President’s Report
to the
State Board of Community Colleges
Mitchell Community College
Statesville, NC
April 18, 2008
This month has been a whirlwind! Meeting all office obligations, packing up the office, and travel have completely filled every possible minute.
I think I told you before you adjourned the March meeting that I was having lunch with Ann Turlington. We had a great time catching up and I reported to her on all of her friends on the State Board and in the System Office. She is doing very well since Fess’ death.
Following lunch with Ann, I participated in a virtual meeting with Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue which originated at Fayetteville Technical Community College at which our 3DI technology was demonstrated for her. I used our Information Highway Classroom at the System Office to attend this meeting.
Following that demonstration, I met with officials from the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) with regard to their interest in partnering with our System to improve the community colleges in South Africa. I believe that some of our colleges have responded positively to RTI.
The following week, Dr. Ralls, Kennon Briggs, and I met with the Office of State Budget and Management and the leadership from that office with regard to the short session budget request. As you would imagine, Scott did a masterful job in presenting his first budget to that group.
Following that meeting, Dwight Allen, Chairman of our Foundation, and I met with Scott to review the Foundation and its future.
The next morning I spoke to the Business Leaders breakfast about my perspective on the Community College System and workforce development as I retire. They had excellent attendance and great questions.
Later that day, I left for Northern Ireland for a meeting of the Skills Experts Group, the group leading the effort to refocus Northern Ireland’s Colleges of Further Education. At our expense, Alice accompanied me. Following two days of meetings in and around Belfast, Alice and I spent Easter weekend in Dublin.
The morning following our return, I had my final meeting with the NC Biotechnology Board. What an exciting and successful initiative this has been. On Tuesday night of this week the NC Biotechnology Center honored me with a wonderful reception at which Governor Jim Hunt, Biotechnology Chairwoman Sue Cole, President Norris Tolson, President Erskine Bowles, and President Scott Ralls spoke. The funders of an endowment to honor the Biotechnology Instructor of the Year in my name also spoke, including Clyde Higgs who formerly worked here and now works for the NC Research Campus in Kannapolis. The other contributors were the Biotechnology Center (Norris Tolson), the NC Biosciences Organization (Hal Price), and Novo Nordisk Pharmaceutical Industries (Steve Dawson). I was so honored and flattered by this incredible event. I appreciate Chairwoman Hilda Pinnix-Ragland, Vice Chair Linwood Powell and Dr. Stuart Fountain’s attendance.
That afternoon, Joe Alley of Fayetteville Technical Community College interviewed me for a documentary he is doing on the art which has been displayed in our office building for the last 11 years. He stayed in the building to videotape the opening reception which followed, including interviewing many of the artists. Immediately prior to the reception for the new artists, Mary Regan (the Director of the NC Arts Council), Dr. Joseph Bathanti, Fred Williams and I made a public presentation of the book, “They Changed the State: The Legacy of North Carolina’s Visiting Artists 1971-1995,” which you received a copy of at the last Board meeting. In addition, two former visiting artists, Nnenna Freelon and Jan Davidson spoke of the incredible experience they had as a visiting artist and each of them sang. Ms. Freelon is now an internationally acclaimed jazz singer and Jan Davidson heads the world famous John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown.
The following day, several of you, my family, and I were in Greensboro for the North Carolina Chamber annual meeting at which I was honored to receive the North Carolina Award for Distinguished Public Service.
That night I attended the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Dinner at which funds were raised for those scholarships and at which Hispanic students were honored.
The following night, Dr. Linwood Powell, Chairman Joe Tolson, several of your staff, Marilyn Foote-Hudson of the NC GlaxoSmithKline Foundation (GSK), and I honored the recipients of the GlaxoSmithKline Teaching Scholarships. We were honored and inspired to hear the personal stories of each of the scholarship recipients. We were all moved to tears! Chairman Tolson and Marilyn Foote-Hudson of GSK were equally moved and we are pursuing with them an additional gift of $1 million from GSK to be matched by a similar legislative grant. This would enable us to double the number of scholarships we could give to aspiring teachers. I hope that you and President Ralls will really push this.
