Virginia's Community Colleges

DuBois, Glenn

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 45 
12-14-2022 
Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor's Annual Planning Retreat (2019) 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor's Annual Planning Retreat (2019). Inquiry: The Journal 
of the Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/
45 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor’s Annual Planning Retreat (2019) 
 
These remarks were delivered at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center in Roanoke, VA on October 16, 2019. 
 
 
adies and gentlemen; good afternoon. I would like to begin with a shout-out to the many of 
you who are attending this retreat for the first time. That includes college local advisory board 
members who arrived yesterday for the State Board’s annual meeting, and they’re staying with us for 
the retreat. We’re delighted to have you. 
 
I would also like to welcome our new college presidents. The presidential ranks of community 
colleges are undergoing a generational shift. That’s happening across the country, and certainly here 
in Virginia. Among our 23 institutions, only three of them have the same president today that they 
had ten years ago. The three are John Downey at Blue Ridge; Frank Friedman at Piedmont; and 
Bobby Sandel at Virginia Western. (For what it’s worth, these veteran presidents asked me to remind 
you of the tradition for new presidents to buy them a drink at the bar, later tonight. They say it’s a 
long-standing tradition.) 
 
I look forward to seeing what our new presidents bring. Many come from other states, offering fresh 
perspectives and different ideas. As a group, this new generation of college president is more 
focused on issues of equity and social justice; and creative workforce development solutions and 
partnerships – and we certainly need all of that. 
 
For those who know me, I’m a history junkie. I’m almost always in the middle of a book, and it’s 
almost always related to history. I’ve been reading a book our faculty council chair, Charlie Errico, 
gave me called Profiles in Leadership. It’s a collection of essays by leading historians who are trying to 
articulate – as the subtitle suggests – the “Elusive quality of greatness” in leaders. Many of the essays 
focus on US presidents, who are relatively easy to study, given the copious amounts of information 
that exist about each of them.  
 
The book’s editor, Walter Isaacson, wrote something that really struck me. He wrote, “Our most 
influential presidents were not necessarily our smartest ones, but rather the wisest at the tricky art of 
balancing pragmatism and principle.” That balance really is the trick, isn’t it? When do we 
compromise? When do we stand firm? When do we try something new? When do we double-down 
on something we know is right? I mention that because, really, those questions – what Isaacson 
called the tricky art of balance – is the leadership test facing us all today. 
 
What if? That’s the theme we selected to frame this event’s conversations. So, let me offer a few 
What Ifs to get us started. And just to keep us balanced, how about a few hard ones and then a few 
encouraging ones? Let’s start with the tough ones. 
 
Number one: What if our historic enrollment slide continues another five years? 
In simple terms, our colleges, collectively served 60,000 fewer students last year than we did in 2011-
2012i. We have declined each of those years. This is the longest slide in our history. 60,000 is a lot of 
people. In fact, that’s how many students UVa and VCU serves last year, combined. If our 
enrollment slide continues on its current pace for five more years, we will lose another 57,000 
students, and we will feel that across our system. 
L 
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Since 2012, almost every one of our institutions, including the System Office, have gone through 
layoffs – some more than once. We’ve shed good jobs and lost good people. Two years ago, when 
our colleges operations were studied by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission 
(JLARC). They pointed out that we had no policy in place for examining college efficiency and 
sustainability. They made a fair point: everything in our policy manual was about how and when to 
open a new college. We had never considered the possibility of closing one. 
 
In response, our State Board established criteria for annually reviewing our colleges. The policy 
establishes four thresholds to examine. Failing them all triggers a detailed assessment – a study to 
consider the best way forward to make the college sustainable. Options include: a chance to refocus 
and turn around; or a merger with another institution; or a closure.  
 
That’s a tough but necessary process, and Eastern Shore just went through it. Jim Schaffer – one of 
our newest presidents – was hired in part to implement a three-year plan to turn Eastern Shore 
around and return it to viability. He’ll be the first to admit, he and his team have their work cut out 
for them. But Eastern Shore won’t be alone if our enrollment doesn’t rebound. There are a handful 
of colleges – as many as five or six – that could be facing that process too. 
 
That brings us to number two: What if we’re not as creative or flexible as we think we are? 
I’ve been in this business for 40 years now. We’ve always described ourselves as responsive, flexible, 
and creative. What if, fifty-some years later, that’s no longer true? What if we’re not actually offering 
the programs people need when and how they need them? What if there is nothing magical about 
the 16-week semester? And what if there is no longer such thing as a typical college student? 
 
Let me offer you an interesting side note on that last one. Our statewide foundation runs a fellows 
program for fulltime second year students, and it’s a big deal. These high-achievers get their tuition, 
fees, and books covered. They get leadership training. They travel and meet a lot of interesting 
people. 
 
Academically speaking, these students are our best. You know who they are; you nominated them. 
You brag about them at the Kiwanis Club luncheon. You put them in your college ads. You pick 
them to meet with lawmakers. Yet, they’re not typical. 
 
Of this year’s 43 scholars: 
 
• Two in five are first generation students; 
• Almost a third are personally responsible for caring for children or grand-children; 
• Four out of five work full-time or part-time jobs; 
• More than half are older than 24; 
• One in five is a military veteran; and 
• One in five was born outside the U-S.   
 
You tell me, what’s typical there? What if many of those 60,000 students we’re missing walked away 
because they didn’t think we understand them, or their realities? Community colleges were lean and 
hungry in our early days – ready to try just about anything within reason to attract and serve people.  
What if we find that spirit again? That leads me to our next what if? 
 
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Number three: What if the question of equity becomes our focus, not just an aspiration? 
Study after study confirms that students who both work and come from low-income families are less 
likely to earn a credential overall, even if they are terrific students. Georgetown University affirmed 
that with another report this summer, which they summarized this way, “In short, in America, it’s 
better to be born rich than smart.” This is terrible news for those of us who believe in the American 
Dream, and the role our colleges have in it. 
 
Poverty ends too many college dreams. We need to change that. Paula Pando, the president of 
Reynolds, is leading our task force on this. The Power of Possible, or P-Squared as they call it, is 
what exactly our students face. Their biggest challenges come from outside the classroom. National 
studies say two in five community college students endure food insecurity. Slightly more face 
housing insecurity. How focused can you be if you haven’t eaten, don’t know where your next meal 
is coming from, and can’t find a friend’s couch to sleep on tonight?  
 
Yet, the credential they pursue with us is the best chance they have to disrupt the very cycles that 
keep them in motion but rob them of progress. SCHEV just ran some numbers that demonstrate 
the challenge here. Nearly 17,000 college-going students used SNAP benefits a few years ago. Three 
out of four of them are our students. These challenges defy stereotype. They weigh down urban, 
suburban, and rural students of every racial demographic. And when they force a student to quit; 
when they deny that person the credential they need, they dampen what our colleges offer. 
 
What if we can support the entire person in their credential pursuit? We can’t do it alone. We need 
partners – other agencies, other organizations, other community members, and volunteers – to come 
on our campuses and help us serve these individuals. This is a passion for Paula and those working 
with her. They’re going to offer us powerful recommendations. So, let’s help them at this retreat by 
having this important conversation here too. 
 
So, that brings us to what if number four: What if we really embrace the part of our mission 
that says we give everyone an opportunity? 
The Virginia State Chamber of Commerce has a strategic plan called Blueprint Virginia 2025. It’s the 
result of their work with more than 6,000 business leaders across the commonwealth. Do you know 
what their number one concern is? It’s developing talent. The answer would have been tax policy or 
transportation infrastructure 25 years ago. Today, it’s talent. It’s the top concern, the Chamber says, 
because “Companies need people with the right skills to help them grow, thrive, and prosper.” 
 
Make no mistake: their talent challenge and our enrollment challenge are intertwined. And Virginia 
demographic trends are working against both of us. One, Virginia’s birthrate remains below the 
national average and it is declining just as fast. You’ll see that in a big way on campus beginning in 
2026. And two, Virginia is losing the migration battle with other states. During the first decade of 
this century, Virginia annually gained between 10,000 and 20,000 people from other states. That 
trend turned 180 degree in 2012 and we’ve been losing that many people to other states every year 
since. 
 
