2016 STATE OF THE COLLEGE | May 10, 2017

Chancellors Address to Oakland County Board of Commissioners

Relevant By Design

Good evening, Chair Gingell, Vice-Chair Spisz, honored Commissioners, Trustees, and guests. I am Tim
Meyer, Chancellor of Oakland Community College, and on behalf of the College, I thank you for the
opportunity to present this years State of the College report. I would also like to congratulate you on the
three awards you recently received for your gun safety, anti-bullying, and road improvement programs.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank members of OCCs elected Board of Trustees in
attendance today

Oakland Community College is proud of our partnership with Oakland County. Both the County and the
College share responsibility and accountability to the citizens of this great County. Together we provide
programs and services to enhance the health, safety, prosperity, and quality of life in our County and region.

Over the past 52 years, OCC has grown to be a highly regarded institution that now offers approximately 100
degree and certificate programs, on five campuses, to nearly 40,000 students a year. Did you know our
programs have touched more than one million students since we opened our doors in 1965? This month, as
we approach commencement, we are proud to see our graduates moving on to well paying careers or
continuing their educational journey.

For OCC to succeed, and ensure students have the best opportunities to succeed, we must collaborate with
an array of trusted partners.

Students taking courses in high school for college credit, which also count toward their diploma, get a head
start in our College with little to no cost to their families. We take pride in partnership agreements with
Oakland Countys 28 school districts which allow high school students to earn OCC credit while still in high
school. Thats for students entering OCC

We also provide tremendous opportunities for those moving through OCC on their educational pathway. As
Michigans largest student transfer institution, we are proud of our partnership agreements where credit for
classes taken at OCC seamlessly transfer to 23 universities and colleges across the U.S. Through these credit
transfers, our students go on to become engineers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, accountants, business leaders,
entrepreneurs, and even an astronaut who, incidentally, will be a crew member on the international space
station in March 2018.

I am also very proud of our students who excel by doing those who complete apprenticeships and earn
certificates in the high demand, high growth area of professional trades. Just a few weeks ago, Oakland
County forecasted a historically low, unemployment rate causing a severe labor shortage over the next 10-
12 years. At OCC, we consider ourselves to be the Tier One supplier of talent to our county and region.

This evening, Id like to share with you several key achievements, announcements, challenges, and our vision
for the future. Its time to roll up our sleeves and look at the work weve done and the work ahead of us.

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First, let me highlight some key achievements. The College has made a special effort to support those men
and women who served our country in the military. In recognition of that effort, OCC earned the Gold level
designation as a Michigan Veteran-Friendly School, as determined by the Michigan Veteran Affairs Agency.
They deserve the best and OCC delivers it.

In addition to our end-to-end transfer agreements with colleges and universities, OCC creates innovative
partnerships to support our students who pursue an associates degree at OCC while pursing another degree
at a second institution at the same time. One such partnership is with Walsh College, where we signed a
Reverse Transfer Agreement, enabling students to earn an associates degree from OCC, while pursuing a
higher-level business or information technology degree at Walsh. This partnership represents collective
leadership, faculty respect, and a sharp focus on student success.

It also illustrates a blended cost model where, with thoughtful planning, students who do well at OCC, can
transfer their low-cost credits to top-tier universities, saving thousands of dollars.

Providing for the needs of our community is paramount to Oakland Community College. Let me illustrate a
few of these very practical achievements.

OCC is the exclusive provider of Homeland Security education to TSA employees throughout all of
Michigan.

We are the only Fire Academy in Michigan to be nationally, and internationally, accredited by the
National Board on Fire Service Professional Qualifications.

We continue to be the largest provider of training for emergency response teams in Oakland
County. About 90% of 1st responders in the County are trained at OCC.

OCC boasts Michigans largest programs in Nursing as well as English as a Second Language.

What began three years ago as my casual conversation with William Jones, the CEO of Focus:HOPE,
regarding the need for remedial education, has become the new Steps for Success Program. In partnership
with Focus: HOPE and the Detroit Regional Chamber, OCC launched this innovative program last fall to
address concerns about academic preparation and remediation. Steps for Success is a dual enrollment
program, which prepares students for a productive college experience, combining support services provided
by Focus: HOPE and classes taught by OCC instructors at the Focus: HOPE campus in Detroit.

