President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
October 20, 2006
Since your last meeting I have
been out of the state for much of the time, but let me assure you
that your staff was very busy and we were in constant contact by
e-mail and telephone during both of my absences.
Following the excellent speech that Chairwoman Pinnix-Ragland gave to the trustees following the September meeting, she, Fred Williams and I met with leaders of the NC Association of Community College Presidents and the NC Association of Community College Trustees to review the proposed changes to the Quality Assurance Handbook being worked on by the presidents. This gave us an excellent opportunity to engage in dialogue with those two associations about the relationship between the State Board and the associations. I believe that the discussion was very positive.
At his invitation, Joanne Steiner, Tom Nagy of Novozymes, and I joined Governor Jim Hunt for lunch to discuss the success of Novozymes in Franklin County, the close relationship between it and Vance-Granville Community College, and the important role that they and Joanne have played in the development of our BioNetwork. Governor Hunt recruited the company to North Carolina while he was in office.
I am pleased to announce that Matt Meyer has been named director of the BioNetwork, succeeding Susan Seymour. Matt formerly worked at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, but most recently has led a consortium of workforce development interests in the Richmond area. His academic background is in biochemistry and his experience is in economic and workforce development. Another important position was filled in the past month after being vacant for sometime. Kimberly Jernigan is the new Program Coordinator for Health Sciences, an incredibly important part of our programming. Other staff positions filled in the last month include Charletta Sims as the Associate Director of Student Development Services, Monty Hickman as Associate Director of Financial Aid, and staff assistants Melissa Lentz and Shlonda Brouchet.
September always brings the Employee Appreciation Luncheon. Your senior staff hosts the luncheon at which time we recognize the recipients of our Service Awards based on years of employment and our President’s Award for Outstanding Service to the System Office. Both President’s Award recipients came from the Academic and Student Services Division. Elizabeth Brown won in the Managerial and Professional Staff category. She is our Director of Vocational Education. The winner in the Technical and Support Staff category was Karen O’Neal, who recently assumed the role of GED Technician. We also celebrated the success of our Combined Campaign. Once again, the generosity of your System Office staff was evident in their pledges of $24,344, an increase of 4.3 percent over last year’s contributions of $23,327.
Alice and I spent a week on vacation in Colorado visiting our daughter, Mary, and her husband. This respite was much needed by both of us!
Former Secretary of Health and Human Services and Former Congressman Robin Britt met with Dr. Delores Parker and me on ways in which our community colleges can collaborate more fully with local agencies focused on school readiness.
I met with senior staff of the Emerging Issues Institute to discuss next year’s Emerging Issues Forum which will focus on higher education. We are pleased that the Forum will focus on the ways in which higher education can work together for North Carolina’s economic future. Later in the month, Governor Hunt hosted the kickoff of the Forum at the NC Museum of Art at which the speaker was Charles Miller, the Chairman of the Spellings Commission on Higher Education which just issued its report. He talked about the work of the Commission in making higher education more accessible, more accountable, and more affordable.
Datatel hosted a Leadership Forum at SAS Institute, looking at ways in which that company serves the needs of higher education, especially community colleges.
have reported to you previously about the interest of the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland in offering degree completion programs to our graduates. Faculty teams came from that University in late September to discuss the curricula and the articulation. The following week I was in North Ireland and was able to meet with the senior leadership of the University and those faculty teams as we further refine these two degree programs in social science and environmental science. I believe that this initiative is well underway for implementation no later than the fall of 2008. I found significant excitement and support for the initiative on the University campus. Our faculty members who participated in the discussions are similarly excited about this opportunity for our students. In addition to those discussions at the University, I continued my work with the Department of Employment and Learning as it works on making its two-year, postsecondary programs more economic and workforce focused. I also had opportunity to visit Newry Institute, one of their Colleges of Further Education, and the Greenmount campus of the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise. By and large, their agriculture programs at the postsecondary level are at this College instead of a part of the Colleges of Further Education. That College is eager to learn more about our BioNetwork and to have an exchange of horticulture faculty. Both initiatives are underway.
