*  Brandon Lee Johnson, an Associate in Business college transfer student at Central Piedmont Community College, was sworn in by Judge Hugh Campbell of the North Carolina Court of Appeals as the student representative to the Board. Johnson is president of the North Carolina Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association (N4CSGA).

*  The Board approved the appointment of Dr. J. Larry Keen as System Vice President for Economic and Workforce Development, effective September 3. Dr. Keen presently holds the equivalent position in the Oklahoma Community College System and has a distinguished record as a leader in economic and workforce development in Oklahoma and in the country.

*  The Board approved Chuck Barham as Interim Vice President for Economic and Workforce Development, to fill the position after Dr. Scott Ralls, the current Vice President, takes the helm at Craven Community College on August 1.

*  The Board approved the appointment of Dr. Vincent Revels as Interim President of Robeson Community College effective September 23, 2002 and ending December 31, 2002. Dr. Revels will replace President Fred G. Williams who joins the System as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in October.

*  The Board approved recommendations made after a System-wide study of fees charged by the various community colleges that indicated that the desire is that fees be kept as low as possible and that local Boards of Trustees have some flexibility. The Board approved the following:

        All fees currently charged as either generic or specific be re-designated as Optional "Specific" fees to be retained and
        expended locally and established by local Boards of Trustees.

        Establishment of a single new "Generic Fee" for computer use and technology at a maximum rate of $16 per Semester
        for Curriculum classes, and a maximum of $5 per course for Continuing Education classes.

        The current Student Activity Fee is left at the maximum of $38, but will be reviewed annually.

        Establishment of a separate Parking Fee, in excess of the maximum Student Activity Fee, for the use of parking
        facilities-the rate will be set by each local Board of Trustees.

*  The Board, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last year when a tuition increase was imposed after tuition bills were paid, approved a resolution (attached) that gives the State Board Finance and Capital Needs Committee the authority to impose a ten percent tuition increase. The authority is based upon there being no conflict between the House and the Senate over the tuition increase for community colleges and a tuition increase identical to the Senate is passed by the House Appropriations Committee.

           The increase already approved by the Senate is $3.25 per Credit Hour for in-state tuition, from
           $31.00 to $34.25 per Credit Hour and an increase of $17.50 per Credit Hour (10.5%), from $173.25 to 
           $190.75 per Credit Hour for out-of-state tuition (10.1%).

           If the final Budget Conference Report does not include a tuition increase, the increase billed to the     
           students will be refunded to them.

*  The Board, in response to a special provision approved by the Senate mandating that "all new programs it approves be developed using a regional approach unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances," passed a resolution (attached) that encourages the lawmakers to reconsider that Special Provision and further study the issue. The concern is that the special provision would severely hamper the ability of community colleges to respond to local business training and education needs and thereby reduce the impact the community colleges have on economic recovery.

-NCCCS-

Whereas, The North Carolina Community College System, the institution designated by the North Carolina General Assembly as "the primary lead agency for delivering job training, literacy and adult education programs in the State", has experienced unprecedented enrollment growth in fiscal year 2001-02, serving over 15,900 additional full-time equivalent students; and,

Whereas, The North Carolina Community College System is currently in the process of registering adults for the fall 2002 Semester in the face of uncertainty over funding sufficient to meet the educational needs of students and when final action may be forthcoming to adjust the fiscal year 2002-03 budget; and,

Whereas, adults that register for instruction for the fall 2002 Semester need a clear indication of the expected cost of attendance at a community college within the North Carolina Community College System, including the per credit hour charge for tuition; and,

Whereas, The North Carolina General Assembly has, in General Statute 115D-39, empowered the State Board of Community Colleges to "fix and regulate all tuition and fees charged to students applying to or attending any institution" and the increased tuition collected by community colleges goes into the general fund of the State to be allocated to those colleges by action of the General Assembly; and

Whereas, The State Board of Community Colleges has never exercised its authority to increase the per credit hour charge for tuition, preferring to keep tuition as low as practicable to insure student access and deferring to actions of the North Carolina General Assembly in establishing the per credit hour charge for tuition; and

Whereas, the General Assembly, having in place a Biennial Budget is not required by law to pass a Budget Adjustment Act during the current session; and

Whereas, absent legislative action to allocate tuition increases which may be approved by the State Board, those dollars go into the General Fund with no guarantee that they will benefit the colleges or their students; and