On May 20th, Oakland Community College will graduate 2,700 students and, once again, fill the Palace of
Auburn Hills for this significant event. The College certifies these students are ready to take their place in the
world of work or continue on at a four-year university. We take responsibility toward our students and their
future endeavors, very seriously an OCC diploma signifies trust in our ability to prepare students for their
future.

Trust is critical to our work in meeting community need. Taxpayers entrust us with financial resources.
Families trust us to educate and serve their children, parents, siblings, and others. The business community
trusts us to provide well-educated employees, prepared to successfully enter the workforce.

Our partnership with the HURCO Corporation exemplifies this trust. HURCO is an international, machine tool
equipment manufacturer, which provides innovative software and unique CNC controls to the advanced
manufacturing community.

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Last fall, the first HURCO Center in Michigan opened at OCCs Auburn Hills Campus. HURCO supplied eight,
very expensive, state-of-the-art machines in our new machine tool program. What makes this truly unique,
is this lab also functions as the companys first Southeast Michigan sales showroom. We value the trust
HURCO has placed in the College and together we are reaping the benefits of a synergistic partnership that
trains both students AND instructors on cutting-edge equipment. OCCs Advanced Technology Center, which
now includes the new HURCO Center, is already surpassing expectations.

Area automotive leaders, suppliers, and dealers are also key OCC partners. In the coming weeks, you will
hear about our new partnership involving MOPAR CAP or Career Automotive Program one of only three
in Michigan. I am very proud to say we are in the final stages of registering OCC nationally as a MOPAR
Training Center, a leading-edge example of collective innovation. This Center will add value to MOPARs
products and enhance our students understanding of new technology, research, and development.
Although the world headquarter for Fiat-Chrysler is just across the street from our Auburn Hills campus, it
takes trust and respect for this partnership to blossom.

Short-term training for business and industry is a cornerstone of OCCs outreach to the community. OCC is
currently working with 15 companies for a total of $8 million in contract training. New contracts have just
been signed with two automotive companies, Karma and P3. The contracts range from technical training to
management development.

Community outreach means connecting online as well. Oakland Community College recently launched a new
Online Campus. What makes it unique? Our virtual campus is 100 percent ADA compliant, offers a
challenging curriculum, features specially trained online instructors, and creates an experiential
environment. In this online environment, we provide 24/7 student services to assist students anywhere, any
time. Im very pleased to announce we just received the green light for our online degree program in
Criminal Justice, and we have several others in the queue.

However, an organization of our size and scope can not achieve what we have done thus far without a
comprehensive strategic plan that monitors and addresses our communitys needs. After a year of research,
analysis, and integrating what we learned, the College is getting ready to roll out our new five-year strategic
plan.

This evening, let me share with you the Mission, Values and Vision of Oakland Community Colleges
Strategic Plan, recently approved by our Board of Trustees. The balance of the plan, including the objectives
and action plans, is being finalized as we speak. Stay tuned.

We envision OCC as being Relevant by Design. The College is purposeful in providing relevant
programming for our community. We adhere to our mission, which is Guiding our students to success that
fulfills community needs.

Our mission is supported by our values which are:

Accessibility: Provide educational opportunities and compliant programs and services
Affordability: Offer affordable educational opportunities
Diversity and Inclusion: Embrace people and ideas to broaden, and enrich, our community.
Excellence: Offer high quality programs and services.
Relevance: Offer the most relevant education to our community.
Social Responsibility: Be socially responsible in our programs, services and activities.

And, the final piece is our visionwho do we want to be; what do we want to do; and what do we want to
have?

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First, who do we want to BE? We want to be:
Externally and professionally recognized for our excellence in academic programs
Viewed throughout Michigan as the premier transfer institution because of the high-quality
preparation of our transfer students
Recognized as the preeminent provider of workforce training.

Next, what do we want to accomplish? We want to:

Implement a student-focused service model
Streamline administrative practices to optimize organizational effectiveness
Increase flexibility, accessibility and affordability of our academic programs
Increase the student completion rate.

And lastly, what do we want to obtain? We want to have:

An organizational structure that supports student success
A Triple A bond rating
At least 15 nationally or regionally accredited academic programs and certifications
A fully-accredited, online campus.

