President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
April 20, 2001
Piedmont Community College
Roxboro, NC
Since our last meeting, meetings in the office and in the Legislative Building about our legislative program have consumed a great deal of my time and that of many members of your staff. Scott Ralls and I have been involved in meetings of the Loophole Closing Commission, with Scott providing significant information for their deliberations with regard to consolidation of worker training programs. It is hoped that revenues can be found through this or other sources, since the budget looks very dismal otherwise.
On one of the days Scott presented to the Loophole Closing Commission, he also made presentations on the Manufacturing Certification Program to the Piedmont Community College President’s Breakfast; presented at lunch to the Biotech Center Board of Directors on the Biotech Initiative; and spoke on information technology certification programs later that day to the president’s staff meeting at Johnston Community College.
Steve Scott, Kennon Briggs and I have spent much time in the last week in trying to identify potential budget reductions at the insistence of the legislative leadership. Our highest priority has been to avoid cuts in the allocation formula, but we have been requested to make cuts in excess of available categorical funds. We remain optimistic that the excellent defense of our budget made by Kennon Briggs and members of your staff, presidents, faculty members and others, and the goodwill we enjoy in the General Assembly will result in fewer cuts than we have been asked to identify.
You should know that the Community College System has been in the dock for six days of intense presentations and questioning. Everyone from legislators to staff members have given high praise to the fine job that Kennon Briggs and others have done in preparing for and presenting our case to the General Assembly.
I am happy to report that all substantive bills endorsed by you that must be passed by one house by "crossover" day have passed and are pending in the other house. This does not include appropriations.
I was requested to make a presentation to the House Education Committee on a community college role in teacher preparation. The presentation went well and university and community college leaders who have been active in this effort. I remain convinced that the most effective way to home-grow teachers is through degree completion on community college campuses.
I met with your former Chairman, Dennis Wicker, to discuss electronic procurement, an issue that he continues to have a strong interest in and a major initiative for community colleges and state government.
Several members of your staff and I met with Phil Kirk and Leslie Bevacqua with regard to their concerns about the continuation of House Bill 275, given the slowing of the economy and the decrease in the unemployment insurance reserve fund. Continuation of House Bill 275 does not look promising at this time because of those problems.
Scott Ralls and I have met with Secretary of Commerce Jim Fain and members of the Governor’s staff to alert them to the serious problems that we will encounter in providing services to business and industry if House Bill 275 is not continued or if alternative funds are not found. A record-breaking year of training for New and Expanding Industry has left us with little reserve for next year.
We have met with David Dodson of MDC, Inc., to discuss their Hispanic initiative and to make certain that our efforts in this area are fully coordinated with that important organization.
I was very pleased that Dr. Carol Kasworm requested that we interview candidates for and give input into the hiring of a person to replace Dr. George Baker in the program of Adult and Community College Education at North Carolina State University.
This has been a particularly active month for the North Carolina Community Colleges Foundation. In addition to our spring Board meeting, a significant number of calls have been made on potential donors.
Immediately following our last State Board meeting, I left for Dallas to attend a meeting of the National Family Literacy Center Board on which I sit. From Dallas, I went on to Hawaii to meet with five other United States community college leaders and a delegation of Thai education leaders to explore how Thailand might create a community college-like system for their country. This initiative is an outgrowth of the visit Governor Hunt, Secretary of Commerce Rick Carlisle and I made to Thailand last fall. After four good days of discussion in Hawaii, the Thai delegation traveled on to California and Iowa before coming to North Carolina at the end of March. Dr. Bruce Howell and Greg Smith from Wake Technical Community College and Dr. Don Reichard and Al Warrick of Johnston Community College organized excellent visits to those colleges to expose the Thais to how we do workforce training and retraining in both hi-tech and traditional skills areas. We sincerely appreciate the information and hospitality provided by these two colleges. The Thais were unanimous in their assessment that the best part of their two weeks in this country was that spent in North Carolina. We are excited about giving assistance to an important ally in Southeast Asia. A follow-up meeting of the US delegation to Thailand is anticipated for the fall.