Now is the time to shift our focus beyond that traditional college age of 18-24. When we prioritize 
serving adults, we step into a new dynamic. So how many people are we talking about? If we limit 
the conversation to Virginians between the ages of 25 and 44, who have not earned a postsecondary 
credential, we’re talking about roughly 1.2 million people. 
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Now, that’s more than thirteen times the 90,000 Virginians who graduate from high school each 
year – More than thirteen times as many. If that weren’t enough, then look at the trending. Over the 
next decade, that high school age range of 15 to 19 will shrink. The number of adults between 25 
and 44, however, will grow. We can’t ignore that reality.  
 
And that brings me to my last What If? Many of you have heard me talk about this before, but I 
need to say it again. It’s only becoming more important. 
 
Number five: What if there was a postsecondary credential in every Virginia home within 
ten years? 
I’m avoiding the phrase “college graduate” because I think that’s confusing. People hear “college 
graduate” and they think “bachelor’s degree.” What I really mean is every postsecondary credential 
earned because they all 
count – every CDL, every 
AWS, every CMA, and 
every traditional college 
degree. Across Virginia, we 
must fill 1.5 million jobs 
over the next decade. As 
many as two out of three of 
those jobs will require more 
than a high school diploma, 
but less than a bachelor’s 
degree. They require the 
credentials and degrees our 
colleges offer. 
 
Success requires more 
today than just being a hard 
worker. The workplace is 
too technical; the 
marketplace is too global; 
and the odds are too daunting to seize opportunity with just a high school diploma. Some 
communities, here in the Commonwealth, are getting a head start on this. 
 
Take a guess: what’s Virginia’s most educated region? Raise your hand if you think it’s Northern 
Virginia? Well, you just fell into the bachelor’s-or-bust trap. In terms of bachelor’s degrees, you’re 
right? Northern Virginia leads the way. However, when you consider all postsecondary credentials, 
on a per capita basis, Southside Virginia is Virginia’s true winner. 
 
Our FastForward program is responsible for many of those credentials. Through the game-changer 
that is FastForward, we have helped people earn nearly 18,000 credentials in high-demand fields in 
just over three years. Rural Virginia is over-represented in that number. While Virginia’s Rural 
Horseshoe accounts for 25% of the commonwealth’s population, it accounts for 40% of the 
credentials earned through FastForward. And why not? Those credential-earners are getting a bigger 
boost for their efforts. Their take-home pay grows more than it does for those who earn those 
credentials in an urban location. We can begin focusing on this immediately. 
 
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What if short-term credential training was the beginning for more of our students, especially at-risk 
students? You know, we have a lot of people who struggle and drop-out of your degree programs. 
What if they’re just starting at the wrong place? What if they earned a credential first, gaining 
something of value in the job market and some academic confidence? And then, what if we 
convince them to continue to the degree as their next step? FastForward has proven itself as 
affordable and accessible, especially for adults. Most importantly, FastForward has shown what 
happens when people commit themselves to a program that lasts weeks or months, not semesters 
and years. 
 
We’ve spent the last year applying those lessons to a number of the Career and Technical programs 
you offer that lead to high-demand career fields. That was an important part of establishing the 
ground-work for the G-3 plan Governor Ralph Northam will propose to next year’s General 
Assembly. We’ve had many conversations with the administration about their plan but we don’t 
expect to have further details until after Election Day. What I can share with you is that G-3 will be 
an effort to reduce the costs of those high-demand CTE pathways, and to break those programs 
into stackable credentials that will help individuals who pursue them in an on-again, off-again 
fashion. 
 
FastForward and G-3 are important innovations toward making what we offer simply more available 
to the people who have the most to gain. It seems to me that we are no longer in the community 
college business, but rather the business of helping our students earn jobs and careers. 
 
Mills Godwin, the governor who created the VCCS said that among the many things community 
colleges accomplish, “They have taught us that we can never again think of a college education as 
something that belongs to the privileged or the few.” He’s right. If we can dedicate ourselves to 
seeing a postsecondary credential in every home we will not simply make Virginia more 
economically competitive; we will not just give every family access to the type of careers that can 
sustain them; we might just solve much, much larger equity question. What if, my friends, what if we 
can do that?  
 
In closing, I want to bring us back to another reference I made at the beginning of my remarks, and 
that’s “the tricky art of balancing pragmatism and principle,” the focus of that book I mentioned, 
Profiles in Leadership. There’s an early chapter on George Washington, focused really on his time as a 
general. Its author, Thomas Fleming, makes an interesting point, and that is if we evaluated 
Washington like we do today’s professional athletes, we’d consider him a failure.  
 
In seven years of fighting the British, Fleming wrote, Washington won only three clear-cut victories. 
One was a raid; another was just a large skirmish; and the third was simply a siege. I mean, how long 
would a football coach today last in the NFL or a bigtime college program if he won only three 
games? It wouldn’t be seven years, that’s for sure. 
 
Washington faced such a long list of challenges, they almost sound comical. He could never get 
enough money from Congress. He could never get enough regular army soldiers, and he had a hard 
time attracting and keeping rag-tag militia members. He had no real navy of which to speak. And the 
popularity of the independence effort waxed and waned throughout those seven years.  
 
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Washington’s true genius it seems was managing those challenges, and the battlefield defeats, in a 
way that prevented them from overwhelming the whole. He remained focused on the ultimate goal. 
He mastered that tricky balance. 
 
It’s easy to be consumed by our challenges. Enrollment declines, layoffs, strained resources, campus 
safety threats – the list goes on. However, there is enough daylight in our What ifs; there is enough 
promise in our people; and there is more than enough potential in our mission to make that tricky 
balance work, and to give Virginia the higher education and workforce training it needs to be better 
tomorrow than it is today. 
 
You know, when I mention the promise in our people that begins with the people in this room 
today. I have something Washington didn’t.  
 
There’s a famous moment where Washington watched a bunch of militia members flee from battle 
without firing shot, without making any effort and he cried out, “Are these the men with which I am 
to defend America?” I look across this room today and think, “Wow! These the people with which I 
get to advance our mission?” 
 
Eat your heart out, George. Thank you. 
 
i http://research.schev.edu//enrollment/E5_Report.asp 
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English

Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor\u27s Annual Planning Retreat (2019)

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 1 A Lasting Legacy Article 6 
4-6-2022 
Remarks at Genesee Community College Commencement 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Remarks at Genesee Community College Commencement. Inquiry: The Journal of the 
Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (1). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss1/6 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
Remarks at Genesee Community College Commencement 
 
This speech was delivered on May 18, 2008 at Genesee Community College in Batavia, New York. 
 
 
resident Steiner, faculty and staff; proud moms and dads, and family members; distinguished 
guests; and the graduating class of 2008: good evening…and congratulations.  
 
Thomas Wolfe, the writer, was wrong; you absolutely can go home again, and it feels wonderful to 
be back. 
 
Tonight, Genesee Community College honors its 40th graduating class.  The 762 members of this 
class join a collection of alumni that is nearly 20,000 people strong. While a number like 20,000 is 
impressive, don’t mistake it as a sign that graduating from college is easy; it’s not.  Enrolling in 
college takes courage. Finishing with a degree or certificate takes perseverance. Now that you have 
done it puts you in a minority that remains much too small in America today: it makes you leaders. 
 
I appreciate what you’ve accomplished because I know how overwhelming it has been to arrive at 
this moment. More than thirty years ago – right around this time of the year – I was walking across 
the stage at my high school, picking up my diploma, wondering how in the world I had even 
graduated. If I didn’t graduate last in my class, I was certainly in sight of it. But you know what? I 
didn’t care. I just wanted out. I didn’t know, and really didn’t care, what the future held for me. I 
wanted a job. What I really wanted was money in my pocket. 
 