At Oakland Community College, we believe strongly that our strategic plan is our contract with our
community. Not only does it guide our work to improve student success, it demonstrates our commitment
to fiscal responsibility and sustainability.

OCC does not carry any debt we are not bonded and the community does not pay interest on our future.
We pledge to manage ourselves to offer the best education at the lowest cost our tuition is the lowest in
Michigan, even with a proposed 2% inflationary increase. To keep it that way, we are willing to make
difficult decisions using the set of values as our blueprint.

The strategic plan empowers us to recognize the need to offer degrees and courses where the jobs are
needed, where students can earn a comfortable living, and where we prepare them to successfully transfer
their learning to realize their educational goals.

As you know, the talent gap is the single biggest challenge to the continued economic growth in our region.
Community colleges provide the best platform to address this issue. With our trusted partners, OCC
provides the training and education our students need for employment.

The answer in addressing this issue lies in forging effective partnerships with:
The K-12 school systems, especially the four Oakland Schools Technical Campuses. We need to tear
down the silos that separate community colleges, businesses, and K-12 school districts.
Partnerships among business and industry associations, including the Society of Manufacturing
Engineers, Society of Automotive Engineers, and Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center

We also need to create stronger partnerships with:

Automation Alley
Government agencies
Oakland County and the State of Michigan
And even other community colleges.

Another challenge we face is our communitys preconceived attitudes toward career paths and skilled now
professional trades. Certificates and apprenticeships result in honorable, high-paying jobs. Unfortunately,
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there remains a stigma attached to this career path. Many parents, students, and even high school
counselors, dont see this educational pathway as cool, or sexy.

Let me just say that I would not be standing before you tonight if I hadnt taken a more experiential
educational path myself. In 7th grade, I had the chance to begin taking what most people called Shop. This
project-based learning kept me engaged, eventually leading to three graduate degrees. I would never have
pursued higher education had I simply been a sit and get student. There are thousands of students like me
and their best shot at finding career success lies in programs like OCCs which offer training, apprenticeships,
and certificates in high demand, highly-skilled, and well-paying professions. I think its pretty cool and sexy
to earn a comfortable living wage doing valued work. Dont you?

Now, lets look to the future. Talent development today is what economic development was 10 years ago.
Its not limited to 18-year-olds, fresh out of high school, but includes veterans and working adults seeking a
career change or up-skilling.

It also includes our ability to confer stackable credentials to employees who need to build skills while they
work. We help our students find a career path that works for them AND area employees seeking skilled
talent to fill their jobs.

Those jobs will continue to change as well. For example, have you thought about the ramifications of
autonomous vehicles beyond driverless cars?

What about the impact on the trucking industry, where we have about 3.5 million truck drivers in the U.S.?
Its very likely one of the greatest impacts of autonomous vehicles will be on transporting products, goods
and materials. That means wed better get ready to retrain a lot of todays traditional truck drivers for
tomorrows technology.

In the same vein, lets think for a moment about the next iteration of manufacturing, or any number of
skilled professions. What if Manufacturing 4.0 requires skilled workers to use voice-activated programming
to run machinery, correct errors, or change lines of code? Think of this like Siri, Alexa, or OK-Google on
steroids. At OCC, we are already envisioning what that training might look like for these new I.T. jobs.

A flexible strategic plan, keeps OCC nimble and ready to offer the types of training and retraining our
community will need. Above all, it takes our talented and dedicated faculty to provide cutting-edge
instruction.

I would like to acknowledge the many awards OCC employees have received during this past year. They are
too numerous for me to mention here, but they are listed on the screen behind me. These are but a few
examples of the talent, and excellence, we have in our ranks supporting our success.
The future is bright for OCC, for our students, and for our graduates. We have a robust strategic plan we are
ready to follow to provide everything from just-in-time training, to apprenticeships and vocational degrees,
to academic preparation for careers and further education. We are fortunate to have Trustees , faculty, and
staff who are committed to the Colleges mission and vision.

Growing partnerships within Oakland County and the region keep us focused on our communitys needs..
We see ourselves and hope you see us as a trusted partner who honors our social contract with parents,
students, K-12 schools and universities, government, and business.

We look forward to continuing our work with you! Thank you.

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