I returned from Northern Ireland in time to participate in an incredibly successful and beneficial 2006 NC Community College System Conference. Co-hosting the Conference were the Association of Community College Instructional Administrators and Guilford Technical Community College. Other System associations conducted their annual meetings as a part of the Conference to reduce travel expenses. The keynote speakers at the Conference included Dr. Sandy Shugart, a former System Office Vice President during the Bob Scott years, and Dr. Damian O’Kane of the University of Ulster who spoke on Step-Up, an access program for at-risk youth in the Catholic and Protestant communities of Northern Ireland. Many stated that the highlight of the Conference was an open dialogue involving University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles, myself, and Conference participants. Once again President Bowles reaffirmed his strong commitment to a seamless education system and a close relationship with our System.
I have met with the trustees at Wayne Community College and Fayetteville Technical Community College with regard to their presidential search process. Our System is losing two of its best presidents in Dr. Ed Wilson and Dr. Larry Norris.
met with Dr. Ken Tindall of the NC Biotechnology Center with regard to a major recruitment in the agriculture biotechnology industry.
was pleased to host NC Citizens for Business and Industry (NCCBI) President and CEO Lew Ebert at breakfast last week to discuss the long and strong relationship between our System and NCCBI. We discussed the programs of our System and our challenges for the future. Likewise, Lew reviewed with me the challenges he sees in building on the success of NCCBI in representing the business community. We each reaffirmed our strong commitment to a cooperative and collaborative relationship.
President Erskine Bowles hosted a meeting with President Tony Zeiss (Central Piedmont Community College), Chancellor Philip DuBois (University of North Carolina at Charlotte), and me with regard to cooperation between community colleges and universities in supporting the very important motor sports industry in North Carolina.
Wanda White, Director of Student Development Services, coordinated our System’s participation in the High School Counselor Conferences held across the state held during the month of September. Approximately 995 counselors attended these conferences and heard about programs in our System which they should be making known to their students through the counseling process.
Dr. Delores Parker and I presented to the Legislative Education Oversight Committee on Lateral Entry and the public schools mandated schedule’s impact on our programs of cooperation with public schools.
Wanda White and Karen Yerby attended the meeting sponsored by the US Department of Education on recent federal legislation affecting higher education.
The CIS Release 18 migration project is progressing well through the planning and design phase. This is an important milestone in the CIS Project as it will be the first time we have gone to a major upgrade of the system since we began the Project.
Arthur Hohnsbehn is leading the effort to assume the support functions previously performed by the contractor.
Mr. Kennon Briggs and Dr. Saundra Williams have provided information to the Government Operations Committee of the NC General Assembly with regard to additional positions called for in this transition and previously funded.
Dr. Williams and Bob Blackmon have completed the first version of the Information Technology Strategic Plan for the System as required by legislative mandate.
Once again, Keith Brown’s expertise has been recognized at the national level by his selection to participate in an American Association of Community College task force focusing on the federal proposal for a Unit Record Data System which will greatly enhance the knowledge we have of students as we track their success while in college and thereafter.
Forty-eight Continuing Education professionals attended a week-long Program Management Institute held at the System Office. It was facilitated by LERN, Inc., one of the nation’s leading training providers for Continuing Education staff. Upon completion, participants were awarded a Certified Program Manager Certificate. Barbara Boyce and her staff led this effort.
Willa Dickens represented our System at an Environmental Partnership Summit in the Research Triangle Park.
Our Small Business Center Network continues to meet with representatives of the Small Business Technology Development Centers of the University as a more cooperative and collaborative approach to the work of serving the small business community.
Work is also continuing on the NC Rural Center’s entrepreneurship initiative.
Kennon Briggs and his staff have been up to their eyeballs in researching, writing, and rewriting the consensus budget request which you have seen and approved at this meeting. As always, he and they have done a wonderful job.
Annette Dishner and her team have reviewed every college budget to make certain that they comply with State law and System requirements.
Sharon Rosado has led an effort to inventory equipment and facility needs of all of our campuses based on master plans developed at each campus.
Most of Kennon’s staff attended the Association of Community College Business Officers Fall Conference in Winston-Salem. This was a major professional development conference.
Fred Williams led a professional development program at Vance-Granville Community College, as they explore the appropriate management organization being implemented by President Randy Parker.
Suzanne Williams, Larry Keen and Fred Williams have attended several of the NCCBI regional membership meetings. Lew Ebert has stated the importance of continuing support for education by NCCBI at each of these meetings.
Fred represented the System Office at the American Association of Community College Trustees Conference in Orlando, Florida, and presented on our workforce training and services programs within our Continuing Education Division.
Though we all thought things
would calm down when the Legislature adjourned, we were wrong.
Things only get busier around here!
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