And so, I got my wish – a job washing dishes in the restaurant in my neighborhood. You know, I 
had never even considered college. No teacher, no coach, not even a friend of mine had even put 
the idea of college in my head. Dish-pan-hands, my friend: that was the extent of my aspirations. 
The good news is after only a few months, I opened my eyes and raised my goals and thought yeah, 
I can move up. I did, which meant that I was busing tables. I figured if I could get on the floor, I 
could at least see my customers. At the time I considered that an aggressive and bold career move. 
 
My mom wasn’t impressed.  And I’m grateful she wasn’t.  She thought I had more in me than that – 
even if I couldn’t see it. So every day, it seemed, as I clipped on my red bow-tie and put on my thick, 
cotton, fashion-free, fire engine red busing jacket, Mom would harass me about it. “Glenn, you need 
to go to college, “she would say while shoving a community college application into my hand. “Fill 
this thing out, now.  You can do this.” We’d go back and forth about it.  But you know how 
mothers are.  I eventually caved in. 
 
I was shocked – shocked! – when an acceptance letter came through the mail. In fact, I was 
convinced it was a mistake. Maybe someone in the registrar’s office got my name confused with 
another. But I decided to go to class. I wasn’t taking any chances, however. I kept the acceptance 
letter in my shirt pocket for proof. I was certain that someone would eventually spot me, realize the 
college’s mistake and ask me to leave. 
 
My next surprise was that I found the classes to be engaging and interesting. Gradually, I developed 
meaningful relationships – especially with my instructors. It changed me. I felt a growing 
P 
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DuBois: Remarks at Genesee Commencement
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confidence. Busing tables wasn’t going to be enough. I felt like I was on a launch pad, curious to see 
just how far I could go.  
 
As I look back on that time, one of the best – if not the best – feature of the community college was 
the opportunity to interact with inspiring teachers. That is as true today at Genesee as it was then. 
Instructors like Carl Wahlstrom, instructors like Ruth Andes here at Genesee bring the passion and 
magic to their teaching day after day, and they’ve been doing it for more than 30 years. No question, 
every one of you in a cap and gown feels that way about at least one – it’s probably more – but at 
least one of the instructors here at Genesee. My teachers inspired me to become a teacher – 
specifically, a community college teacher. 
 
I found myself inspired again, right here at Genesee by yet another person who shares a passion for 
what community colleges 
do. Dr. Stuart Steiner 
challenged me when I was 
a dean here. He gave me 
great responsibilities, paid 
me well, set the bar high 
and gave me a great 
opportunity. Part of me 
wishes I could say that was 
a unique circumstance – 
you know, the leadership 
of this college looking at a 
guy like me and saying, 
“You could be more.” But 
my Genesee story isn’t 
unique. You see, this 
medium-sized rural college 
in upstate New York – 
Genesee Community 
College – has produced more community college presidents and more system chancellors than any 
other community college in the nation. That’s a distinction, my friends, that everyone here should 
take pride in. 
 
Now I have the pleasure of serving at the helm of the vibrant and dynamic community college 
system in Virginia – one of the nation’s largest. I hope that gives you a sense of why community 
colleges, and this community college in particular, are so important to me. They are like Ellis Island, 
an on-ramp if you will, to a great career and a great life…even for a short-sighted busboy. 
 
To the Class of 2008: I want to share with you a true story.  And yes, it’s brief. In New Market, 
Virginia – near the border with West Virginia, there’s a spot underground called “Endless Caverns.” 
It’s not far from its more famous cousin, Luray Caverns. Endless Caverns were discovered in 1879, 
by a couple of boys who were chasing a rabbit. They moved some rocks to continue their pursuit 
and came upon it. The caverns opened for visitors in the 1920s. 
 
The reason I bring up the caverns is a tradition there that I think is fascinating and speaks to the 
challenges you will face. Endless caverns, so far, live up to their name: the end has yet to be found. 
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Since just after the Civil War, on three separate occasions parties have been assembled and deployed 
with the mission of finding the boundaries of the caverns. 
 
The first team couldn’t. But they left their mark at the spot where their search ended: a glass bottle. 
Inside that bottle was a challenge. It declared their effort and called upon some unknown, future 
explorer or group to begin there on the next quest to find the end. The vast caverns have been 
explored for not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, but six miles – think of it, six miles! – 
and yet, the end has yet to be found. Perhaps it doesn’t end. 
  
To this day, three separate bottles have been set upon the ground, marking the end of an exploration 
effort and a challenge for the next. 
 
Ladies and gentlemen, that’s what we leave you. Soon enough, it will be your turn to pick up the 
bottle and carry on. 
 
See, the generation you follow has accomplished a lot – some good, some bad. But it is leaving you 
with at least as many challenges as it has solved. We’ll hand you the vaccine to polio, but we don’t 
have the answers to cancer, diabetes or AIDS. We’ll hand you the highest quality of life ever known, 
but we can’t tell you where to find the energy you’ll need to sustain it and improve it. We’ll hand you 
incredible weapons and strategies that can be used to win wars, but hardly any answers on how to 
prevent one. 
 
The book of things we know is simply not as big as the book of things we don’t. For instance, we 
cannot say exactly how many living things inhabit the Earth with us. In fact, at the current pace of 
our research, it will take a little over 15,000 years to catalog just all of the insects on our planet. The 
rest of the animal kingdom will take longer. We have yet to explore the depths of our own oceans. 
In 1958, two members of the U.S. Navy – in a tiny submarine – touched the bottom of the deepest 
part of the Pacific Ocean floor. It took them four-hours to descend nearly seven miles to the 
bottom. They spent twenty-minutes there looking out a key-hole sized window. Yet – just like the 
Apollo missions to the moon – we’ve never gone back. 
 
We are only beginning to understand the bodies we inhabit. Of the billions upon billions of cells 
that make up you, there are at least 200,000 different protein cells. We understand, so far, what only 
about 2% of them do. Those examples fail to scratch just the surface of the many mysteries and 
challenges that await our attention – that await your attention. 
 
It’s your turn. Combine the courage and perseverance you used to get here tonight with what 
Genesee has given you. Ignore the cynics; ignore the pessimists; ignore the fatalists who all say we 
can’t do better or say that our best days are behind us. They’re wrong. You are learners. You are 
leaders. 
 
Pick up the bottle. Embrace the challenge and show us the way forward. 
 
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DuBois: Remarks at Genesee Commencement
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Remarks at Genesee Community College Commencement

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 10 
12-14-2022 
Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor's Annual Planning Retreat (2009) 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor's Annual Planning Retreat (2009). Inquiry: The Journal 
of the Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/
10 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
 
 
Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor’s Annual Planning Retreat (2009) 
 
These remarks were delivered at the Portsmouth Renaissance Hotel & Conference Center on  
November 10, 2009. 
 
 
ood morning everyone.  It’s wonderful to be here with you.  Looking around the room, it’s 
easy to understand why Virginia’s Community Colleges are having so much success.  
 
I would also like to thank recognize our keynote speaker: Today, we are delighted to be joined by 
Michael Petters, the president of Northrop Grumman Newport News, a hard-working member of 
our State Board and our keynote speaker after just after lunch today. Mike, we are grateful for all of 
your efforts on behalf of the community college mission and we are delighted to see you today. 
 
My friends, Virginia’s Community Colleges are serving more students than ever before. Our 
partnerships with public and private four-year institutions across the commonwealth are growing 
stronger. We are being called upon to expand our leadership role in workforce development 
services. More and more people see the connection between our community college mission and our 
communities’ success. 
 
The students we are serving come to us seeking the skills and knowledge they need for a better life, a 
better job and a better future.  
 
Beyond the program acronyms, beyond the numbers, beyond the statistics, it is their progress that 
best measures our success. That is why we are proud to feature our students, and their stories, in this 
year’s annual report.  The stories in there are just incredible: 
 
o From the high school valedictorian who worked nights at a paper mill to afford college;  
o to the mother who overcame a coma and cancer to earn a degree;  
o to the refugees who fled massacre and genocide to study at our community colleges, 
pursuing degrees in radiology and economics with the purpose of helping others. 
 
These are compelling reminders of how Virginia’s Community Colleges are elevating our 
communities, commonwealth and beyond, one life at a time. Their stories inspire us and propel us 
toward meeting the ambitious goals we established in the Dateline 2009 strategic plan. I invite you to 
track our progress with regular updates at our website, myfuture.vccs.edu. 
 
