| President’s Report |
| to the |
| State Board of Community Colleges |
| November 17, 2000 |
We have been celebrating in this meeting and in this building nonstop since the votes were counted in support of the Higher Education Facilities Bonds. I do not believe that any statewide bond issue ever received the positive margins we experienced in this vote. One hundred counties passed the bonds by more than 60 percent each, with eighteen of those counties voting more than 80 percent in favor and in fifty-eight counties, more than 70 percent said "yes." The final statewide "yes" vote was more than 73 percent!
It should also be noted that this overwhelming support was for the largest bond issue in North Carolina’s history for any purpose and is the largest higher education bond issue in the history of this country. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the largest bond issue they can find in support of higher education in the country was a one billion-dollar bond issue in the State of California several years ago. This should make us very proud of the people of North Carolina who recognize the value of community colleges and universities and support them in their missions. I believe that this is a tremendous mandate which we will take to the General Assembly in the next regular session and probably for several sessions to come!
I have never seen such an incredible campaign as this one. Joe Grimsley, George Little, Leslie Bevacqua, and the leaders of North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry provided the campaign leadership at the state level, but it was what was done at the grassroots across the state that resulted in this tremendous vote. Community college presidents, trustees, faculty and staff, chancellors, alumni, and supporters of higher education speaking to civic clubs, buttonholing friends and colleagues, writing "letters to the editor" and other articles for newspapers, raising money for the media campaign and a host of other important tasks educated the people and helped them understand the importance of this vote. You should be very proud, as am I, of the effort all across the System.
Since our last meeting, I was in Buncombe, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Wilson, Pitt, Johnston, Cabarrus, Alamance, Watauga, Durham, Columbus, Sampson, and Cumberland counties, and at a special African-American leaders event at the Governor’s Mansion. In all of these counties, I made pitches for the bonds.
Some of these county visits were exclusively bond related, but some of them were for other purposes as well, such as the acceptance of the BASF property by Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (A-B Tech), the largest private gift to any community college in North Carolina and perhaps in the country. The potential for collaboration among A-B Tech, the other community colleges in the west and universities in the area is unlimited. Services to business and industry will be greatly enhanced, especially through the use of a portion of the property for a business incubator.
Humpy Wheeler at Lowe’s Motor Speedway hosted a great event in support of the bonds pointing out the importance of community colleges and universities to motor sports in North Carolina. We had representatives from most of our colleges that have these programs and the hit of the day was the race car from Catawba-Valley Community College and its entire racing team in full uniform.
A number of television appearances were made, including a joint appearance by Molly Broad, Harlan Boyles, John Hood of the Locke Foundation, and me. This excellent discussion of the bonds was replayed many times before the election.
The Appalachian Learning Alliance met on the campus of Appalachian State University and was followed with bond events at the Yosef Club and outside the stadium prior to the football game.
On the Thursday before the vote, Governor Hunt, Molly Broad, and I made helicopter visits to Central Piedmont Community College, North Carolina A&T State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for rallies on each campus. Tony Zeiss and his staff did a wonderful job of hosting the rally there and getting out a tremendous show of support from faculty, staff, students, and community supporters. Your Chairman and the Chairman of the Board of Governors joined us at some of the stops.
I spoke to the North Carolina Adult Educators Association. This organization includes adult educators from private and public universities as well as our community colleges.
Paul Wedel of the Kenan Institute Asia visited with me as a follow-up to our visit to Thailand with the Governor in August. Just this week the Minister of State of Taiwan with whom we met in that country also visited me. Similarly, Pitt Community College and Durham Technical Community College hosted a delegation of visitors from the University of Nuevo Leon in Monterrey, Mexico, who are also interested in our programs and how they might be shared with their students in Mexico. As you might imagine, they are especially interested in our Virtual Learning Community. These leaders are people whom I met when I accompanied the Governor to Latin America. In all these cases, there is continuing interest in the North Carolina Community College model and how it might be implemented in their respective countries.
