This keynote speech was presented by Dr. David Doré at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 8 at the opening of the Chancellor’s Retreat held in Roanoke, Virgina. A video of the chancellor’s keynote can be viewed in its entirety here.
[Transcript]
Good afternoon, everyone!
That video brought back wonderful memories!
It is great to be here in this room with so many of the wonderful people that I had the privilege to meet over the past few months. I want to thank each of you for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here in Roanoke.
It is my hope that we will spend this next day discussing and reflecting together on our important work ahead. It is also my hope that you will enjoy this time with one another to deepen the bonds that connect us as colleagues. And I ask each of you to take some time to reflect on the role that YOU will play in our work ahead to enable our shared success.
The theme for this year’s retreat is THIS IS OUR TIME. And I truly believe It IS our time to lead the way and to be the standard bearer of what post-secondary education can do for Virginians during these challenging and exciting times.
In the next few minutes, I want to do three things:
I want to build on Scott’s discussion of the Great Upheaval and how this new landscape impacts the Virginia Community College System
I will share some of my insights from the listening tour and share a vision of where we need to go as a system.
I will offer some thoughts on how we will achieve our goals.
As Scott highlighted, the shifts we are experiencing right now are really driven by three forces: demographic, technological, and economic.
Demographically, we are experiencing shifts that are impacting us.
In Virginia, the number of high school graduates will peak in a couple of years before we start to see declines.
A significant contributor to this is the low birth rate, as well as declining enrollment in public K-12 schools, particularly in our rural communities.
Let’s look at how this impacts our enrollment:
The headcount of program placed credit students on our campuses has been declining since peaking more than a decade ago and is forecasted to continue to drop.
Dual enrollment continues to be on the rise. We will need to continue to blur the lines between k-12 and postsecondary education and have more high school students pursuing meaningful post-secondary credentials and transfer credits before they graduate from high school.
Successful Programs like Fast-forward will continue to grow as well, as we continue to emphasize prioritizing skills, aligning our programs to industry, and filling jobs quickly.
These trends show we will need to better serve a “New Majorityof learners” (working learners, learning workers and displaced workers needing to skill, reskill, or upskill, parents, veterans, high school students, older students, and others).
Technology has disrupted every industry across the globe and these disruptions are occurring at an increasingly faster pace. As Scott so eloquently articulated, all higher education is now amid this technological disruption. Pat Gelsinger, the CEO of Intel has called these enabling technologies the four superpowers. They are:
Cloud Computing-unlimited capacity
Mobile technology– unlimited reach
Internet of things-crossing the physical and digital
Artificial Intelligence -the ability to bring intelligence to everything.
If we do not apply these technologies to all our processes, we will fall behind.
Economically, the nature of work is fundamentally changing. The skills needed to succeed in the global knowledge-based economy are very different than the skills needed to succeed in an industrial era.
The higher educational landscape of today is shifting in dramatic ways. One of the biggest challenges facing us is the rapid emergence of new providers who are offering new models of education and creating more choices for learners to challenge traditional higher educational institutions including every one of our community colleges.
These transformative changes are contributing to a hugely competitive landscape that is also helping to drive a shift toward a skills-based system.
I invite everyone in this room to embrace this new landscape, these challenges, and these disruptions as exciting, unchartered territory for us to innovate how we operate and to forge new opportunities and new pathways to better serve more learners in new ways.
When I interviewed with the State Board for this position back in December, I laid out an ambitious 90-day plan. And I am pleased to say that I have accomplished what I set out to do in that time. An important component of that plan was to spend my first weeks listening and engaging at the college level.
The listening tour was a true privilege for me, and I want to express my appreciation to everyone who was involved with its planning and organizing during such a busy time of the year. I also want to express my gratitude for the kind and incredible hospitality I received from every one of our colleges and in every community throughout Virginia.
I could not think of a better way to begin my service as Chancellor than to see first-hand the powerful and innovative work taking place on each of our college campuses and to begin to explore how we will leverage innovation and best practices across our entire system of colleges.
