ACCC Faculty In-Service Remarks

September 1, 2005

Prepared by Dr. Peter Mora

ACCC President

Thank you very much for this opportunity to participate in today’s event. As many of you may know, I am the first president of ACCC to come from the college faculty. I am particularly proud of that fact and am confident that my efforts will be a positive reflection of the values and traditions of the faculty at this college.

For this morning, I thought I would focus my remarks on three broad areas:

As part of the selection process for the ACCC presidency, I developed a personal vision statement for the college.

First, let me state that my primary focus as president is to foster student learning. Virtually all of my efforts will be designed, either directly or indirectly, to achieve that goal. Further, I propose to use the concepts of Access, Excellence, and Stewardship as the foundational principles on which to develop a shared vision for the college aimed at fostering student learning.

Let me comment about these foundational principals of Access, Excellence and Stewardship. In my thinking, these principles act as a frame of reference or touchstone through which I view the mission, goals and activities of the college. As president, I would seek to assure that there is a balance among these principles in the efforts of the college to fulfill its mission.

Throughout the 50+ years of the community college movement, the ongoing challenge of maximizing access for diverse constituent groups, while maintaining excellence in educational standards, has been one of the most demanding with respect to fulfilling this mission.

Truly effective community colleges demonstrate the ability to incorporate both access and excellence into the mission, goals, and daily operations. In fact, ACCC’s current Mission Statement clearly states that the college is committed to both access and excellence. It is my intention to build upon this significant, ongoing institutional commitment to these principles in my efforts as president.

The third foundational principle, stewardship, simply put, means that leaders of publicly funded community colleges accept the responsibility of strengthening the resources and capacity of the institution to make it more effective and efficient in meeting the needs of current students and future generations. I have been strongly committed to the concept of stewardship during my 30-year career in community college education. So, I would summarize this portion of my remarks by indicating that the future success of the College will be strengthened by fostering student learning through efforts that are balanced among the principles of Access, Excellence and Stewardship.

I would now like to comment on my major priorities for the coming academic year.

With respect to Cape May, all involved should be congratulated on the outstanding series of opening events last week. I am confident that the college community will pull together to assure that the day to day operations of that facility, most importantly the educational process, are as successful as the opening.

I know many of you have been involved in the two-year process of completing our self study for the Middle States Review. Under the leadership of Professor Dan Thoren, this process has met all benchmarks in the development effort. In November, Dr. Elaine Ryan, president of the Community College of Southern Maryland, will visit us to provide feedback on the draft self study. The visiting team will be on campus in March. I am very familiar with the overall accreditation process and I am extremely confident that our self study process will be successful.

As you may know, I have initiated a reorganization of certain areas of the administrative structure of the college. The driving forces for the plan were: to accommodate the opening of the Cape May County campus; to assure top flight leadership for our Worthington Atlantic City Center; to centralize all of our resource development staff within one unit under effective leadership; and, combine virtually all of our planning efforts in one department under a proven planning expert. As a result of this plan, Dr. Rossi has been assigned as the Chief Operating Officer for the Cape May County campus and Bobby Royal has been assigned to a similar position at the Worthington Center.

As you know, there are four primary sources of funding for NJ community colleges: State; County; Tuition; and other external sources (Grants; Training Contracts; Advancement Office Fund Raising; and Funds Received from the ACCC Foundation). The college’s external fundraising efforts had been distributed out among three different deans. The new organizational structure, under Patricia Owens, combines those resources into one unit. It is my expectation that this model will result in a greater levels of resources acquisition from external sources.

Both operational and capital planning had been located in separate units. These have now been centralized in one unit under the leadership of Dr. Richard Perniciaro. This step is especially important as it relates to my fourth priority for the year, initiating an updated capital planning effort for the Mays Landing campus. As those who have been on this campus for a number of years well know, there has been no major capital expansion efforts for at least 12 years. Other comparable community colleges in New Jersey have implemented significant capital expansion over that period. It is my intention to work with the Board of Trustees, the college community, and County leaders to revise our master facilities plan this year, and then to seek funding to move that plan to completion.

My final priority focuses on the unique relationship between the college president and the Board of Trustees. With respect to the crucial issue of governance, it is essential for the success of the college that the president and the governing board establish an effective working relationship. I am committed to developing a strong, trust-based relationship with the Board of Trustees of Atlantic Cape Community College. This effort would include reaching consensus on mutual expectations between the president and the Board regarding respective roles. Of course, ongoing, effective formal and informal communication between the president and the Board is the foundation for building and sustaining a strong relationship.

Let me close my remarks by commenting on the concept of shared governance and the role of the faculty. In my view, the historic role of the faculty in shared governance, through the Collegiate Assembly, the Faculty Assembly, and the Committee Structure is critical to the long term success of the institution. I was involved in that governance process as a faculty member and I value it and will support it as your president. When invited, I will participate with you in these structures and I pledge that your voice, recommendations, concerns, and advice will be fully considered and responded to.

As I indicated at the start of my remarks, my primary focus is to foster student learning. An informed, committed, and engaged faculty is absolutely essential to meet that goal. All I ask is that you give me a chance to work with you. Thanks for this opportunity to speak and I will be participating in all of today’s events and activities.