Section III: Comprehensive Standards (Resources: Financial and Physical Resources)

3.10.5.  The institution maintains financial control over externally funded or sponsored research and programs.

JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE

Compliance.

NARRATIVE/JUSTIFICATION FOR JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE

Northeast Alabama Community College demonstrates compliance. The college maintains financial control over externally funded or sponsored programs. The college has no externally funded or sponsored research programs.

The college at present has one externally funded program, namely the area Adult Basic Education program. As of July 1, 2003, the college became the fiscal agent of, and administrative home for, the multi-system adult education consortium of the area. This program had previously been under the fiscal and supervisory administration of the DeKalb County Board of Education. 

Alabama Legislative Act No. 2002-528 provided the legal basis for transfer of adult education to The Alabama College System. State Board Policy 109.01 vests the operation, direction, and control of the adult education program of the state with the Chancellor of the Department of Postsecondary Education and mandates that the program services of adult education be integrated with the institutions of the system.

The specific authorization for the college to assume fiscal and administrative responsibility for the adult education program is shown in the letter from the Assistant to the Chancellor for Planning, Research and Development to the president of Northeast on January 14, 2003. The relationship is documented in the Memorandum of Agreement for the Formation of The Northeast Alabama Community College Adult Education Consortium, June 30, 2003.

The initiative and rationale for the change involved recognition that Alabama must be positioned to provide training and retraining in order to provide the workforce needed in the changing economy, and that the comprehensive community college is in a unique position to administer adult education as a bridge to higher levels of workforce development. The Adult Basic Education program will enhance the fulfillment of the mission of Northeast “to provide accessible quality educational opportunities, promote economic growth, and enhance the quality of life for the people of Alabama.”

Effective the date of the change, all of the area adult education employees became employees of Northeast Alabama Community College, the physical offices of the program were moved to campus, and the college administration assumed fiscal and administrative responsibility for the program. The program is externally funded through the Adult Education funding provided through the state. These funds are controlled through restricted accounts within the institution’s accounting system. 

At the request of the NACC President, the Director of Institutional Effectiveness and the Director of Adult Basic Education met on October 8, 2003, to discuss the coordination of evaluation procedures for adult education personnel with the procedures in place for college personnel. The agreement reached by this discussion is documented in the memo of the same date, from the Director of Institutional Effectiveness to the Director of Adult Basic Education. Additionally, all payroll functions and earned leave accounting for the Adult Basic Education personnel have been absorbed into the regular routines of the college.

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