Perdue notes strengths, needs at SCC

By FULLER ROYAL

Prior to her fundraising luncheon last week, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue met informally with the administrative staff of Southeastern Community College to see how things are going for the school. Board of Trustees Chairman Rhone Sasser was on hand as well as state Rep. Dewey Hill and Sen. R.C. Soles Jr.

Sasser welcomed Perdue and reminded the 18 or so participants that Perdue is an ex-officio member of the state board of the North Carolina Community College System.

Perdue told the assembled group that community colleges have always been the “red-headed stepchild” but that things have gotten a little better.

She recounted how business leaders in Winston-Salem praised their community college for helping reshape Forsyth County’s economy after the loss of R.J. Reynolds and First Union.

SCC President Kathy Matlock said that SCC has been helping Columbus County for nearly 43 years.

“Last year we served approximately 10,000 people in a county of 50,000,” she said. “We served a greater percentage of our population than any other community college in Southeastern North Carolina.”

Matlock went over SCC’s assets, including the Small Business Center and the new biotechnology associate’s degree program.

Matlock said the college is proactive because “We realize that we have to create a workforce to attract business.”

She said that the community colleges could no longer ride the technological bubble that was so prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s.

Countries like Pakistan and India are doing this faster and more cheaply, she said.

Matlock said the college is exploring creative outlets, concepts and programs that will be unique to the school.

Perdue asked about the college’s needs.

“We are an older community college and we are in a county with diminished funds,” Matlock said. “We have major infrastructure problems.”

Perdue said that the infrastructure problems with community colleges around the state are exacerbated by local job losses.

“It’s to the point of being critical by not having the funds that we need,” Matlock said. “And, we want to increase the salaries of everyone at SCC.”

Matlock said that the salaries of instructors at SCC with master’s degrees aren’t much more than public school teachers who don’t have a master’s degree. Many of the college’s instructors work 12 months to equal a public school’s teacher’s 10-month salary.

Matlock said the formula for community college instructor pay has newer instructors making more money after a few years than their more seasoned colleagues.

“We need more rewards for existing teachers,” she said. ‘We need more flexibility.”

Matlock said that the three largest needs at SCC are infrastructure, salary increases and covering the rising cost of technology.

“We’ve been one of those hard-hit counties,” Sasser said. “It’s a triple whammy every time you turn around. Our local funds have been cut and held at that level.”

Sasser said that when SCC had the chance to get into a new building to set up its biotech program, it was going to take $100,000 annually to maintain that new building and the county just didn’t have it.

“Even when we get state money we are still in a bind,” he said.

“Across the state, poor counties are having a tough time,” Perdue said. “I would urge the General Assembly to come up with a funding formula like the low-wealth funding for schools.”

Columbus County and Whiteville receive around $1.5 million in additional state education funds because the county is considered low-wealth.

“It appears that we are so out of synch in our poorer counties,” she said “There’s no local money and Medicaid is killing (these counties.)”

Perdue said that the $2 million appropriated for the new biotech building had been a bloody fight.

“R.C. (Soles) and Dewey (Hill) were relentless for you all,” she said.

“They go to bat for us and yet, we still have problems here,” Sasser said. “If not for the community college, young people would fall through the cracks and older people would have no training for other jobs.”

“I believe that the state finally understands that if half of the state is poor then the whole state is poor,” Perdue said.

Perdue asked about the new early college high school to be started on the campus this fall, known as the Southeast Early College.

Dean of Business and Technology Al Phillips said the project is the most exciting thing he’s seen on the SCC campus in the 30 years he has been there.

“We have been approved for funding of a principal and we’re looking for one now,” Phillips said. “We’re looking for teachers and students and we’re looking at curriculums.”

Matlock said that the 50 high school freshmen starting in the fall will be part of the college and not secluded in some building by themselves.

“They will be embedded into the college,” she said. “It’s the concept of place and the students will rise to the occasion.”

Perdue said that the dropout rate in North Carolina is a major cause for concern. She thinks that the early college high school concept will help deter some of the dropouts.

“This is more exciting than anything I have seen in public education,” she said. “All of them are not going to college. They need to, but we can plug them into job skills.”

Perdue said that things have come full circle. She said that in the mid-1980s, high school students couldn’t se

foot on a community college campus.
“Please keep me informed,” Perdue said “I want to know how (the early college high school) goes after the first semester.”

Perdue reminded the group that SCC drives the county’s economic engine.

“I like the way you want to train workers and then attract business,” Perdue said.

Dean of Continuing Education Beverlee Nance urged Perdue to push for increased funding for continuing education.

She said that continuing education has two or three times the students as the traditional curriculum courses but much less funding.

Nance pointed out the most recent example of continuing education – the college’s program to recruit and train workers for the new prison.

Nance said SCC was helping the Department of Corrections to come up with a marketing plan to recruit the new staff.

“Prison jobs are good jobs,” Perdue said. “Those are benefits that don’t go away. Every community wants a prison. You’re lucky to have it here.”