Dr. Delores Parker and I attended the American Association of Community Colleges annual meeting in Chicago. I appeared on two panels, one dealing with dual enrollment in college classes for high school students and another on training the workforce for a global economy. This was probably the best conference of this type I have attended since being in this job. Every hour had valuable panel discussions or speakers on topics of significant interests to the Community College System. I came back with many good ideas to share with our staff. We are very proud that three of twenty USA Today First Team All-USA Academic Students were from North Carolina and one of twelve Community College Alumni of the Year was from North Carolina.
Last week I spoke to the Consulting Engineers Council of North Carolina at their meeting in Winston-Salem, bringing them up to date on our facilities bonds and how they will be distributed to the colleges. That same evening, Dennis Wicker was honored in Sanford. Dr. Bob Greene represented this Board well at that occasion
I met with a group of leaders in the health care field in Moore County as a part of Sandhills Community College’s ongoing effect to work closely with industry sectors in meeting their workforce needs. I also met with Jim Lofton of the Wake Technical Academy to discuss his initiative to provide enhanced educational opportunity in technical fields for Wake County high school students.
In the midst of intense preparation and presentation by Kennon Briggs and his staff to the Appropriations Committee of the General Assembly, his staff also conducted the spring meeting of business officers in Greensboro. Dr. Steve Scott represented the System Office at this meeting, since Kennon and I were tied up in Raleigh. The groundwork was laid for the bad news that is likely to come out of the General Assembly before they adjourn. It was an opportune time for Kennon’s staff to work with business officers on the critical cash shortfall that is requiring very close management of the state’s cash resources.
Kennon also presented a budget workshop as a part of Guilford Technical Community College’s Leadership Development Program and Phil Albano presented information on implementation of the bonds at the facilities operators spring meeting.
Dr. Brenda Rogers’ division has had a highly productive month, completing a number of major publications and reports, including the 2001 System fact book, A Matter of Facts. Dr. So-Young Yim is completing the 2001 Critical Success Factors report. Keith Brown presented data on the performance measures to the Joint Education Appropriations Subcommittee. Dr. Larry Gracie has completed the High School Graduate Performance Report, an important document for high schools to judge how their students are performing in college. Though more first-year students are completing a full course load with a "C" average or better, a larger percentage of first-year students are enrolled in developmental English, math or reading courses.
Dr. Gracie also participated in the Rural Community College Initiative National Advisory Panel. He also serves on the editorial board to review the AACC/ACCT Return On Investment proposal.
Dr. Rogers and Paul Nagy from Durham Technical Community College gave a presentation at the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers on the System’s performance measures and funding model.
We are very proud that Keith Brown has been elected to the Executive Council of the Community College Planning and Research Officers. In this role he will be one of the first individuals trained in the new Faculty Matrix survey process that all colleges will be required to use next year in reporting IPEDS data.
In response to the Governor’s budget proposal to eliminate two positions in the Library Resources Section, preparations for the transition of phasing out state-level library acquisitions have begun. This has been very difficult for the System staff and the colleges. Though it is not certain that these positions will be taken, we cannot wait until July or August to let colleges know that they should begin making their library acquisitions themselves.
Brenda’s division has been in negotiations for the Information Technology Service to move the library system servers from our building to its location. When this is done, ITS staff will assume responsibility for security, maintenance of the system, and accessibility during times of natural disasters for the colleges. We hope that the contract will be ready for your consideration in May.
The new College Information System Project continues to move rapidly towards implementation of the new financial system on July 1 for the pilot colleges and for implementation of the new human resources’ system in January. The Steering Committee has begun the process of selecting the next 16 colleges to implement this project.
Brenda Rogers, Bob Blackmon and Chancy Kapp are participating on the NC Net Coordinating Council, a network planning group for all of state government and education agencies. Brenda chairs the Fiscal Committee; Bob serves on the Technical Committee and chairs the Requirements Subcommittee; and Chancy Kapp is serving on the Communications and Education Committee.
Thanks to active participation of System staff, especially Parks Todd, and presidents from around the System, we seem to be having some impact nationally on addressing the challenge to the wireless Internet licenses that is before the Federal Communication Commission. We believe that our sounding the alarm and encouraging others to become involved has had a significant impact on the consideration of these requests.