I am proud of our work to firmly establish our system of community colleges as world class. Last 
year, we increased the number of transfer students and guaranteed admissions agreements. We 
served more students through our dual enrollment programs. We helped more employers meet 
workforce and workplace needs. We kept tuition affordable and – through the work of the college 
and system foundations – and built upon our relationships with generous individuals and private 
partners who understand the value of our community colleges and are willing to invest in them. 
 
But we need to do more when it comes to two other measures of our success:  retention and 
graduation. As a system of open-enrollment colleges, retention and graduation rates pose particular 
challenges. Our students should be leaving us with a degree or certificate in their hands, not simply a 
G 
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bag of credits. But we are not where we want to be when it comes to retention and graduation rates.  
We are not serving our students as well as we should. I believe we can do better.  But it will take the 
focus of us all – every leader in this room – to improve our retention and graduation rates. 
 
Working with Governor Tim Kaine and General Assembly leaders, we were able to create a bold, 
unique tool to make higher education more affordable to the children of working class families. The 
Two-Year Transfer Grant Program will 
help qualifying students afford the higher 
tuition they will encounter once they 
graduate from community college and 
continue their pursuit of a bachelor’s 
degree at a four-year institution. The first 
students who will be eligible for these 
grants began classes at our colleges this 
past fall. 
 
Innovative ideas, like the transfer grants, 
like our Middle College program, like our 
Career Coaches working in Virginia high 
schools, are necessary to Virginia’s 
continued success.  
 
Our commonwealth is proud of its title 
of being the best state in America for 
business – and rightly so! The global 
search for talent, however, compels us to 
do more, to serve more people, to 
prepare them with the education they 
need for a better life, a better job and a better future. Working together to do that is the only way we 
can know that Virginia is on a path that goes not simply forward, but upward. 
 
Thank you, once again, for all of the work you do and for taking the time to be part of this annual 
meeting. We’re going to enjoy our lunch. I will be back up here in just a bit to introduce Mike 
Petters. Like you, I’m looking forward to hearing his keynote address. Enjoy your lunch.  
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Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor\u27s Annual Planning Retreat (2009)

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 14 
12-14-2022 
Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor's Annual Planning Retreat (2012) 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor's Annual Planning Retreat (2012). Inquiry: The Journal 
of the Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/
14 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor’s Annual Planning Retreat (2012) 
 
These remarks were delivered on August 7, 2012. 
 
 
istinguished guests; friends and colleagues; ladies and gentlemen: good afternoon. I want to 
begin by thanking you for joining us at this year’s annual planning retreat. This event is now 
in its tenth year and getting better all the time. In fact, one of our community college presidents says 
this is the most important statewide event of the year for his staff – and I’m sure he wasn’t saying 
that just because his college is only a few minutes down the road and he doesn’t have to pay for 
hotel rooms. 
 
I am grateful to have with us some very special friends and higher education leaders joining us today. 
I am, of course, talking about Dr. Martha Kanter, the United States Undersecretary of Education 
and Laura Fornash, Virginia’s Secretary of Education. Both of these ladies are not just impressive 
and accomplished leaders but they have also been friends, both directly and indirectly, to our 
community college mission. Please join me in offering both of them a round of applause in 
appreciation for their partnership and hard work. 
 
Their presence today is symbolic of something that I believe is very important today and it’s 
something that I talk about a lot. Higher education is a unifying issue in our nation today. As a 
nation, we need more college credentials to bolster our nation’s economic prowess in the 21st 
century. As individuals, we need college credentials to bolster our chances at a good job and a 
rewarding career in the 21st century. 
 
Now, Martha and Laura, I only know this because I read it in the paper; but there might be a few 
things that your respective bosses don’t see eye-to-eye on; there might be a few issues that they don’t 
agree about. But higher education isn’t one of them. Martha, thanks in part to your leadership, 
President Obama is calling for an additional five million more college graduates in America by the 
year 2020. Laura, thanks in part to your leadership, Governor McDonnell is calling for 100,000 more 
college graduates in Virginia by the year 2025. Both of those goals, of course, dove-tail with what the 
Lumina Foundation calls their big goal: to increase the percentage of Americans holding 
postsecondary degrees to 60-percent by the year 2025. The heavy-lifting necessary to reach all of 
those goals are going to be done by community colleges. It’s going to be done by the people sitting 
in this room today. 
 
So, Martha, the next time you talk to your boss please tell him that the folks at Virginia’s 
Community Colleges are grateful for his support and tell him to keep talking about our nation’s 
community colleges. And you may want to ask him to keep working with us to make filing out the 
federal financial aid form and easier process for the people we serve. And, Laura, the next time you 
talk to your boss please tell him that the folks at Virginia’s Community Colleges are grateful for his 
support and tell him to keep talking about the prominent role we play in his signature higher 
education agenda.  
 
My Remarks 
Friends, I want to talk with you briefly today about three things: First, I want to share with you some 
good news about the work we have been doing. 
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Second, I want to talk with you about why and how we need to leverage that success to overcome 
some sobering threats that face our industry. Third, I want to talk with you about some new ways I 
see our mission coming into focus for the 21st century. 
 
And finally, I want to just highlight some of the break-out sessions that we have assembled for you 
for this retreat. 
 
Achieve 2015 
Let’s start with the good news. Three years ago, with the help of a dream team of community college 
leaders – some of whom are in the room today – we introduced an ambitious agenda called Achieve 
2015. It was a bold six-year strategic plan. What made it different from a lot of other strategic plans 
you see is that it is a public agenda. It’s not focused on the needs of our community colleges but 
rather on the needs of the communities we serve. 
 
It began with a series of town hall meetings where, together, we went to the public, to business 
leaders, to elected leaders, to community leaders and to students we served and we asked them, 
“What do you need from your community college to be successful or more successful?” 
 
After eighteen months of collecting that input, putting it all together, breaking it all apart, wringing 
our hands, gnashing our teeth, growing some gray hair, losing some hair and perhaps even shedding 
a few tears, the taskforce produced the five-point plan you see behind me. 
 
So, where are we after three years? Well, we were right. We were right. And we were wrong. We 
were right about these goals. This public agenda placed our colleges exactly on the path we needed 
to be on and gave us a head start on those larger public policy goals that would later come at us 
from both Capitol Square and Capitol Hill. We were right to set these stretch goals. It made us 
nervous at the time. The economy hit bottom as we were putting this plan together. It would have 
been easy to just hunker-down and batten the hatches. Instead, we looked around and wondered 
how many more people we could help. 
 
We were wrong, however, in what we thought that outer-limit was. We underestimated ourselves. 
We underestimated how many people would seek their future at our doors. And we underestimated 
how long it would take us to achieve the majority of these ambitious goals. 
 
When you consider the URP goals tucked within those five focus areas, it’s easy to see that we truly 
have eight goals contained within Achieve 2015. As we stand here today, ladies and gentlemen, it is an 
honor to share with you that we have already met five of those goals! And we are on track to 
complete all the others. 
 
Let’s take a look at some of those. Our first goal has two parts: 
 
Reengineering 
But that’s not the only good news I have to share with you. We are finding success with another “All 
Hands on Deck” initiative that has allowed us to examine and re-examine everything Virginia’s 
Community Colleges do. Of course, I’m talking about the work being done by the VCCS 
Reengineering Task Force. 
 
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Since we met at this planning retreat one year ago, the taskforce has taken their original ten big ideas 
and have put in motion nearly 30 workgroups to vet, explore and refine recommendations for the 
task force to advance. Obviously, that’s a lot of moving parts. Given the intensive nature of that 
work and the inclusive way we go about doing it, those workgroups will not cross the finish line at 
the same time. 
 
