An
Interview with Durham Tech’s President
The Insider recently caught up with Dr. Bill Ingram, who talked about
Durham Tech’s accomplishments and challenges and goals for the
future. |
| Q. What are some areas in which
you think Durham Tech is excelling? What are some "proud accomplishments?"
|
 A.
You don't have to look very hard to find excellence throughout Durham
Tech's educational offerings. I'm very proud of our transfer students'
performance at universities. Our graduates who move on to UNC-Chapel
Hill, N.C. Central, and N.C. State do as well as or better than native
students at those institutions. Our nursing and allied health programs
prepare our students for meaningful careers in the City of Medicine
and beyond. In virtually every program, our graduates perform at the
top on state and national licensing and certification exams. And our
career and technical programs provide an incredible array of opportunities
for our students to pursue employment in fields ranging from accounting
to electronics engineering to emergency preparedness. Of course, the
level of success our students enjoy in these areas wouldn't be possible
without the best developmental education program in the country.
Our corporate and continuing education programs have grown tremendously
over the past several years, and now Durham Tech is fourth in the
system in continuing education enrollments. And given the many other
educational opportunities available to adults in Durham and Orange
counties, our popularity speaks volumes about the quality of continuing
education programs we offer. Now last but certainly not least, our
basic skills programs do heroic work in providing educational opportunities
for the least prepared in our community. The expectations placed on
our basic skills programs by the U.S. Department of Education increase
every year, and every year our programs respond with better and better
results.
|
| Q. What are some areas in which
you think the college should improve upon or focus more on? |
| A. Let me answer that question in a couple of ways. We provide excellent
instruction in so many areas, but we haven't yet been able to convince
some employers of the importance of our credentials. Our students often
get jobs before they graduate from their certificate, diploma, or degree
programs. I hope we can demonstrate to employers that waiting a few
months to employ graduates of some of our career and technical programs
will prove to be worth the wait. So from a programmatic aspect, I'd
like us to focus on getting students to graduate from our programs by
getting employers to recognize the value of our degrees and diplomas
as credentials.
Now let me answer your question in a different way. Another area
I'd like to focus on is based on what we're learning from our participation
in “Achieving the Dream” and in the “Breaking Through”
initiative with basic skills students. Intuitively, we've long believed
that students who are engaged in their educational experience here
persist in greater numbers than those who are not as engaged. We're
now starting to see data that confirm this belief. This is why I really
want us to emphasize student engagement. Even though engagement is
the student's responsibility, I think we have the responsibility of
giving students every opportunity to become engaged with the institution,
from the first day they begin thinking about Durham Tech to the first
day they come to campus to the day they walk across the stage to receive
their diploma.
|
| Q. Are there any new initiatives
that you are considering? |
| A. I think we have a bountiful plenty on our plate at the moment.
I mentioned “Achieving the Dream” and “Breaking Through.”
I haven't mentioned the imminent opening of our Orange County Campus
early next year, which will enable us to provide broader and more comprehensive
programs and services to Orange County residents. For years now, Orange
County has been the county with the largest population in the state
without a freestanding community college campus, so I expect we'll be
pretty busy there in a hurry. Of course, we are in the second year of
implementing our Quality Enhancement Plan to improve our students' oral
and written communications skills. We are embarking on an ambitious
effort to embed the assessment of student learning outcomes throughout
our curriculum. With all of this going on, I think new initiatives need
to be considered very carefully for the next little while.
Having said that, I am particularly interested in providing more
opportunities in "STEM" education (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics) for everyone but, in particula, for
minority students. For a number of years, we have been active in the
NC-TABS initiative that's been coordinated through the N.C. Community
College System office. It looks as though the funding for that initiative
may not be available in the future, so I want to look at other ways
we can encourage students to pursue careers in science and technology
fields.
|
| Q. Are there any new credit programs
on the horizon that you think would be a good fit for DTCC? |
| A. Durham Tech may be the only community college of its size in the
country to have in its service area two internationally recognized tertiary
care teaching hospitals – Duke University Medical Center and UNC
Hospitals. There are many programs in the allied health area that we
have looked at in the past and will continue to think about, particularly
if we are able to develop partnerships with those institutions. The
start-up costs and ongoing operating expenses of allied programs are
very high.
We also need to be responsive to other economic sectors, and when
called upon, we must respond quickly. The historically strong relationship
we've had with the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce and with the
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber serve us well in this regard.
|
| Q. Dr. Wynn has done a phenomenal
job building strong community relationships. Do you have any strategies
yet in this important area? |
| A. We already enjoy great standing in the community thanks to Dr.
Wynn and to the excellent reputation we've earned through years of providing
high-quality programs and excellent services. This said, I have a couple
ideas in mind for fostering even stronger relationships in the community.
I think all new presidents, whether they come from outside an institution
or are internal candidates, are well served to develop a strategic vision
for the institution. I intend to start on this pretty quickly. A major
part of the process will be spending some time talking with, and mostly
listening to, various constituents. We have many friends and allies
in our community, and we typically like to listen to what they have
to say. But there are also some people and groups who may be able to
suggest that we do things a bit differently, and I want to hear those
voices, too.
Another thing I hope to do is develop even stronger relationships
with our educational partners. My plan is to arrange regular conversations
with the superintendents of our three public school systems and with
the leadership at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill. I also look
forward to meeting Dr. Charlie Nelms, the new chancellor at N.C. Central
University. I think we have a lot to offer each other both as educational
partners and as neighbors.
|
| Q. What will you miss the most
about your former position? |
A. I envision our role as an institution as facilitating student
learning and fostering community growth and development. So the real
work at Durham Tech – the most important work – is carried
out in our classrooms and labs with faculty working with students, in
the offices where our staff work to provide our students with immediate
and direct support, and in the places where our programs and services
help businesses be more productive and profitable. I recognize that
as president, I'm a little further away from that direct contact with
students and clients, so I'll need to be deliberate about getting close
to and then staying in contact with those folks who are at the heart
of what we do.
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