The following day, I spoke at my final meeting with the North Carolina Comprehensive Community College Student Government Association’s at their spring meeting. This was a moving occasion as we celebrated the importance of student leadership in all of our efforts and recognized that all we do in this System is for the benefit of students.
I informed each of you of Weaver Rogers’ death. A good representation of System Office staff attended his memorial service in Chapel Hill. Dr. Brenda Rogers, former Vice President for Administration and Weaver’s widow, seems to be doing as well as possible given the shocking and untimely death of Weaver.
This month we hosted the quarterly meeting of UNC /NCCCS senior leadership. All of these meetings have been of significant substance and are of great benefit to maintaining a positive relationship between the two sectors of public higher education in North Carolina. This meeting was no exception. I am pleased that Scott Ralls and Erskine Bowles already enjoy a close relationship and both have pledged to continue these important meetings.
Later that week, we left for Philadelphia and the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Scott Ralls accompanied me to the State Directors’ meeting all day Saturday and was a full participant in his first meeting with his new colleagues. Many favorable comments were received from them based on their first exposure to my replacement. Many North Carolina community college leaders made presentations at the meeting. I did a presentation on the undocumented student controversy in North Carolina.
After I returned, I did a pre-retirement Editorial Board with the publisher and editors of the Raleigh News and Observer. You may have seen follow-up writing in the News and Observer following that meeting.
That night Alice and I went to New Bern for the wonderful sendoff by the people of New Bern for Scott and Lisa Ralls. You will be pleased to know that contributions from the community totaling $65,000 established a scholarship in their honor.
The next day I met with Dean Warwick Arden of the North Carolina State University Veterinary School to discuss the efforts to attract to Camp Butner a federal, state-of-the-art animal science research facility. I had visited a similar facility in Australia and wanted to discuss that with Dean Arden who is leading the effort in this recruitment.
On Monday of this week Congressman David Price dropped by for a farewell visit and to discuss funding for a collaborative effort between community colleges and the North Carolina Symphony to broaden the impact of the Symphony in rural counties of the state. We also discussed his efforts to create a federal Teaching Fellows type program. He has gained acceptance for such a program in the STEM disciplines for community college and university students pursuing teaching degrees and in the Higher Education Reauthorization has gotten language approved which will guarantee that all federal teaching scholarships are open to community college students. We owe David Price a great debt of gratitude.
Following David’s visit, I spoke in Chapel Hill on workforce globalization at the Global American South Conference.
That afternoon, Leslie Bevacqua Coman and Steve Meehan met with me via telephone with regard to their interest in positively impacting the continued education of every person living in North Carolina without regard to their immigration status. I hope that something good will come from that, since I greatly fear legislative action in the short session to remove community colleges from any educational mission with regard to undocumented students, including English as a second language.
On Tuesday of this week, Dr. Ralls, Dwight Allen (NCCC Foundation Chairman), and I interviewed applicants for the Herring Fellowship to attend a Future Presidents Academy in the fall. It was a very difficult decision, since all of the candidates were well qualified and each of them will make a great president in the future. The interview committee has forwarded two names to the Foundation for approval on April 29.
Will Austin of the NC Military Foundation met with Scott Ralls and me on Wednesday to discuss the important work of that Foundation in building the defense industry in North Carolina and preparing the workforce for that anticipated growth.
I am pleased that a number of you attended the Academic Excellence Award luncheon at which we honored the two top students from each of our colleges. This is one of the great events held each year!
That afternoon, John Ganzi, Norman Smit (formerly of our BioNetwork staff), Scott Ralls, Matt Meyer, and I met on the new Biofuel Center which Mr. Ganzi heads.