But we’re feeling good about the ones that have already begun to bear fruit. That includes: 
 
• The sharing of distance learning classes that has opened doors for thousands of students 
across the state who may not have otherwise been able to access those courses; 
• A transition to our new developmental mathematics approach that focuses on the needs and 
the deficiencies of individual students. So far, we have only anecdotal results from it but they 
are encouraging and preparing us for this year’s transition with reading and writing; 
• A broadening of our faculty employment spectrum that gives our colleges yet another 
pathway to expand the number of full-time teaching faculty; and 
• A recasting of the faculty performance review system which we believe will elevate the 
process from a bureaucratic exercise in paperwork to one that ensures our colleges are hiring 
the best instructors and we are helping them become the best professionals they can be. 
 
I’ve been asked, more than once, when do I think the work of the Reengineering Task Force will be 
complete? The answer, my friends, is that it won’t be – at least not for the foreseeable future. 
 
We are working now in what’s really the Age of Reengineering. That’s true, I believe, for our 
colleges, our industry, our commonwealth and our country. The need to re-examine and reinvent 
ourselves – the very thing that we offer to the people we serve – needs to become part of our DNA 
and it is. As we institutionalize this work, however, we may need to rename it. I’m open to your 
suggestions. 
 
American Higher Education Today 
Change is essential, not just for our colleges, but for our entire industry. It’s a tall order to articulate 
everything that’s now happening with higher education in America. Perhaps the word crisis might be 
a good place to start. 
 
Just this year, we have seen some stunning developments that bode badly for our industry: 
 
• One, student loan debt has hit an all-time high, surpassing consumer credit card and car loan 
debt. I seem to recall similar warnings about mortgage debt just before the bottom dropped 
out on the real estate market; 
• Two, one of Virginia’s leading universities went through a gut-wrenching and very public 
leadership struggle after its president and board chair clashed on the pace of and nature of 
change in how the university works and what it offers; and 
• Three, we’ve read and we’ve seen some dramatic student protests in California as leaders 
there have been forced to raise what were some of the lowest tuition and fee rates in the 
nation? 
 
As we heard at a convening of the Rebuilding America’s Middle Class, or RAMC, meeting national 
pollsters are finding that parents across the country are worried that the cost of higher education is 
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placing out of the reach of their family. It’s no surprise that parents are worried about the costs of 
higher education. It’s tough to see how the numbers add up. 
 
According to federal statistics, the average cost of earning a bachelor’s degree at a public university – 
and this is assuming that the student is attending full-time and finishing in four years – is more than 
$60,000i. That number more than doubles if the student is attending a private university. Meanwhile, 
the national median income between the years 2006 and 2010 was just under $52,000ii. What exactly 
do we expect a family of four to do? 
 
The numbers are better here in Virginia, but not by much. According to SCHEV statistics, the 
average cost of earning a bachelor’s degree at one of our 16 public universities is nearly $40,000. 
Make that $70,000iii should the student live on-campus for all four years. The Council of 
Independent Colleges in Virginia, which represents the commonwealth’s 28 private colleges do not 
publish average prices on their 
website, though they boast there 
that nearly three-quarters of 
their students used financial aid 
packages that averaged almost 
$21,000iv per year. Meanwhile, 
Virginia’s median income 
between the years 2006 and 
2010 was just over $61,000v and 
it’s fair to question how much 
Northern Virginia skews that 
figure. 
 
So, again, I ask: what exactly do 
we expect a family of four to 
do? Are we looking at the 
beginning of the next Border’s 
Books and Music? At a time when more and more leaders agree that our nation needs more and 
more college graduates, the numbers simply don’t line up to get us there. Something needs to 
change and I believe that our community colleges will play a leading role in bringing about that 
change. 
 
VCCS in the 21st Century 
So what does that change mean for us? What does is mean for the mission of Virginia’s Community 
Colleges? The who, what, when, where and why of our mission is firmly established. Who do we 
serve? Individuals, families, employers and communities looking to close that gap, at least somewhat 
between their American reality and their American Dream. 
 
What do we offer? The skills and knowledge necessary for them to compete for and win the 
opportunities, jobs and a brighter future. When? Now. Tomorrow and increasingly, on-demand. 
Where? Twenty-three colleges, 40 campuses, dozens of centers and be it a traditional monitor of just 
a smartphone, on a screen near you. 
 
Why? Because Governor Mills Godwin, and every governor who followed, the 1966 General 
Assembly, and every one that followed and Dr. Dana Hamel, and every chancellor and president 
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who followed, understood that Virginia needed institutions that were big enough and local enough 
to address the state’s unmet needs in higher education and workforce training. 
 
It is the “how” of our mission that demands our discernment, calls for our creativity and forces our 
flexibility. Virginia cannot afford for us to allow sentiment, nostalgia and habit to dictate what we do 
moving forward. 
 
In fact, I see the 21st century needs of those we serve changing how we work in at least two distinct 
ways: One, the role our colleges play, especially those in the rural parts of Virginia, is undergoing a 
fundamental shift. I used to describe the role those president’s play as that of a town minister. Well, 
increasingly you are trading in your clerical collar for a pair of futuristic glasses. 
 
Our colleges are no longer just a place where the community can come together. We are now 
becoming the leading institutions of regional change – the place where elected leaders, business 
leaders and community leaders are comfortable coming together to unite behind a vision of what 
their corner of the world can be? So, I wonder: are we preparing you to be this crossroad? And how 
can we do it better? 
 
And two, I believe it is time for our colleges to take the lead on establishing, creating, promoting and 
expanding the pathways to a $25,000, or less, bachelor’s degree. When I consider our mission of 
addressing Virginia’s unmet higher education needs and when I look at the median income of 
Virginia families and the costs of a baccalaureate I can only conclude that this is an unmet need.  
 
We are beginning that effort with an agreement that will be publicly announced later this month 
with the help of the Governor’s office. We have signed an agreement with Western Governor’s 
University that will create a pathway for a nursing student to earn a bachelor’s for less than $20,000. 
That will establish a framework that we can use to develop baccalaureate pathways in other high-
demand and high-employment fields like, perhaps, IT, teaching, law enforcement and other health-
related fields. 
 
Five years ago, I would have told you that our colleges had no need to get into the baccalaureate 
game. We had more than enough on our plate to say grace over. But my thinking has evolved on 
this issue – inspired by the elevated demands of fields like nursing, where starting jobs increasing 
require a bachelor’s degree. My thinking has been changed by the feeling that more and more 
families fear that their children are priced out of our universities and their hesitation to saddle them 
with mortgage-sized loans for a home they don’t own. We simply cannot ignore the need. 
 
Three Types of Critics 
There is nothing simple about the changes being required of our work. Then again, throughout my 
30-year community college career, the road forward has usually been uphill. I often find, however, 
that when the path is the steepest we do some of our best work, right? 
 
Our community colleges enjoy the support of elected leaders from both parties and all levels of 
government as well as business leaders from across the state. We also enjoy a reservoir of good will 
that appears in statewide polling we do every year. But our support is not universal. 
 
Let me briefly speak about the three types of people who stand in the way of our mission. I describe 
them as people who don’t believe in higher education; people who don’t believe in our community 
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colleges; and – the most challenging group – people who don’t believe in themselves. The first 
group, the people who don’t believe in higher education, found a hero in one of this year’s 
presidential candidates and a more-recent voice in a popular columnist. 
 
While campaigning for president, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum said, and I quote, 
“Colleges and universities… are undermining the very principles of our country every single day by 
indoctrinating kids in…ideology.” And he called the President a “Snob” for wanting every child in 
America to go to college. 
 
We saw similar sentiments at the beginning of this past summer from syndicated columnist Robert J. 
Samuelson, who wrotevi, and I quote: 
“The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all 
Americans homeowners, it’s now doing more harm than good…We overdid it. The obsessive faith 
in college has backfired.” 
 
