 With NCCCS President Scott Ralls looking on, PCC President G. Dennis Massey, left, provides state legislators from the area with an update on the college's enrollment growth and facility needs. |
WINTERVILLE�Administrators from the N.C. Community College System and Pitt Community College met with state legislators from the area this month to discuss long-term funding for North Carolina�s community colleges. Held on the PCC campus Dec. 4, the meeting was attended by State Senators Don Davis and Clark Jenkins and State Representatives Marian McLawhorn and Edith Warren. Several PCC Trustees were also on hand for the meeting, which featured remarks from NCCCS President Scott Ralls concerning the community college system�s need for additional state funding. Ralls, who took over as NCCCS president in May, told legislators he would like the state to spend an additional $1,000 per North Carolina community college student annually within the next 4-6 years. He said the increased funding would help the community college system fulfill five priorities it has identified as key to meeting North Carolina�s educational needs. Priority one, according to Ralls, would be to raise faculty and staff salaries to the national average. The Tar Heel State currently ranks near the bottom in terms of community college faculty salaries, which makes it difficult for the schools to attract and retain quality instructors, Ralls said. Spending additional money per student would also enable community colleges to maintain equipment for training and replace it more often. Ralls said community colleges currently update equipment every 10 years. Increased state funding, he said, would allow them to replace it every six to seven years. �Six to seven years is still not great,� Ralls said, �but it�s better.� Another community college priority, Ralls noted, would be to expand health care training opportunities. He explained that increasing the number of allied health programs would make the greatest impact on the state�s workforce because of the current number of vacancies in the health care field. �We don�t have to recruit for these jobs,� Ralls said. �These jobs are out there; we just have to move people through (curricula).� While health care programs remain popular among students, Ralls said additional state funding would help community colleges increase student interest in technical programs. Transportation, engineering, industrial and construction careers are in high demand among North Carolina businesses but have low student interest, he explained, adding that the resulting low enrollment has caused the termination of 36 more technical programs than have been started since 2002. Should state legislators increase community college funding, the schools would have a better chance of retaining technical program instructors, who, Ralls said, are leaving their teaching jobs because they can make higher incomes in the private sector. The NCCCS president said more money would also allow community colleges to recruit additional male students to technical programs and to upgrade labs and facilities for those curriculums. �If the equipment looks like it is from the 60s and 70s, (the students) are not going to come,� Ralls said. Providing community colleges with an additional $201 million over the next four years or so would also allow the schools to enhance their customized training programs, which Ralls called the crown jewel of North Carolina�s economic development efforts for the past 50 years. Ralls said that failing to help community colleges address their needs with additional state funding would mean the NCCCS would continue �slipping� and become less competitive with community college systems in other states. To spread the word about the need for increased state funding, North Carolina�s community colleges have launched the �Creating Success Advocacy Campaign.� The effort stresses the five priorities Ralls outlined in his PCC speech and emphasizes the �hope,� �opportunity,� and �jobs� North Carolina community colleges create. |