It was critical for me, as early as possible, to meet with and hear from our employees, our local college boards and foundation boards, our community members and community leaders, business and industry representatives, K-12 and university partners, elected officials, and most importantly our students.
I began the listening tour on my second day on the job and by the time I had visited all 23 colleges, it hit me that in 36 days, I had been to every corner of Virginia, and I had traveled more than 3,600 miles.
Think about that.
We are the only provider of postsecondary education that has a true state-wide scope –23 colleges – 40 campuses across every corner of the commonwealth that impacts every region of Virginia.
I was also struck by how central and integral we are to every community and how much every community throughout the commonwealth depends on us.
We have an awesome responsibility before us. I truly believe that the future wellbeing of the people of the commonwealth of Virginia will in large part depend on those of you in this room who will lead our colleges into the future.
I learned that our colleges are doing so many things incredibly well and have achieved commendable success, demonstrated by the outstanding achievements of our students –the outcomes of the past years speak for themselves.
Increased graduation rates.
Increased transfers.
Decreased student borrowing (from $194 million annually in 2012) to $55 million annually in 2022
Reduced time to degree for our students
Greater percentage of underrepresented students completing on time
These accomplishments are examples of what is possible when we work together as a system aligned to the needs of our students, our communities, and industry with a common goal of propelling Virginia forward.
Over 80 percent of those who complete education and training through Virginia’s Community Colleges stay and work in Virginia benefiting our communities, supporting the growth of business and industry, economic growth, and the growth of Virginia’s tax base.
I witnessed the effectiveness of strategic partnerships with business and industry at every single college. I just want to highlight some examples with you.
I visited the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Program at Brightpoint and the Industrial Maintenance Program at Wytheville. Both programs are partnering with the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program to support the workforce needs of companies relocating and expanding in Virginia. This best-in-class model developed by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) is why Virginia was recently ranked #1 in the Nation for customized workforce training.
At NOVA, I met with executive leaders of the Data Center Coalition to learn about the strong partnerships between NOVA and the Data Centers throughout Northern Virginia. Northern Virginia is home to the largest cluster of data centers in the United States. 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic funnels through the regions facilities and NOVA is playing a critical role in supplying the talent for this industry. Nova was even highlighted in a recent book published by Harvard for their strong partnerships with industry.
In Hampton Roads, I met with the CEO and leadership of Newport News Shipbuilding to discuss how Tidewater, Virginia Peninsula, Paul D. Camp, and Rappahannock will be collaborating to scale programs to meet the growing workforce needs in the skilled trades sector of this region.
I met with several health care and hospital partner. At Virginia Western I met with the CEO of Carillion to learn about their strong partnerships and at Reynolds, I met with leaders from VCU Health and learned about an out of the box thinking -faculty sharing model-to address the nursing faculty shortage. I learned that Virginia Highlands is the largest provider of health care workers in their region.
At Laurel Ridge and Danville Community College I learned of the work done through their NSA accredited IT and Cyber Center programs to bring more students through the IT pipeline.
And throughout my tour I heard from leaders of infrastructure-related firms about how we are leveraging resources, expanding collaboration, and streamlining efforts to meet the needs of the in-demand infrastructure industries through our Virginia Infrastructure Academy.
These examples are just a handful of the hundreds of partnerships I have learned about between our colleges, business and industry. Moving forward, we will prioritize expanding and deepening partnerships and collaboration across all industry sectors and regions of Virginia.
Before I moved to Virginia, I had heard it said that there’s Northern Virginia and “the rest of Virginia.” The tour helped me to understand that that statement does not do justice to a commonwealth that is as rich in history and as diverse as Virginia. One of the things that I appreciated during my tour was learning about the rich cultural diversity of our state and the importance of recognizing, respecting, and honoring our regional cultural histories and traditions. The folks at Mountain Empire seemed surprised and even grateful that I knew how to pronounce “Appalachia”
I think it is a critical strength of our system that our local colleges are not only responsive to the needs of local employers but are also responsive to local culture, ensuring that our colleges are relevant in the hearts and minds of the local community. And it was not surprising to find that in many rural communities the community college is the central and vital institution that helps unite citizens and builds a sense of community.