We continue to be concerned about the loss of funds for the ongoing operation of the North Carolina Information Highway’s interactive video system that now is used for offering 283 courses between community colleges and with public schools and university sites. We believe that there is an appreciation in the General Assembly of our dilemma and we hope that resources will be found to continue this funding.
Dr. Scott Ralls and his division have completed their annual report of all economic and workforce development programs. It is an excellent report and can be found on our Web site. I hope you will read it.
Scott represented me at the Workforce Development Summit sponsored by the American Association of Community Colleges in Washington, which brought together thirty community college workforce development leaders from across the country. Also in attendance were Presidents Tony Zeiss and Desna Wallen.
The Biotech Initiative is going very well. When enrollment was opened at Vance-Granville Community College, the first session of the Biowork curriculum was completely full within 2 days and there is now a waiting list of 124 people. Vance-Granville and NovoZymes have done a wonderful job in developing and piloting this program.
The Manufacturing Certification Program that Scott and his division developed continues to receive much favorable media attention as well as to be very popular on our campuses. There is also great interest in the Hispanic Business Startup Program that we are doing in cooperation with NC REAL.
Peggy Graham has worked with a number of other state agencies to develop training initiatives, including the Division of Community Assistance for the Department of Commerce on lead abatement training, the Department of Correction on logging safety training for prison staff, and the State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating, and Fire Sprinkler Contractors.
Dr. Edith Lang of the Academic and Student Services Division made a joint presentation with Kevin Rouse of Lenoir Community College at the National Association for Developmental Education.
We are pleased that East Carolina University continues in its effort to work closely with community colleges. Most recently, an on-line graduate programs in computer and manufacturing technology have been completed through its School of Industrial Technology.
Carolyn Snell and Ken Farmer have worked with the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center on their proposal to the US Department of Education to develop a program in Early Childhood Education that will be offered through our Virtual Learning Community (VLC) and will support Smart Start.
Stephen Athens, Lin Frye and Bill Muench attended a Job Ready Resource Development Summit in Biloxi, Mississippi. Stephen and Lin presented a State Board Reserve Fund Technical Assistance Workshop on the Information Highway. Jim Young and Lin presented a proposal writing workshop.
The North Carolina Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association held a highly successful spring conference in the Triangle Park, one of the best thanks to the leadership of Daryl Mitchell.
Elizabeth Isler will be working with a committee of the Southern Regional Education Board on distance education policies focused on credit issues. Earlier this month she spoke at an Association of International Educators on globalizing the North Carolina Community College System.
Ken Farmer attended a session on Virtuoso, Cisco’s new authoring software, which is similar to the Blackboard software we now use in our VLC. We have begun discussions with Cisco about piloting its project for at least one of our colleges.
The Basic Skills staff is holding its annual Directors Institute in Raleigh this week.
Dr. Donny Hunter continues his excellent work of liaison with the State Board of Education and the UNC Board of Governors. He helped plan and conduct the Liaison Committee Meeting soon after our last Board meeting and continues his work with the NC School Improvement Panel, the NC Education Research Council, and the NC Teacher Quality Committee of the State Board of Education. He has also continued to monitor the meeting of the Robeson Community College Trustees. We are pleased that progress continues to be made in addressing the concerns of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools about governance.
Dr. Steve Scott attended the World View Advisory Board meeting in Chapel Hill, an initiative to connect international resources at UNC institutions, Duke University, K-12 schools and community colleges. He made a short presentation on our Global Education Conference and other community college initiatives in this area. Former Representative Ann Barnes, now a trustee of Durham Technical Community College, is the founder of this program.
Steve also continues his participation in the NC-Moldova Partnership Committee and the Accountability Monitoring Committee.
When this meeting was scheduled for Roxboro, we had planned to use the occasion to focus on the fine work of James Woody in anticipation of his leaving the Board in July. However, thanks to the creativity of Senate staff a way was found for James to continue to serve. That is great news for James and this Board. Though we will be pleased to welcome new Board members, Tommy Norman and Buddy Greenwood at our July meeting, we regret that Tom King will be leaving the Board. His service on the Board has been exemplary and his background and experience have been invaluable in the work of the Board. North Carolina is fortunate to have a Board of such dedicated and able members bringing together such rich experiences and perspectives. I am honored to be able to work with such a fine Board.
This page maintained by Public Affairs.