Samuelsson goes onto write: 
“There’s much worrying these days that some countries (examples: South Korea, Norway, Japan) 
have higher college attendance rates, including post-secondary school technical training, than we do. 
This anxiety is misplaced…On paper, we’re turning out enough college graduates to meet our 
needs.” 
 
i http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76 
ii http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2012-02-09/income-rising/53033322/1 
iii http://www.schev.edu/Reportstats/2011TuitionFeesReport.pdf?from= 
iv http://www.cicv.org/Affordability.aspx 
v http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51000.html 
vi http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-time-to-drop-the-college-for-all-
crusade/2012/05/27/gJQAzcUGvU_story_1.html 
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Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor\u27s Annual Planning Retreat (2012)

Remarks at the VCCS Chancellor\u27s Annual Planning Retreat (2015)

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 35 
12-14-2022 
Commencement Address at Dabney S. Lancaster Community 
College 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Commencement Address at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College. Inquiry: The 
Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/
vol25/iss2/35 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
Commencement Address at Dabney S. Lancaster  
Community College 
 
These remarks were delivered at the Convocation Center in Clifton Forge, VA on May 12, 2017. 
 
 
adies and gentlemen; distinguished guests: good afternoon. To the class of 2017: 
congratulations! Today is a big day – one of those days that will stick with you for a long time, 
and it will become a pivot point. You will collect experiences and memories and think about them 
happening either before or after you graduated from college. That’s just how it works. 
 
Do not, do not, do not mistake the hundreds of you wearing caps and gowns as a sign that 
graduating from college is easy; it’s not. Enrolling in college takes courage. Finishing with a degree 
or credential takes perseverance.  Now that you have done it puts you in a minority that remains 
much too small in America today. I appreciate what you’ve accomplished because I know how 
overwhelming it has been to arrive at this moment.  
 
Your printed programs probably contains the boring stuff about my background. What I want you 
to know is that I’m honored to be with you today, and I remember what it was like to be where you 
are. 
 
More than thirty years ago – right around this time of the year – I was walking across the stage at my 
high school, picking up my diploma, wondering how in the world I had even graduated. 
Academically speaking, I finished near 
the bottom of my class, if not dead last. 
But you know what?  I didn’t care. I just 
wanted out. I didn’t know what the 
future held for me and I didn’t care. I 
wanted a job. What I really wanted was 
money in my pocket. And so, I got my 
wish – a job washing dishes in the 
restaurant in my neighborhood. Never 
once had I considered going to college. 
No one in my family ever had, and I 
saw no reason to change that. 
 
Dish-pan-hands, my friends: that was 
the extent of my aspirations. The good 
news is after only a few months, I got 
ambitious and thought yeah, I can move up. I did, which meant busing tables. I figured if I could get 
on the floor, I could at least see my customers. At the time I considered that an aggressive and bold 
career move. My mom wasn’t impressed. And I’m grateful she wasn’t. She saw something in me that 
I couldn’t even see in myself. 
 
We developed a routine. Every day, as I got dressed for work, Mom would harass me. “Glenn, you 
need to go to college, “she said while shoving a community college application into my hand. “Fill 
L 
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this thing out, now.  You can do this.” Back and forth it went. But, you know how mothers are. I 
eventually caved in and filled out the application. 
 
I was dumbfounded when an acceptance letter came through the mail. I was convinced it was a 
mistake. Someone at the college must have gotten my name confused with someone else. Mom 
pushed me again and I decided to go to class. 
 
I wasn’t taking any chances, however. I kept the acceptance letter in my shirt pocket for proof. I was 
certain that someone would eventually spot me, realize the college’s mistake and ask me to leave. My 
next surprise was that I found the classes to be engaging and interesting. Gradually, I developed 
meaningful relationships – especially with my instructors.  
 
College changed me. My curiosity grew and so did my confidence. While there’s nothing wrong with 
busing tables, it was no longer enough for me. For the first time that I could remember, I wondered 
just how far I could go. Looking back, I can tell you that working with inspiring teachers is what 
made the difference. Some things, never change, right? I bet every one of you in a cap and gown 
feels that way about at least one – it’s probably more – but at least one of the instructors at this 
college.  
 
Join me, will you, in giving your teachers a round of applause? My teachers inspired me to become a 
teacher – specifically, a community college teacher. That led to another job and another job and so 
forth. Now I have the pleasure of leading Virginia’s community college system – one of the nation’s 
largest and most dynamic community college systems. And in my humble opinion, the nation’s best. 
 
Part of me wishes that my community college story is unique – you know, the push of a caring 
parent, an instructor or two looking at a guy like me and saying, “You could be more.” But the 
beauty of that story is it’s not unique. That story plays out across community colleges every day. 
  
This is why community colleges are so important to me.  They are today’s version of the Ellis Island 
you read about in history books: they’re an on-ramp to a great opportunities, promising careers and 
a chance to live the good life, even for a short-sighted busboy! 
 
So here’s the part where I am supposed to share with you some nugget of life wisdom – something 
for you to carry forward. I’ll make it very simple. I learned this as a community college student and 
life has confirmed it time and again: Great leaders are great teachers, and great teachers are great 
leaders. 
 
As someone who now holds a postsecondary credential, you need to know this: Great leaders are 
great teachers, and great teachers are great leaders. As you move forward into your next opportunity, 
you now have what’s needed to be a great teacher, and a great leader. And thank goodness for you. 
Never once has our country suffered from having too many great teachers and great leaders. You 
don’t need to be a CEO or a company president to be a leader. And you don’t need to be a formal, 
certified classroom instructor to be a teacher. 
 
You just have to remember three things. First, great leaders and great teachers know that in order 
for something to have value, you have to work for it. There’s a reason not everyone tries to go to 
college. It takes hard work. There’s a reason that not everybody who starts college finishes it. It takes 
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hard work. There’s a reason why not everyone holds a college credential. It takes hard work. The 
value of that credential comes from all the hard work it represents. 
 
Second, great leaders and great teachers are always looking for ways to up the goal. There are always 
ways to do more and to be more. There are always ways to help more people. There are always ways 
to answer questions and solve problems. Great leaders and great teachers are never satisfied with the 
status quo. 
 
And third, great leaders and great 
teachers can get more out of 
someone than that person can get 
out of themselves. It can be a 
push or a pull. It can be a kick in 
the pants or a pat on the back. It 
can be a disappointing look or an 
encouraging word. Great military 
leaders throughout history, great 
coaches throughout sports, and 
great managers throughout 
modern organizations understand 
this. Helping someone overcome 
a big obstacle can be just a matter 
of getting them out of their own 
way. 
 
So, no matter where your journey 
takes you next, I urge you to find 
ways to be a great leader and that 
great teacher. Don’t just look for 
one. Be one. I urge you to use and 
share the knowledge, the 
experience and the wisdom your 
new college credential represents. 
 
And I urge you, the class of 2017, 
to show those family members who supported you along the way, and those teachers who inspired 
you along the way, and those friends that you made along the way that, yes, you are worthy of every 
bit of that effort by what you decide to do and what you decide to contribute. 
 
Thank you and Godspeed.  
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Commencement Address at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 26 Number 1 Article 1 
4-17-2023 
Front Cover (Spring 2023) 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Art and Design Commons, and the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
(2023). Front Cover (Spring 2023). Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges, 26 (1). 
Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol26/iss1/1 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
1
et al.: Cover
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Video: Guaranteed Transfer Agreements: The Bridge to Universities

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 1 A Lasting Legacy Article 5 
4-6-2022 
Expanding Opportunity with Community College Transfer Grants 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Expanding Opportunity with Community College Transfer Grants. Inquiry: The Journal 
of the Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (1). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss1/
5 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
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Expanding Opportunity with Community College Transfer Grants 
 
This op-ed was originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2007. 
 
 
inding a good job will soon be impossible for those who lack a college degree. The link 
between education and success is largely understood. College graduates are more likely to be 
employed and earning better pay. Recent statistics show that the median income of a Virginian with 
only a high school education is roughly $7,000 less than someone who has an associate degree and 
almost $22,000 less than a person holding a bachelor’s degree. 
 
Income statistics, however, reveal only part of what’s occurring. Technology and other knowledge-
based industries are changing the very nature of Virginia’s job market. For example, after centuries 
as the commonwealth’s leading exports, coal and tobacco are eclipsed by the microchip. And good 
paying jobs – like those at our factories and mechanic shops – that were once obtainable with only a 
high school diploma now require postsecondary education. 
 
