TCCC reaches out to the community
Less than a month after she has taken over the reigns as president of Tri-County Community College, Dr. Donna Rogers-Tipton has taken steps to make the college more responsive and relevant to its students and to the local community.

On Friday, she held a forum involving about a hundred local business, governmental and community organizational leaders to get their views on how the college can best serve its constituency.

The forum included a restatement of the purpose of the college as well as an overview by Dr. Tipton-Rogers, followed by presentations by some key staff members and regional planners. These briefings were followed by group work sessions in which participants discussed how the college might change or refocus to better meet the needs of the community as seen by various community leaders.

Jan Westmoreland, who is the vice-president for administrative services and facilities management addressed the issues regarding possible plant expansion, including the need to provide better facilities for the Early College program, which is in its second year and operating out of temporary buildings. Westmoreland also said that the college is getting ready for an accreditation visit by SACC's, a requirement the college undergoes every 10 years. The college will be reevaluated regarding its academic and overall programs by the southern standards committee in 2009.

TCCC Trustee Board Chairman Larry Kernea welcomes newly appointed president Donna Tipton-Rogers during a community forum last Friday.

The college is also in the process of updating its Long Range Plan, which must be done by next year.

Other briefings were provided by Jan Lukens, a TCCC Board Member, who discussed the rapid changes occurring globally, and how these changes are going to affect the U.S. and other developed countries that have an aging population.

Scott Hamilton, who is with Advantage West, a regional planning and think tank group, talked about the changes in North Carolina and nearby states as we move from a "traditional economy to one of ufacturing." The type of skills that our future workforce is going to need and how the college might better position itself to provide education and training to meet that need.

Closer home, Tom O'Brien, who is chairman of the Cherokee County Economic Development Commission, spoke about the loss of 1,200 jobs in the area from textile and manufacturing plants during the past few years, and what has been done and is being done to provide retraining for a shrinking, aging workforce.

"It's an aging workforce," O'Brien said. But there are opportunities in more skilled jobs. He said, we're not ready, yet, but that we've got to get our workforce ready to fill the jobs that are and are becoming available.

"It's going to take federal, state, regional and local support to make this thing work," he said. "Our public school system has got to link up with the college and local employers," he said. "We have a good workforce here and a manufacturing base in our county, but we have to do a better job of publicizing the jobs that are here."

O'Brien said the problem for some of the employers is not having the employees, but in keeping them.

During the break-out session, groups of faculty members worked with community leaders to find out what programs and what behavior the college could do to serve the community.

A number of ideas were suggested regarding courses that could be offered as well as having staff members getting more involved in community organizations and activities.

These ideas are going to be consolidated, analyzed and included within the college's plans.

In his opening remarks as he introduced the new college president, Board Chairman Larry Kernea called it a "bright new day for our college."

In her closing remarks after the forum, Dr. Tipton-Rogers restated the college's mission, which is "to help students succeed and to enrich the communities, we serve."

Conducting a community forum so early in her tenure as the new president suggest that Dr. Tipton-Rogers is getting in step with our communities and leading the college in the right direction.

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