At Eastern Shore, I had the opportunity to meet adult English language learners who were gaining both English proficiency and workforce skills needed to gain employment.
And I witnessed so many examples of the tangible results when the local community college represents the spirit of the region. I saw repeated instances of the tremendous financial support provided by our local college foundations and local community.
At New River, I learned about the transformative power of the ACCE program for local high school graduates. The Access to Community College Education program is a public private partnership enabling students to graduate without college debt.
At Southwest Virginia CC, I visited Dellinger Hall a stunning multi-purpose structure built by support from the Foundation which is also home to some of the most striking examples of artistic expression from sculptor Johnny Hagerman, a native of the region.
At Patrick & Henry I visited their amazing new Manufacturing Engineering Technology Center, also built with the support of the Foundation, which is a true state-of-the-art facility to support the colleges STEM programming.
One of the most important components of the listening tour was meeting with and hearing from people. I loved meeting our faculty and staff and getting to see first-hand their innovative approaches to teaching and learning across all disciplines and the ways they are working to remove barriers for our students by creating a caring culture focused on the whole student.
At Piedmont, I learned that the number of students helped by the student resource center had more than doubled since last semester. At Blue Ridge, I got to hear first-hand the impact of the implementation of the one door policy on the student experience.
I even got to move massive trees with the students in the Agricultural and Forestry Program at Mountain Gateway and I was literally in tears after a simulation experience with students at Virginia Peninsula that took me from working with EMTs in the field to assist a pregnant woman to assisting in the delivery of a healthy baby girl.
While learning of the many innovations occurring through our colleges, my highest priority at every visit was to meet with and hear from our students because it is our students who are the center of everything we do! And I want to take a moment to highlight just a handful of the hundreds of students that I had the opportunity to meet on the tour.
This is Mia Lewis, who I met at Paul D. Camp. Mia is working on her Certified Nursing Credential. She is a single mom who is trying to balance taking care of her 9-year-old son, working as a cashier at Walmart and going to school. She learned about the CNA program from the Camp Dean of Students, Dr. Trina Jones who was in her check-out line at Walmart. Mia shared with me that she gets up at 4:00am every day and is lucky to get to bed by 10:00pm. She inspired me by her desire to make a better life for her son.
This is Haley Piercy who I met on my very first day of the tour at Central Virginia CC. She was so incredibly professional, articulate, and motivated that I was shocked when I found out she was only in 11th grade. She is going into her senior year at E C Glass High School in Lynchburg. She’s a concurrently enrolled student at Central Virginia studying physics, engineering, and chemistry and when she graduates, she will have about 45 college credits which will dramatically shorten her time to a bachelor’s degree and save her thousands of dollars.
I met William Liu at Germanna CC where he enrolled in online classes while he was delivering food for Door Dash and working as a pharmacy tech. Not only did William complete his associate degree requirements in a single year, but his grades also earned him a top spot with Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, and he is headed to UVA Engineering this fall. He is one of only sixty students in the nation to be awarded the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Transfer Scholarship that will give him a full ride to UVA.
This is Alexandria Davis who I met at Brightpoint. Alexandria came out of the foster care system. Her path to Brightpoint was made possible through the Great Expectations Program which supported her financially and provided mentoring and a sense of community. She told me that Great Expectations has been a blessing for her. Alexandria is an entrepreneur who started her own boutique baking business. She gets up at 2:00 am on Saturdays and Sundays to bake fresh confections that she sells at farmer’s markets in Richmond every weekend.