Whereas, there is an inherent danger in the State Board approving a tuition increase without knowing that that increase will ultimately be useable by community colleges to support the enrollment growth;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED BY THE STATE BOARD OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES THAT: When the Appropriations Committees of the North Carolina Senate and the North Carolina House of Representatives have each approved an identical increase in the per credit hour charge for tuition, the State Board, even though final action of the General Assembly has not occurred, authorizes the Finance Committee of the State Board of Community Colleges to give final approval to fixing the tuition for community college students for the next academic year at a rate agreed to by the two houses of the General Assembly and thereafter, community colleges shall collect that tuition as if it had been finally approved by the General Assembly, to be allocated by the State Board to the several colleges on a pro rata basis for enrollment growth; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT: if the General Assembly thereafter adjourns without taking final action to approve a Conference Report resolving the differences in the budgets passed by the respective houses, that tuition increase by this action is by this action immediately null and void and repealed ab initio and the same shall be refunded to all students who have paid the same.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT: This action by the State Board is not meant to set a precedent but is precipitated by the necessity of providing adults registering for classes certainty about their cost of attendance and preventing unnecessarily complicated collection procedures.

______________________________

James J. Woody, Jr.
Chairman, State Board of Community Colleges

______________________________

H. Martin Lancaster
President, North Carolina Community College System
Attest

RESOLUTION

Whereas, the North Carolina Community College System has been successful in training and retraining the workforce of North Carolina because it is accessible and responsive to the needs of workers in the state; and

Whereas, that accessibility is mandated by action of the General Assembly in GS ll5D-5(b) which states that "In order to make instruction as accessible as possible to all citizens, the teaching of curricular courses and of noncurricular extension courses at convenient locations away from institution campuses as well as on campuses is authorized and shall be encouraged"; and

Whereas, one of the greatest strengths of community colleges is the ability to develop and offer programs to meet community, business and industry needs with little red tape and with little delay so as to meet the demands of industry being recruited to the community; and

Whereas, students in the Community College System are non-traditional: older, working, with family responsibilities, etc. and thus are unable to leave their work and drive to a community college in a county some distance from their homes and work; and

Whereas, if the System is to meet the need to train and retrain those students with special needs, programs important to those students and to the business and industry in their home county demand that these programs be available in the community; and

Whereas, the State Board of Community Colleges takes pride in their support of and strict adherence to policy set by the General Assembly; and

Whereas, the Session Laws of l993 provide that the State Board "shall require all new programs it approves be developed using a regional approach"; and

Whereas, GS ll5D-5(f) provides that the State Board "shall report on an annual basis to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, and the Advisory Budget Commission on all new programs it approved during the year. The report shall include the specific reasons for which each program was approved."; and

Whereas, every effort is made to assure a regional approach is taken in the development of new programs, but that many programs by their nature must be offered on many if not all campuses in order to meet the mandate of accessibility and to meet the needs of students, business and industry; and

Whereas, this demand to be both accessible and regional in its approach makes it difficult to meet both mandates of the General Assembly; and

Whereas, because of the concern that program proliferation might be excessive and costing the State money in a time of limited resources, the Chairman of the State Board established a Task Force in May to study the program approval process and to determine if more programs might be regionalized and established that Task Force before the General Assembly itself began to focus on that same issue; and

Whereas, that Task Force reported to the State Board on July l8 that of the 247 curriculum programs offered, 81 are offered at only one college, 21 are offered at only two and 20 are offered at only three; that five programs are offered at all 58 colleges (college transfer, Business Administration, Early Childhood Education, Information Systems, and Office Systems Technology); other programs offered at multiple sites include Nursing and Basic Law Enforcement; 176 programs are collaborative programs offered by two or more colleges which share faculty, equipment and clinical sites; and based on those findings reaffirmed the efficacy of the current approval system as responsive to student, business and industry needs and demands; and

Whereas, the General Assembly has before it for consideration at this time a special provision in the Appropriation Adjustment Act of 2002 which would require that "all new programs it approves be developed using a regional approach unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances" and further provides an elaborate reporting process before new programs could be put in place; and

Whereas, to subject all programs to such a process will greatly restrict the State Board’s ability to be responsive to requests for approval of new programs to meet business and industry needs and that inability will do irreparable harm to economic development efforts of the State which demand quick action when recruiting a new or expanding industry; and

Whereas, to require all programs to be regional will greatly reduce accessibility of programs much needed by parents and working students who will be unable to travel significant distances to enroll.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges that the General Assembly give consideration to studying further the impact of requiring that all new programs of the System be regional and to studying the relative importance of accessibility versus some costs saving from reducing the number of programs through regionalization before mandating that requirement.

This the 19^th day of July, 2002.

____________________________

James J. Woody, Jr., Chairman
State Board of Community Colleges

____________________________

H. Martin Lancaster, President
North Carolina Community College System

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