When I was in London with the Governor in the spring, I met Dr. Gerry McKenna, President of Ulster University located in Northern Ireland. He was interested in how universities and community colleges articulate, cooperate and collaborate in North Carolina. In the United Kingdom, the kind of articulation, cooperation and collaboration that we have done in the past and are doing more of now is a new experience. Out of that conversation grew the idea of an exchange program between the United Kingdom and North Carolina. Dr. Ed Boone, at my request, prepared a proposal for how this exchange might be structured which we shared with Dr. McKenna. This week, he and a delegation from his university have been in North Carolina exploring various linkages between his university and universities and community colleges in North Carolina. The exchange idea continues to develop and would involve chancellors, community college presidents, and their counterparts in England, with each learning from the other.
I participated in the North Carolina/Japan Conference sponsored by the North Carolina State University Japan Center. The focus was on economic development opportunities for Japanese companies in North Carolina.
Dr. Delores Parker and Dr. Donny Hunter participated with me this week in the School Improvement Panel Retreat in Pinehurst. We continue to be an important partner in the work of this panel and in the Governor’s initiative to make public education number one in America within the decade.
I met last week with Grier Martin of Preservation North Carolina. He is heading up an initiative of that organization on campus historic preservation. Though we do not have as many old buildings as private and public universities in this state, we do have a number of historic buildings in which they are interested.
Quiet and steady progress continues with regard to the North Carolina Community Colleges Foundation fund raising, but it has naturally taken a back seat in recent weeks as we have focused most of our attention on passage of the bond referendum. However, last week Greg Poole and I visited Dr. Ralph Snyderman at Duke Medical Center with regard to their participation. Greg has recently made other calls.
The Vice Presidents and I co-sponsored Employee Appreciation Day on October 25. Prior to enjoying the great pig that Ricky Tart cooked, we recognized new employees, thanked old employees, and celebrated the incredible success of our Combined Campaign. In the first Campaign after I came to this position, $14,080 was pledged. This year the amount pledged was $20,079. Thanks to the incredible leadership of Chancy Kapp and a very dedicated committee of solicitors, we have surpassed our goals each year and led the entire state government in the generosity of our staff as demonstrated by these pledges. We are so fortunate to have not only a highly professional, hard working staff, but one which also cares about its community and the needs of others. I know that you join me in saying thank you to them for all they do. They bring great credit to our System.
The Information Resource Management Commission has a new director with whom I met recently. That Commission met last week, but I was represented on that occasion by Bob Blackmun of our staff because of scheduling conflicts.
Information resources initiatives of various kinds continue to dominate the work of Dr. Brenda Rogers and her division.
All colleges recently successfully completed the process for submitting data for the first time via the Web to the federal government. Brenda and I commend the colleges for meeting the deadlines and using this new technology.
The data warehouse project has a revised timetable, but even with some delays we expect the Phase I of the project to be completed by the end of the fiscal year. Plans are now being made for Phase II.
Work continues on the College Information System (what we formerly called our Management Information System). A detailed implementation plan has been developed and is on course.
Dr. Rogers, Kennon Briggs, and Keith Brown held a teleconference on performance measures, standards and funding, which was participated in by all of our colleges. Excellent information was shared and many questions were answered.
Brenda and her staff have made presentations to the Association of Community College Business Officers on these various initiatives. Other presentations have been made to the Human Resources Association, the psychology and sociology faculty and the Southern Association of Institutional Research. Dr. Rogers attended the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management annual meeting in Seattle, WA.
Dr. Delores Parker and her division are incredibly busy on a wide range of initiatives too numerous to fully recount for you. However, I do want to share several major initiatives that are underway.
Mike Thompson has been working with our colleges, the Department of Public Instruction and the U.S. Department of Education on the completion of our annual Performance Report, which is required by the State Plan for Vocational and Technical Education.
Nancy Massey attended the national conference of the National Society for Experiential Education, which included a presentation by Mary Catherine Bateson, daughter of Margaret Mead, on the importance of discerning patterns in our learning and of the importance of seeing from various points of view in order to succeed in a global economy.
Our collaboration with the U.S. Navy continues to proceed. Allen McNeely recently reported on this initiative to the President’s Association.
Carolyn Snell represented me and the System at the Early Childhood Education Conference recently held in Charlotte. As you know, with early childhood programs at every college, we are filling a significant need in training the personnel for early childhood programs.