One of my most important roles as Chancellor will always be to elevate the voice of our learners. We serve thousands and thousands of students across our system and every single one of them has a story. I have learned that their stories are complex and inspirational, and at times heart-wrenching. It always provides me with valuable perspective when I talk with our students. As we strive to better serve a new majority of learners it will be even more important that we adapt our systems, our learning formats, our schedules, in fact our entire colleges around their complex lives.
Based on everything I have seen and heard, I believe there are three prominent gaps our system must address to achieve meaningful and positive change for Virginia.
The first is the significant educational achievement gap.
Of the 8.7 million Virginians, nearly two million working age adults (25 and older) have only earned a high school diploma. An additional 1.2 million working age adults have taken some college courses but have not earned a college degree. This means that there are more than 3 million working age adults who lack a meaningful postsecondary credential.
This educational achievement gap coincides with significant economic disparity.
The household income discrepancy throughout the Commonwealth is staggering – a gap of more than $120,000 between the highest median income in Loudoun County and the lowest in Dickenson County.
We also know from the work of the United Way that 38 percent of households in Virginia do not make enough money to pay for the basic costs of living.
The ALICE population, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed, makes up a substantial portion of those households. These people are above the federal poverty level but still do not make enough to pay for basic costs of living. The ALICE population represents approximately 89% of VCCS students.
As an educational system, we have a responsibility to identify solutions that create economic mobility for every Virginian through affordable education.
The second gap is that of technology.
The tools we are using day-to-day in our classrooms and in our jobs are changing more quickly than ever, continuously disrupting higher education.
If you look at most categories of human interaction nearly all have been transformed through emerging technologies. As a system, we must embrace these technologies in full and incorporate them into our learning model if we are to remain relevant and effective.
At the turn of the 21 century Ian Morrison wrote a book called the “The Second Curve” addressing society’s shift from the industrial mindset to a digital one.
Higher education has been slower than others to adapt to this digital shift, but today the evolution of these technologies is accelerating so rapidly, we are at a critical juncture where wemust adapt.
Remaining along the industrial curve restricts us all to fixed learning formats – Set places, times, and rigid schedules set by the institution. Transitioning to the digital curve, learning formats become variable. Education can occur anytime, anywhere, where the formats are set by the learner.
In this increasingly digital space, along the second curve, the competitive landscape has exploded with a plethora of options to better meet the needs of learners, where they are.
More choices and new competitors are now driving change to a skills-based system—the unbundling of degrees, short-term and stackable credentials, credit for prior learning, focus on competencies, workplace learning that blur the lines between the workplace and the college, immersive learning bolstered by Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality, and integrating AI into learning platforms.
We must embrace these technologies that can improve the student experience and enable the flexibility of learning options that allow students access to education at their preference and discretion.
And most importantly we must ensure that our learners complete their programs of study with the digital skills needed to thrive and advance in their respective careers.
Finally, we must address the skills gap.
For the Virginia Community Colleges, addressing the skills gap means ongoing re-alignment of our programs and colleges to the needs of business and industry and our local communities. We must be aligned to the key sectors of our state.
The shortage of working-age adults who possess the skills needed for jobs in our most in-demand fields, healthcare, technology, and manufacturing, is limiting economic growth.
Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to host a retreat with our college presidents and vice chancellors in Richmond discussing how we will work collaboratively to transform our colleges for the future. After those discussions, we were empowered by a common conviction that we are one system.
I am grateful for this team of extraordinary leaders who will lead our colleges into the future!
Virginia’s Community Colleges are better positioned than any other network to lead the Commonwealth, to address these challenges head on, close these gaps and develop the pipeline that leads to the best workforce in the nation. We will do this with Speed, Convergence, and Adaptability:
Speed -To be relevant, we must move at the speed of industry. We will adapt and launch our programs at a much faster pace.
Convergence –We will deepen our partnerships and work together to launch and adapt our programs in collaboration with every sector of business and industry, the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia Chamber, the K-12 System, and our universities.
We will work collaboratively across the entire eco-system of Virginia.
