NRCC History Book

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outcomes. One idea discussed was shared services, an innovative strategy to reduce administrative burden on individual colleges by consolidating transaction-based functions, creating economies of scale, and improving back-office processes. The first shared services strategy was introduced in 2010 when centralized financial aid processing occurred at Tidewater Community College (TCC) for a pilot group of eight community colleges, including NRCC, in 2012. With staff at TCC completing the technical work involved in processing financial aid for NRCC students, the college’s financial aid staff focused on customer service. NRCC staff helped students and families, especially those unfamiliar with the process, complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). In January 2012, a shared services distance education model occurred when NRCC’s president, Dr. Jack Lewis, in conjunction with Dr. Robert Templin, Jr., president of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) and chair of the VCCS re-engineering taskforce, proposed the World Language Institute as an initiative coordinated by NRCC’s Workforce Development Office. Through the World Language Institute, NRCC students completed a variety of non-credit, distance education language courses and/ or customized language training useful for individuals working in business, industry, and non-profit organizations. The six-week courses included Beginning Conversational French, Conversational Japanese, and Instant Italian and Spanish for Law Enforcement. Beginning in Spring 2012, college credit language courses were taught online by NOVA and were available to students at NRCC and other participating community

colleges through shared services. Languages taught over the next decade included Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Russian. In addition, shared services courses in astronomy, meteorology, photojournalism, history, early childhood education, general college physics, geography, geology, sociology, engineering, marketing, and real estate were offered during the years 2012 2019. The VCCS Shared Services Center, located in Daleville, Virginia, was added in 2016 to process common administrative transactions for all 23 community colleges and the central administrative office of the VCCS. In 2018 NRCC began using shared services for all procurement and contracts. NRCC Educational Foundation In 2010 the NRCC Educational Foundation entered its 30 th year of serving the college by endowing and awarding scholarship funds, purchasing equipment and furnishings, and providing financial support to academic and community enrichment programs. Examples of the support and services provided included sponsoring cultural events such as “readings” from local authors, managing ticket sales for all concerts, stocking the college’s food pantry, and purchasing computers for the student laptop loaner program. Even though the minimum funding to endow a scholarship increased from $12,500 to $25,000 early in this decade, the number of endowed scholarships continued to grow during this 10-year period. More than 100 scholarships covering tuition and fees were awarded each year through the NRCC Educational Foundation. Book scholarships and gasoline vouchers were available as well.

Chapter 2