoSmithKline Foundation Board Meeting, with Sharon Darling of the National Family Literacy Council and with Matthew Szulik of Red Hat.
The turnover in presidents continues. In addition to finalizing the presidential search at Brunswick Community College and Nash Community College, I met with the trustees at Western Piedmont Community College as they kicked off the process of choosing a successor to Jim Richardson. The Roanoke-Chowan and Haywood presidential search processes continue to move along.
The US Department of Labor presented the National Labor Award to Rowan-Cabarrus Community College for its innovative workforce development efforts following the Pillowtex closing. Two other colleges received honorable mentions: Forsyth Technical Community College and Central Piedmont Community College. We were the only state to have such recognition.
Fred Williams participated in many events this month including the Chinese visit, the John Dempsey Student Center dedication, the Trustees Association Annual Meeting at which he reported on the trustee training in Thailand, the retirement of President Michael Reaves (Brunswick Community College), and the dedication of a new sculpture by Frank Creech at Johnston Community College. Of course, Fred does so much more than attend meetings. He does a fantastic job every month in keeping the System operating smoothly and in handling thorny problems.
The implementation of our College Information System continues to go well thanks to the excellent leadership of Chairman Watkins and Dr. Saundra Williams.
Dr. Saundra Williams and Dr. So-Young Yim are proud to have completed the report analyzing the report of all colleges on their performance measures. We are very proud to say that our colleges perform well and are making good use of our state’s resources as indicated by objective performance indicators.
Dr. Betty Adams is doing an excellent job organizing our strategic planning process. She also facilitated a meeting of the eight regional fire and rescue coordinators as we explore a reorganization of the regional coordination of those programs.
Keith Brown, Dr. Blake Reynolds and Wanda White participated in a meeting in Chicago on the Achieving the Dream Initiative.
Student Development Services staff sponsored an Orientation Best Practices Workshop at Wake Technical Community College. It is increasingly clear that an effective orientation program can have dramatic impact on the success of students who enroll.
Pam Little and the incoming officers of the North Carolina Community College Comprehensive Student Government Association held an excellent new officers retreat in Valle Crucis.
Ken Whitehurst joined 26 other educators from public schools and community colleges on an educational study tour to Spain in June sponsored by World View of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Kennon Briggs reports that for the first time in several years we had enough cash at year-end to cover both college and System Office obligations. Though we suffered a severe receipt shortfall, thanks to his excellent management we were able to complete the year within the allotted resources.
The closeout process by our colleges has gone relatively smooth. John Malia, Kennon, and the President’s Association Task Force on Adjunct Faculty Salaries continue to struggle with the legislative and State Board mandate that adjunct faculty be appropriately compensated for time spent outside the classroom and have made good progress.
Sharon Rosado has begun collecting the data necessary for us to determine our capital needs within the System. A report will be due in September. Sharon also prepared the report to the Bond Oversight Committee that you have in your package.
Our Small Business Center Network is developing a media campaign to introduce the new CD, "Setting Up a Business in North Carolina," that will be released in August. They are also working on a grant with the US Department of Agriculture to give community college assistance to struggling agribusinesses. Dr. Keen and Dr. Stephanie Deese represented our System at the US Department of Labor’s Workforce and Economic Development Summit in Orlando near the end of May.
I know all of you join me in a heartfelt "thank you" to Chairman Woody, Ann Turlington and Jeanette Council as they leave our Board. Their dedication, vision and service have benefited our System and our State.
Return to previous page
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.