Ken Whitehurst continues to work with public school counselors in training them to use the NCMentor project (formerly called Pathways) so that they can better use the Internet portal to obtain information about college opportunities of all kinds. Training will be conducted at five community colleges (Halifax, Fayetteville Tech, Montgomery, Cleveland, and Johnston). He and Karen Yerby are working also with the Department of Public Instruction on the ASSET Testing Project.
Dr. Major Boyd continues to do excellent work with the North Carolina Community College Student Government Association which recently had a great fall conference in Winston-Salem. Karen Yerby and Dr. Parker also participated in this meeting. I want to pay special tribute to Daryl Mitchell and the work of this organization in support of the bonds.
The Student Leadership Institute recently held a mini-retreat which included participation by Karen Yerby and Dr. Parker. We continue to search for a continuing funding source for this Institute.
Stephen Athans participated in a North Carolina business symposium in Charlotte hosted by BellSouth and Duke Power to bring together community colleges, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Public Instruction to discuss how education can support economic development.
Lin Frye and Jim Young continue to do great work in resource development assisting with the preparation of the number of grant applications by colleges interested in Golden Leaf and advance technology funds.
Dr. Randy Whitfield has recently been elected Chairperson of the National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium. She also recently attended the Workforce Excellence Board meeting in Dallas.
The Small Business Center Advisory Committee recently met by way of the Information Highway and heard reports on the new Export Ready Program being developed with the Department of Commerce, the Hispanic Business Development Initiative and NC REAL. At the meeting, recipients of the Excellent Small Business Center Award were chosen and will be presented at the January State Board meeting.
On recommendation of the Safety Training Task Force, two newly hired safety training specialists are now in place providing resources to colleges across the state to enhance safety training. Randy Hart will be working out of Blue Ridge Community College and Randy Mercer will be working out of Cape Fear Community College. Mr. Hart was most recently employed as a safety specialist with Borg-Warner and Mr. Mercer comes to us with a strong construction safety background in private industry.
Dr. Scott Ralls and Rick Kimrey participated in a special two-day recognition tour of New and Expanding Industry Training projects in Ashe County arranged by Wilkes Community College. Ashe County has made an incredible turn-a-round from 17% unemployment five years ago to a booming economy, many new plants, many new workers, and significant new investments.
At a recent Regional Training Directors meeting training on the New and Expanding Industry Training Computer System was completed that now allows for complete on-line program management.
Dr. Steve Scott spoke at the Rural Community College Initiative Leadership Institute at Southeastern Community College at which twenty-five community colleges from across the nation were represented. Dr. Scott, the other vice presidents and I participated in the successful Presidents’ Association meeting in Fayetteville and the Executive Committee meeting here in Raleigh.
Kennon Briggs and his staff have been working hard with MGT of America as they have concluded their Faculty and Presidential Salary Studies, which you have already heard about today. Reports on these studies are due to the General Assembly in December.
Also due to the General Assembly in December is an accountability report for Summer Term Funding. This data is being collected and the report is being worked on.
More than 200 business officers attended the fall meeting of the Association of Community College Business Officers in Wilmington.
Kennon serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Community College Business Officers which recently met in Nashville, Tennessee.
Kennon and his staff are not so certain about their feelings on the passage of the bond issue, since this has already added gray hairs to the few hairs left on Kennon’s head. They are working hard with legislative staff, the State Budget Office, presidents, the State Treasurer, the State Construction Office, UNC General Administration and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to develop the processes, models and tracking systems needed for the allocation of the funds and the oversight of their use. DPI has provided valuable insight from their experience in handling more than a billion dollars in public school construction. This will be an incredibly complex process.
In conclusion, we have been given a tremendous opportunity and challenge in the responsible allocation and use of $600 million of capital resources for facilities across the System. You have a wonderful staff which will provide you the data, models, recommendations, etc. that you will need to make the decisions. However, ultimately these decisions will be yours. Without question, the next six to ten years will be the most challenging years in the history of this Board as you are called upon to make allocations and give oversight to the use of these bond funds. Good luck and God bless you as you undertake this incredible challenge.
RETURN TO TOP OF CURRENT PAGE
Last modified: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 03:30:58 PM
This page maintained by Chancy Kapp.