The System Office, along with all other state agencies, successfully implemented the new Building Enterprise Access Core Operation Needs (BEACON) System which replaces the outdated payroll, Personnel Management Information System and the E-Leave System, which will allow employees to manage their own personnel data via the Web. Kennon Briggs’ staff and Jane Phillips’ staff worked incredibly hard to pull off this great success.
One of our System’s most important initiatives is our Minority Male Mentoring Program. Last week the Fourth Annual Conference was held in the Research Triangle Park. This program was expanded with additional legislative appropriations in the last session. Chairwoman Hilda Pinnix-Ragland and State Board Member Jimmie Ford were presenters at this most successful event. In fact, Jimmie was at every session and made a significant impression on the participants and a great contribution to the conference.
Kennon Briggs pointed out to me in his notes that I used to make this report that this is the 110th report from me to you in my 11 years!
Kennon’s staff has continued to provide leadership and guidance to the colleges in the completion of their Facility Master Plans and continued oversight over the Higher Education Bond expenditures. We believe that this Facility Master Plan tied to the success of our use of the previous bond proceeds will put us in good shape for any future bond referendum.
You may have noticed that our parking lot has gone away! Wade Quinn and Milton Tart hustled to get all of our employees who used that parking lot reassigned to other parking facilities in the general vicinity. While the new parking lot is being constructed, there will be significant inconvenience to those 40 employees.
Fayetteville Technical Community College hosted a one-day ACCBO seminar for our chief financial officers from across the System.
Elizabeth Spragins of Dr. Delores Parker’s staff represented the System Office at a seminar conducted by Bob Joyce of the UNC School of Government on legal issues relating to adjunct instructors. Alamance Community College hosted the event.
Frank Scuiletti, Dr. Vince Revels and Elizabeth Self facilitated a video conference over the Information Highway on revisions to Cooperative Education (work experience).
Dr. Delores Parker had a busy speaking schedule during the month, presenting at the Leadership, Teaching and Learning Conference of the Piedmont Area Education Consortium at Wrightsville Beach, at the North Carolina State Board of Education on Operating Procedures for the Enrollment of High School Students on our campuses, and at several different presentations at the AACC Conference in Philadelphia primarily focusing on our Minority Male Mentoring Initiative.
Speaking of the successful implementation of CIS, one of the reasons I am pleased to be at Mitchell Community College is so we all can applaud the important role President Doug Eason played in that success. Doug has chaired the Technology Committee of the NCACCP which has given oversight, advice and support for the implementation.
Alamance Community College hosted the IIPS conference for the information technology professionals in our System. Of course, the focus this year was on new enhancements to CIS.
At the AACC conference our System was honored for the successful implementation of CIS. Dr. Saundra Williams and I received the award on behalf of the System which included a beautiful trophy and a $4,000 contribution to our Foundation.
The BioNetwork Capstone Center on the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University has trained 1,354 students to date, an incredible beginning. Merck’s plant manager recently stated that the training and support his company has received from BioNetwork and Durham Technical Community College have alone justified their decision to locate a facility in North Carolina.
The North Carolina Fire Commission has approved Davidson County Community College’s request to offer the entire Firefighter I and II course series in a hybrid online format.
Our System has now issued over 12,600 Career Readiness Certificates, ranking North Carolina as the sixth largest state in the Union issuing these certificates.
Twenty-eight adult educators from across the System became Certified Program Planners at a Learning Resources Network Program Management Institute sponsored by the Adult Education Association.
This report will be my last to you in my capacity as your President. Thank you for allowing me to serve you in this important role for the last 11 years. Let me assure you that all that we have accomplished in that period was the direct result of your support and leadership and the hard work of System Office staff and the faculty and staff at our colleges across the state. Working with all of you has been the greatest honor of my career and the most rewarding experience of a truly blessed life. I will work hard at keeping in touch with you and hope that you will do the same.
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