Our workforce programs can no longer operate as a vertical in our organizations but must become a horizontal cutting across all academic divisions. We will need greater convergence and increased collaboration across all disciplines at our colleges.
Adaptability. Our colleges will continually adapt to the changing needs of learners and employers. We will ensure multiple on- ramps that are clear and student friendly, the seamless stackable integration of short-term credentials, with degrees.
The Transformation of Virginia’s Community Colleges will be aligned to a handful of guiding principles that will disrupt the status quo.
Blurring the lines between secondary and post-secondary education, between academic and workforce development, and between our colleges and the workplace
Providing access to meaningful post-secondary credentials to all Virginians
Paying for Performance
Shifting the goal line from completion to a good job in a high demand sector
Our operational values support the Governor’s bold agenda for our colleges to make a transformational impact on Virginia.
We will do this by being a key partner in helping to fill jobs by ensuring that our programs are aligned with the needs of business and accessible to all Virginians who lack a meaningful post-secondary credential.
We will also ensure that all high school graduates graduate with either an associate degree or a meaningful post-secondary credential that has value among employers.
Our effectiveness will be built through the work of our colleges, the deepening of partnerships, and forging new connection points that enable stronger collaboration.
We will innovate postsecondary education in the Commonwealth leading ahead of, instead of reacting to, a growing competitive environment.
This vision is supported by a three-pronged approach to fundamentally change how we work together as a system, and with others, to drive the economic vitality of the Commonwealth in the coming decade.
Our focus will be:
Increasing capacity regionally.
Providing every high school student with a meaningful postsecondary credential.
And funding what works.
In my closing tomorrow, I will lay out details on how we will implement these goals and the investments we plan to prioritize.
Today, I want to highlight some of the most important impacts for which we are preparing.
This transformation will be driven by increased collaboration and coordination among colleges to deliberately align with the nine GO Virginia regions. In doing so, we will become a regionally driven organization that will efficiently scale programming at the college level to better respond to regional job demands, and invest in the talent, technology, and infrastructure necessary to support strong business growth.
In the coming decade, the “new majority of learners” will command our attention:
We will fundamentally alter who we recruit and how.
Only 22% of the 90,000 high school graduates enroll in our community colleges each year. And with fewer high school graduates in coming years, we will likely see fewer on our campuses.
Along with the decline of high school graduates, there are more than three million adults in Virginia who do not hold a meaningful postsecondary credential. This is 35 times the number of high school graduates.
We need to reach these adults and to do so we will focus on regionalized outreach and recruitment to change the narrative of community colleges. We have already proven that educating and training adult and nontraditional students is one of our greatest strengths.
This new recruitment strategy also requires us to shift our model of service delivery to be student focused instead of institution focused and align instruction to the places, times and formats that fit students’ busy lives.
We must remove as many barriers to entry as possible, including those we may have created.
Our objective will be to enroll faster and dedicate resources to programs that innovate the path from training to career quicker and more affordably.
We will also dedicate resources to expanding student-focused, rapid pathways to better jobs like our Fast Forward program. Unlike our traditional models, Fast Forward is growing 15-20 percent annually.
In the same spirit of designing our programs around the needs of our learners, we will direct resources to scale opportunities for online learning through a state-wide coordinated strategy and to provide more flexible class scheduling and location-based learning on our campuses. This is essential to reaching the Virginians we need to serve.
In addition, this flexibility is necessary as we transition to emphasizing comprehensive and deliberate connections between colleges and business to support not only completion of programs, but ultimately job placement. We will continue to prioritize the important work we do by building on Transfer Virginia and ensuring seamless and clear transfer pathways for our learners. Both are essential to the economic prosperity of Virginia.
Our second priority is aligned with Governor Younkin’s bold vision for every high school student in Virginia to graduate with both a diploma and a meaningful postsecondary credential. While some high school students have achieved this outcome in recent years, access to postsecondary programming for high school students is not comprehensive, and there are hurdles that must be addressed for this vision to be realized across every school division in the Commonwealth.
