Fixing Hickory - The Appalachian State Partnership

I call this the Fixing Hickory Conference, because that was what was talked about. Danny Hearn said it was time to focus in and create an Economic Stimulus Plan for this area. What is the counties vision for the next few years?

Government, Business, and Education have been going in different directions, because they all have different expectations and needs? We need to sit down and figure out the five top priorities, narrow our focus, and what we need to do to achieve those. Then we can all get behind those and have a greater chance to succeed. We must have partnerships and collaboration in order to succeed.

Appalachian State University at Hickory and the Regional Community Colleges Establish the Greater Hickory Partnership - “To support and enhance the region’s educational attainment and economic development by offering degree and non-degree programs in targeted areas of study as needed and requested by regional businesses and learners of all ages.”

What are the Partnerships Initial Goals? What are the Partnership’s Components? Organizational Chart; Locations; Undergraduate and Graduate Degree Programs; Current and Future Economic Impact on the Hickory Metro region. In addition:
The Success of the NC Center for Engineering Technologies

Dr Jane Everson, Director, Greater Hickory Partnership made a brief introduction and
introduced Dr. Tom Fisher, who is the head of Appalachian State's Office of Extension and Distance Education. He stated that ASU's efforts, in this area, go back over 50 years. He sated that Hickory is at the center of their efforts (Hwy 321 & Interstate 40). ASU offers degree and certificate program in Hickory at the ASU center. There are 18 locations where they make offerings.

Through community efforts, facilities are being built to give ASU the opportunity to offer full-time, day-time programming that builds upon Associates Degrees in Arts and Sciences offered at the community colleges. What they are offering now are the programs offered at Boone. They are sensitive to offering programs, in the community, where there is demand for jobs (demand driven).

Currently, ASU has 1,500 students off campus with 700 located at the facilities in Hickory. The student gets the same degree off campus that they would receive on campus. That is important to ASU, the community, and to the students. A person does not receive an asterisk, that receives an off sight education from ASU.

Successful strategies include Site Based Programs, with people-to-people contact. This helps with the exchange of ideas. The facilities are critical, because of changing times. Technology is being used to help give access to students and faculty. They are looking for these capacities to grow.

ASU has been at the forefront of working with local community college partners. They are looking to partner with ten local community colleges to build a relationship to ensure that there is a match between what they offer and what ASU delivers. That doesn't mean they have a closed mind towards new offerings.

Dr. Everson continued on with the presentation. She talked about proposals of some of the things that ASU partnership will offer this year and perhaps in future years. She stated that there would be some things that would be talked about today that they don't have the answers to. They want to hear about these pressing issues and they will work on them to make sure that they come to reality.

The specific objective is to expand the offerings in Hickory. Part of that growth is dependent on the community's dedication to changing the culture of learning in the area. Students must recognize the opportunity to go to a local community college and transfer to one of the Universities in the UNC system. That pipeline must be built by the community.

Currently Programming wise, the local ASU centers in the area, offers eleven of face-to-face programs at the four facilities in this area. Six of these are available in Hickory. 429 junior-seniors are located in this region. that is huge growth in the last three years and a huge opportunity to keep them in this area.

It is expected that ASU will be growing its undergraduate program offerings in the local area. In a strategic way, they will be gathering data to identify what population of academically prepared students could enroll in new and different degree programs that would be offered by ASU here in the area. Data will be gathered to identify what community college students are academically preparing for, what types of disciplines are they pursuing, and how can ASU best match that with what they offer. If ASU cannot offer these programs, they will match them with what other UNC system schools offer.

ASU will continue to offer graduate programs. Over the past fifty years, this has been ASU's high growth area. More graduate students are pursuing their degrees off-campus than on the Boone campus.That will continue to be an area of delivery from ASU, but it will continue to move from site-to-site so that the area doesn't become saturated.

Face-to-Face is the preferred method of instruction, but it does not necessarily mean chalkboard instruction. The ASU center has some of the highest technology available at these facilities compared to anywhere in the UNC system. There is high quality faculty and technology. There is a wide variety of online web based teleconferencing going on.

The most important emphasis is on the Partnership created earlier this year. In March, the local community colleges and ASU signed an agreement. This a huge acknowledgment to ensure that everyone is working together. What is seen, is that the communities are marketing, collaborating, and working together. It doesn't matter where the program is - the individual sites. It is important that citizens have the ability to access ASU's programs in the region.

The average age of students in the partbership is 32 to 33 years old. They will continue to look at the needs of working age adults, but begin to also look at the needs to look at younger adults.

Dr. Everson reports to Dr. Fisher who reports to the Provost of ASU. This creates a direct pipeline towards the communication of educational needs. Seven ASU employees are currently living and working in the area. They have roots in the area. There is a local Regional Advisory Council has met once and will meet twice per year. many of these people have a prior relationship with Appalachian.

ASU will be working with a company out of Boston called Eduventures to work with the three local community colleges to survey students to understand what they studied, what courses they took, and what programs they would like to finish. And then specifically what ASU programs offered in this area appeal to them and what does not. ASU is looking at academic qualifications. motivations, and find out what they are looking for. At the same time they will meet with business and industry to do the same. This should be ready by Spring 2010. This will help articulate degrees wanted and needed in the area.