More and more, Virginia families understand this. They know that their child needs a college 
education to lead an independent life. But only one in five Virginia students now in the 9th grade will 
earn a college degree. 
Rising tuition prices that 
outpace family incomes 
are a big reason for 
that. As public officials, we 
must expand the access 
families have to an 
affordable college 
education. 
 
To that end, an important 
reform effort, the Virginia 
Community College 
transfer grant proposal, is 
under consideration by the 
General Assembly. This 
proposal will encourage 
more students to go 
further in their college 
education, it will make 
obtaining that education more affordable, and it will make Virginia’s higher education system more 
productive. As introduced, the transfer grant proposal would hold mandatory tuition and fees to the 
community college rate for a student’s third and fourth at a four-year school – saving Virginia 
families thousands of dollars a year. 
             
To qualify for a transfer grant, a student would have to earn a 3.0 grade-point average or better while 
completing an associate degree, apply for financial aid, demonstrate financial need, and enroll in one 
of Virginia’s public or private four-year colleges or universities upon graduation from a community 
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college. For qualified students moving on to a private university, their grant amount would be 
determined by the average cost of tuition and fees at Virginia’s public four-year universities. Almost 
1,800 students would benefit from the grants in the first year, if the proposal, as introduced, wins 
legislative approval. 
 
Virginia’s four-year colleges and universities, which already partner with community colleges 
through an impressive number of guaranteed admissions agreements, would benefit by having 
motivated, successful students transferring onto their campuses—students that succeed at the same 
rate as their traditional students. The grant program positions community colleges as an on-ramp to 
a four-year degree and is also a cost-effective way for our higher education system to absorb the 
increased demand of the thousands of additional students expected in the next five years. 
 
The transfer grant proposal meets higher education priorities expressed by the Republican and 
Democratic leaders of the General Assembly – who want our higher education network to operate 
as cost-effectively as possible – and Governor Tim Kaine, who calls in his economic development 
strategic plan for an increase the percentage of Virginians enrolled in college and increase the 
proportion of Virginia’s population that holds a bachelor’s degree.  The community college transfer 
grant would help achieve all these goals. 
 
Jobs and opportunities will go where knowledge and talent thrives in the 21st century. The bad news 
is that secret is out, and nations across the world are positioning themselves to be the destination of 
that future opportunity. But the good news is that Virginia has the people and resources to remain a 
leader. Virginia has everything to gain and nothing to lose by making affordable access to higher 
education a bigger priority. For the commonwealth, it means being better positioned to compete and 
win in a truly global economy. For individuals, and the communities in which they live, it means a 
better life. 
 
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Expanding Opportunity with Community College Transfer Grants

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 6 
12-14-2022 
Remarks for the House Appropriations Committee 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Remarks for the House Appropriations Committee. Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia 
Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/6 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
	
Remarks for the House Appropriations Committee 
 
These remarks were delivered on January 21, 2009. 
 
 
hairman Putney; Vice Chairman Hamilton; and members of the committee: good afternoon. I 
would like to speak briefly with you about three items, and in doing so will address the 
questions you posed to me in your letter. 
 
First, in our 42-year history, we’ve had no greater partner than the General Assembly in the effort to 
address Virginia’s unmet needs in higher education and workforce training. 
 
• Our community colleges are serving more than 350,000 Virginians this year in transfer-
related degree programs and high-demand, high-growth workforce training programs – 
helping to create the intellectual infrastructure essential to Virginia’s global competitiveness. 
• The enrollment increase of 16,000 we’ve accommodated since the fall of 2006 – and I 
cannot emphasis this enough – is a bigger number than the individual enrollment figures of 
nine of Virginia’s 15 public four-year universities.   
• Our community colleges serve two out of every three undergraduate students attending a 
public college or university. 
• We serve three out of every five minority 
undergraduate students. 
• We serve three out of every five Pell 
recipients attending public colleges and 
universities. 
• And finally, it’s more than just rhetoric 
when we talk about community colleges 
being the on-ramp to a four-year degree.  
Last year, more than one-third of those 
who earned a bachelor’s degree in 
Virginia began their education at, or 
supplemented it along the way, with 
courses from, Virginia’s Community 
Colleges. 
 
The opportunities our community colleges create 
will help Virginia weather this economy and 
recover from it faster.  The only way to break 
through a recession is to create jobs and our 
community colleges have been at the forefront of 
that.   
 
Our workforce training programs have played a 
key role in closing the biggest and most recent 
economic deals including Swedwood in Danville; 
Rolls Royce in Southside; Cannon Virginia, Inc. in Hampton Roads.  Combined, those 
announcements mean millions of dollars invested in Virginia and the creation of good-paying jobs. 
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As incredible as all those statistics are, we know that we must do more if we are to maintain 
Virginia’s competiveness and sterling business reputation. 
 
Second, Mr. Chairman, we would be shortchanging Virginia families and businesses by focusing only 
on today’s challenges and ignoring a larger problem looming on the horizon. Let me give you just a 
glimpse of what we see ahead and what we’re planning for to illustrate my second point. Nationally, 
we are poised to replace our most highly-educated generation, the Baby Boomers, with a generation 
that is less educated. Germany is the only other industrialized nation to share that dubious 
distinction.   
 
I think most of us in this room would agree that 12th grade is no longer the finish line.  We need to 
do more to help more Virginians get a college education.  If we don’t, Virginia’s ability to compete 
globally will be jeopardized. For years, Virginia has prospered by attracting college degree-holders 
from elsewhere. Our domestic production of degrees, i.e., the percentage of native-born Virginians 
who earn a college degree--has not kept pace with the national average.  
 
To rely on importing college degrees is not a sustainable strategy. Others have caught onto it. And 
the global competition for talent is becoming fierce.  Good paying jobs – the kind that will support a 
family – will follow the talent, anywhere now in the world.     
 
And third, Mr. Chairman, I would like to talk about the interconnected challenges of budgeting and 
tuition setting. The proposed budget represents the third round of general fund budget cuts to be 
imposed on our community colleges.  That’s a total of $60 million. Although we’re pitching in like 
everyone else to do our part in dealing with the current economy, the reality is that serving our 
unprecedented enrollment growth, with nearly a million new square feet of physical plant space 
opening in this biennium, with demands from business and industry to keep current in workforce 
programs and technology, it is incredibly difficult to address Virginia’s growing unmet needs for 
quality programs and services while absorbing round after round of budget reductions. 
 
Now the introduced budget includes significant increases to both state financial aid, which we 
welcome, and to the Two-Year College Transfer Grant, which we also welcome.  Both proposals 
would make college attendance more affordable for the families and students we serve — a priority 
that this committee and I both share.  I would respectfully request your support on those measures. 
Affordability has been one of the driving principles leading our state board, over the past five years, 
to embrace a strategy of incremental and measured adjustments to our tuition rate. 
 
In fact, since 2001, tuition increases at Virginia’s Community Colleges in terms or real dollars have 
always been less than our public four-year counterparts. Our board and college presidents are keenly 
aware of who we serve and how important it is for us to keep our price affordable. Our mandatory 
tuition and fees are—on average – less than one half of those charged by our public four-year 
partners – and more than $300 below the national average for community colleges. 
 
I understand that at your budget retreat this past fall it was pointed-out that Virginia’s Community 
Colleges are more affordable than our peer institutions in other states.  We take pride in that and will 
continue to work with you, our partners in the General Assembly, to continue to earn such 
compliments in the future. Our history and culture of lean, efficient operations is saving taxpayers’ 
money as well.  Taxpayer costs for supporting a Virginia community college student is only half of 
what it would be if that student were attending a four-year institution. Further, we are exploring 
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every option possible to enhance 
access. We have increased both the 
applications for and rewards from 
Title IV federal financial aid.  We 
have built up our own financial aid 
reserves.  And we have doubled, over 
the last five years, the holdings of our 
community college foundations, 
creating and distributing more 
scholarships. 
 
Our colleges remain dedicated to our 
mission of providing opportunity to 
all-comers and we will not use today’s 
limited resources as an excuse to shy 
away from that mission.  To the greatest extent possible, our community colleges will be the game-
changing economic tool that Virginia built them to be and now needs them to be. 
 