We are partnering with the Secretary and the Department of Education to propose solutions to remove barriers to accessing these meaningful credentials. Our role is to clearly define the path that students will take to graduate with the credentials necessary for a seamless transfer or to enter the workforce immediately.
Imagine a Virginia in which the 90 thousand annual graduates of the Commonwealth’s high schools each possess the kind of postsecondary credential that immediately increases their earning potential, that provides them with a community college experience and primes them for future post-secondary success.
This is what we are working towards, together – a prosperous future for Virginia and for Virginians.
My visits with all of you, and my subsequent one-on-one meetings with dozens of leaders from across Virginia have clearly underscored our role in this – our colleges are essential to this effort. These conversations have deeply informed these priorities, including our final priority.
We must invest in our community colleges by funding what works and implement a performance-based funding model that supports rapid workforce expansion based on proven success.
One of the best examples of this at play is FastForward, which is already a best-in-class model that demonstrates how we respond to high demand, high wage sectors and how we scale to meet that demand quickly.
The Power Line Worker program, a Fast-forward program at Southside and one of many successful Fast Forward initiatives throughout our college system, offers a proof of concept of the success that can be achieved with the right investments and a focused approach.
I was privileged to see the 500th student graduate.
In 12 weeks, these learners complete the program and earn multiple industry credentials, most with job offers in hand even before training is complete.
Similar programs at Mountain Empire and Wytheville are helping utilities and electric co-ops find the skilled workers they need, and these learners are gaining a foothold on a family-sustaining career.
A $55 million investment since 2016 in Fast-forward programs has produced $2.6 billion in wages earned, 93% program completion, 35,000 credentials earned to support high-demand industries in Virginia.
We know our outcomes-based funding for degrees and college certificates contributes greatly to measurable improvements in retention, completion, and job placement – additional investments will rapidly drive targeted and significant improvements to what are already tremendous results.
Editor’s Note: With a $55M investment and 93% completion rate, there have been more than 52,000 credentials earned and $3.9B in wages earned, as of July 2023.
These priorities – increase regional capacity, enable every high school student in Virginia for postsecondary success, and funding what works – are the foundation to advance our system of colleges into a world-class leader of education, training, and talent development. And I am elated to be part of this journey with all of you.
I would like to close by sharing a little about my approach to leadership.
Back in the mid 1980’s when I was a young high school teacher in Pennsylvania, I had the opportunity to take my seniors to Pittsburg to spend the day on the set watching the filming of the “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood show”. During that visit, my class and I had the privilege to have lunch with Fred Rogers listening to his insights on teaching and learning. I asked him that day if he had any advice for me on how to be a great teacher. He told me something that stuck with me all these years. He told me that “love is at the heart of all learning.” I really do believe that.
To achieve our ambitious vision, let us center our actions in love. Each of you embodies an unparalleled dedication to your work and a profound sense of belonging within our community of learners, ensuring that our institutions thrive as warm and accepting environments.
I believe community colleges are the most transformative organizations in our nation. My highest honor is leading you during this period of transformation.
As your chancellor, I will bring my whole heart to our work every day. Honesty, transparency, and collaboration are strong values for me and will form the bedrock of our efforts. I believe that decisions are best made in the light – with insights from diverse perspectives and I want everyone to know that your perspective matters.
Your insights and local leadership are paramount in our pursuit of innovation, and I want us all to think outside the box.
As the challenges I have mentioned grow more complex, they are not insurmountable, but they do require adjusting our expectations and perspective.
Let’s engage in data-informed, evidence-based conversations at all levels, while bearing in mind that data reveals what is, not what could be. Let’s also stay proactive, prioritizing the problems that demand solutions and use every opportunity to improve continuously.
Big challenges require bold moves. THIS IS OUR TIME to do BIG THINGS for Virginia’s Community Colleges to shine and we will do it TOGETHER.