A Strategic marketing plan is being created with Gotham Images to find out what is working well and what is not working and how to engage local students in addressing and targeting students of the region. Dr. Everson's goal is to have billboards and marketing materials available by Spring 2010.

Dr. Everson next addressed the possibilities of a Millennial campus in Hickory. There is a lot of opportunity and excitement about the potential. The North Carolina Center for Engineering Technology, located in Hickory and led by Dr. Sid Connor, would be allowed to be exempt from the Umstead Act. This would allow the center to work with business and industry. It would allow private industry to use the centers equipment and facilities and it would allow the center to go inside of these businesses and provide services. That is the primary motivation behind then development of a Millennial Campus.

The proposal has been submitted, but has been delayed in being presented to the Board of Trustees and the UNC Board of Governors until some of the mechanics can be worked out and some of the language about ASU's involvement in this area. It will be a slow moving process to get to what we see at the Centennial Campus in Raleigh.

Programming not offered by ASU, will be offered by other schools and their online programs. The University of North Carolina Online is provided by the center. The ASU center has successfully marketed programs by UNCC, Winston-Salem State, Western Carolina, and Lenoir-Rhyne. Mountain State University also offers a couple of hybrid programs at the center.

There was a question and answer session that followed:

Looking at the capacity of the University. Looking at what a university can do as far as building buildings and growing facilities and being an economic driver. How close are you to filling your current capacity to grow? (Dr. Everson's answer) - The ASU center is close to filling its current capacity. she has had talks with CVCC's President Dr. Garrett Hinshaw about possible expansion and additional classrooms. That will help to grow according to ASU's plan. Burke and Caldwell facilities are still highly underutilized.

As far as a real university presence, there are a number of faculty who want to live and work in this area. They is designated office space for the faculty in the area and one department is considering hiring a permanent professor dedicated to teaching one of the programs in this area.

(Dr. Fisher) Growth will depend on student demand and preparation. The UNC system and Community Colleges have decided they don't need to be duplicating programs. The ASU center offers Junior and Senior coursework in the degrees and disciplines that ASU has. The objective is to match up the preparation that students get at the Community College with what ASU offers.

Strategic plan for creating an Institute for Energy, Environment, and Economics what relation could that have with ASU's Energy Center and Catawba County's Eco-Complex? (Dr. Fisher) John Pine, who came from LSU, has been working at the Energy Center. ASU has been trying to identify stimulus money that will enable the school to partner with community colleges and build on green jobs and green energy pipelines. There seems to be a lot of confusion about where the money is. They haven't gotten any yet. (Dr. Everson) Some of these conversation are being held with Sid Connor... part of the reality is to find people who can create and identify opportunities above and beyond what ASU offers as a university... but they haven't quite figured out how to get all of this into the pipelines.

Bill Parrish of the SBTDC came forward and discussed the mission of that organization. It is a statewide program.

There was a further discussion brought forward about Bricks and Mortar (Building Buildings). They have been reliant upon the civic, elected, and business community to put the resources together. ASU Partnership is a community initiative that is new in this state. Dr. Fisher stated that he had not seen that (Building Buildings) discussed anywhere. The community is the catalyst to make things happen.

A couple of further notes:
*** There is a difference between an NC State and an ASU. At NCSU, engagement takes another step. ASU isn't a research institution. It is a teaching institution. Generally, they won't have the same technological resources to happen. The Millennial Campus would be a baby step in that direction. ASU won't become a research intensive institution.

*** The cost of attendance off campus is about Half of what it is on campus in Boone. This is a new population and there isn't a lot of research available on them. This is in the beginning stage - the second year. They are still learning.

*** ASU cannot be everything to everybody. They don't have all of the answers and can't meet all the needs. They do what they do best. They are creating new programs where their are needs. They are a very good comprehensive regional university.

The Hound thinks this is awesome. Everybody has to pitch in. This isn't about Bricks and Mortar and infrastructure. The UNC Higher Education System is not going to be able to reinflate the Real Estate bubble in this area and the UNC-Hickory fantasy wasn't going to achieve that either. This is about changing the culture in this area. This is about educating people so that they increase their capacities of intelligence to a level that will make them better individuals, who are self-reliant, and thus able to contribute more to this community in the long run.

This is in the beginning stages, but at least the first step has been taken. There are so many problems in this community where the first step is never taken, so those problems will continue to persist. People shouldn't fuss, because things aren't happening at the rate of change they want them to happen. I am a product of the UNC system (UNC-Wilmington). UNC-Wilmington was established in 1947 as Wilmington College. It did not become UNC-Wilmington until 1969. Look where it is 40 years later. Look at how it has grown and become part of the fabric of Southeastern North Carolina. We can see that happen with Appalachian State's presence here.

I have spoken about all of this before - Do we need a UNC-Hickory? The citizens of this community are going to have to stop looking elsewhere for answers and realize that the answers are all around us. I personally want to say Kudos to those who have brought this process this far along and state that I am happy with where we are today on this issue.