Thank you. 
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DuBois: Remarks for the House Appropriations Committee
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Remarks for the House Appropriations Committee

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges 
Volume 25 
Number 2 A Lasting Legacy Pt. 2 Article 9 
12-14-2022 
Commencement Address at Blue Ridge Community College 
Glenn DuBois 
Virginia Community College System 
Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry 
 Part of the Higher Education Commons 
Recommended Citation 
DuBois, G. (2022). Commencement Address at Blue Ridge Community College. Inquiry: The Journal of the 
Virginia Community Colleges, 25 (2). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol25/iss2/9 
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ VCCS. It has been accepted for 
inclusion in Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ 
VCCS. For more information, please contact tcassidy@vccs.edu. 
 
Commencement Address at Blue Ridge Community College 
 
These remarks were delivered on May 16, 2009. 
 
 
resident Perkins, faculty and staff; proud moms and dads, and family members; distinguished 
guests; and the graduating class of 2009: good morning. 
 
From my time as a community student through today, I have spent nearly 40 years in higher 
education. And I’ve been to a lot of commencements. I have learned is that there are three things a 
commencement speaker must accomplish: 
 
1. You need to congratulate those in the caps and gowns – and the families that supported 
them – on a job well done. 
2. You need to offer some meaningful insight. 
3. And most importantly, you need to be brief about it. 
 
I promise you that I will do my best on all three accounts. 
 
This morning, Blue Ridge Community College is awarding nearly 500 degrees and certificates. That 
includes the first-ever graduates of the college’s innovative Aviation Maintenance Technology 
program. 
 
As college graduates, you have beaten the odds. Did you know that the percentage of Virginians 
who pursue and complete a college program has remained stagnant for decades?  In fact, only one 
out of five ninth graders in Virginia will complete a college degree on-time. That is something we 
need to change if we, and the communities we live in, are going to compete globally. Opportunity is 
attracted to knowledge, skills and talent – and it will now go anywhere in the world to find it.   
 
That brings me to the question I want to pose to our graduates this morning:  What’s next for you? 
We’ll get to that in a moment. 
 
The Importance of Education 
Let’s focus just a bit on how you got to this point.  I know it wasn’t easy. In 1971, I graduated high 
school without a single thought about what I wanted from the future. Frankly, I didn’t care. I just 
wanted out of school. I wanted a job. I wanted some money in my pocket. 
 
And so, I got my wish – a job washing dishes in the restaurant in my neighborhood. You know, I 
had never even considered college. No teacher, no coach, not even a friend of mine had even put 
the idea of college in my mind. In fact, the word college wasn’t even in my vocabulary. Dish-pan-
hands, my friend: that was the extent of my aspirations. 
 
My mom – a single parent – was not impressed. And I’m grateful she wasn’t. She thought I had 
more brainpower than that – even if I couldn’t see it. 
 
So every day – and I mean every day – she would harass me about it. “Glenn, you need to go to 
college,” she said, while shoving a community college application into my hand. “Fill this thing out, 
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now.  You can do this.” We’d go back and forth about it. But you know how mothers are. I 
eventually caved in. 
 
I was shocked when my acceptance letter arrived. In fact, I was convinced it was a mistake. Maybe 
someone in the registrar’s office got my name confused with another. I decided to give it a try and 
show up for class. 
 
I wasn’t taking any chances, however. I kept the acceptance letter in my shirt pocket because I was 
certain that someone would eventually spot me, realize the college’s mistake and ask me to leave. 
 
Surprisingly, I found the classes to be engaging and interesting. Soon, I developed meaningful 
relationships – especially with some of my teachers. Beyond my mom, they were the first people to 
ever really encourage me. 
That changed me. It gave 
me confidence. And, for the 
first time ever, it made me 
wonder how far I could go. 
 
Isn’t it simply amazing how 
elevating and inspiring a 
great teacher can be? No 
doubt, all of you graduating 
this morning feel that way 
about, at least, one of the 
teachers you had here at 
Blue Ridge Community 
College. I’m sure you do. 
These teachers, in their own 
way, had a hand in helping 
these graduates get here this 
morning. Would you join me now in showing your appreciation for what they do? 
 
If you are lucky, my friends, you will find mentors and people who inspire you throughout your life.  
I have. And if you will afford me just a moment of personal privilege, I want to tell you about one 
that is special to me. 
 
The Importance of Jim Perkins 
For this person, today’s commencement exercise is the final one in his Blue Ridge career – a 
significant moment for a man who has loved this community and this college for years. In turn, they 
have loved him right back. I am, of course, talking about Dr. Jim Perkins, the college’s president.  
Like me, Jim is a native of New York. As John F. Kennedy would say, he’s become a hybrid, 
meaning he operates with southern efficiency and northern charm. 
 
Most of my face-to-face encounters with Jim occur in Richmond, amid gatherings of all 23 Virginia 
community college presidents. There, it has been suggested that Jim is the E.F Hutton of the group: 
He may not speak often but when he does, everyone listens. 
 
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Jim Perkins is a leader who can disagree with you, without being disagreeable. He is a leader who 
understands that managing others means supporting them, giving them opportunities, and teaching 
by example. Jim is the mathematician who never forgets the human side of an equation. And, Jim is 
a personal friend. 
 
Around campus, Jim is known for being actively involved with students. When the SGA, the PTK 
or the SIFE team has an event, he’s there. People around the community will tell you, “You can’t 
say ‘no’ to Jim Perkins.” That’s a tribute not only to Jim’s work but also that of his lovely wife, 
Linda. I would be remiss if I didn’t thank her for her support of Jim and the good work she has 
done with the college’s foundation.   
Jim is also known – or should I say infamous? – for his addiction to the Coffee Corner; as well as 
that big, beaming smile that comes from watching his grandkids ride the ponies at the college’s Arts 
and Crafts Festival.  
 
Jim’s career is a textbook example of how to be an outstanding president. And in retiring, he is 
leaving us with one of the finest community colleges in the nation. Would you please join me now in 
showing your appreciation for Jim Perkins and what he has done for Blue Ridge Community 
College? 
 
I was inspired by my teachers – people cut from the very same cloth that Jim Perkins was cut from.  
Those teachers inspired me to become a teacher. First, I was a community college teacher, then an 
administrator in New York, and now I have the pleasure of serving at the helm of the vibrant and 
dynamic community college system in the country. 
 
I hope that gives you a sense of why education is so important to me – and why I am so proud to 
see these graduates sitting in front of me today. 
 
The Importance of Your Achievement 
So what does it mean to be graduating this morning? The cap and gown; the family and the fuss; the 
certificate or degree that will soon be framed on your wall – what does it all mean? In a word, it 
means everything. The ability to think, to reason, to analyze is essential to success. And the degree or 
certificate you are about to receive is basically a receipt – a validation that you have developed these 
abilities. 
 
Which brings me back to the question with which I began: What’s next? There is something 
confounding about the human condition. I think it is a spirit of restlessness that’s almost 
paradoxical. You see, the more educated we become; the more we appreciate what it is we don’t 
know. The more progress we achieve; the more we seek. The farther we go; the more driven we 
become. 
 
That spirit propelled men and women to explore every corner of the world and even to the moon. 
And today, our need to explore has never been greater. When you become college graduates, you 
become the keeper of that drive and spirit. See, the generation you follow has accomplished a lot – 
some good, some bad.  But it is leaving you with at least as many challenges as it has solved. 
 
We’ll hand you the vaccine to polio, but we don’t have the answers to cancer, diabetes or AIDS. 
We’ll hand you the highest standard of living ever known to mankind, but we can’t tell you where to 
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find the energy you’ll need to sustain it and improve it. We’ll hand you incredible weapons and 
strategies that can be used to win a war, but hardly any answers on how to prevent one. The book of 
things we know is simply not as big as the book of things we don’t. It may always be so. Filling that 
next chapter, however, will be up to you.   
 
So, again I ask: What’s next? It was our job to prepare you for that question with the education and 
experience you earned here at Blue Ridge Community College. It’s now your job to answer that 
question: What’s next? 
 
Choose wisely. And good luck. 
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