A Conversation with Dr. Keith Miller, President of Greenville Technical College

UpstateBizSC:
Where were you born and raised and what is your education?

Keith Miller:
I was born and raised in Kansas. My first career was in healthcare working in the field of radiology. My introduction to higher education occurred when I started teaching radiology to the students at the University of Kansas. After spending 12 years as a College President in Illinois, I took over the role of President of Greenville Technical College on July 1, 2008.

UpstateBizSC:
You have some national exposure in the realm of two-year institutions.

Keith Miller:
The same day that I became President of Greenville Tech I also took on the role as Chairman of the American Association of Community Colleges, a national advocacy association that represents over 1,200 two-year colleges in the United States and Canada.

UpstateBizSC:
What is the ownership structure of Greenville Tech?

Keith Miller:
Greenville Tech is one of 16 technical colleges in the state. We are members of the state technical college system, but locally governed and controlled. I report to a 10 member board of area commissioners each of whom is nominated by the local legislative delegation, is officially approved by the Governor, and is appointed for a three-year term.

UpstateBizSC:
Outline a brief history of the College.

Keith Miller:
The College started in 1962 as the Greenville Technical Education Center, an offshoot of the vision for technical college education that was put forward in South Carolina by Fritz Hollings.  I am just the second President in our 47-year history, Dr. Tom Barton having served as the College’s President for well over forty years. We have grown based on the training and educational needs of the local region, and today, we are the largest technical college and the third largest higher educational institution in the state. 

UpstateBizSC:
Talk about your recent strategic planning initiative.

Keith Miller:
A strategic planning process had already been put in place in 2006, but when I arrived, it became clear that we needed to both accelerate and simplify that process. The challenge with any organization is that you are often faced with so many different priorities that it becomes difficult to focus. Whenever a leader tries to refocus an organization of this size, a good place to start is working from your existing core mission in order to determine your strengths and opportunities. Out of this strategic planning process we came up with areas of emphasis all related to a key focus on returning to our core mission of teaching and learning: focus on student success, continuous employee development, improve our technology infrastructure, and become a college of choice in a competitive environment.  The focus on teaching and learning has driven every decision that we have made over the past couple of years.

UpstateBizSC:
What are you most excited about through this planning process?

Keith Miller:
We are in the first year of a program at Greenville Tech called Achieving the Dream that I believe will have a tremendous impact on how the College operates and the availability of a skilled workforce in the region.  It is a unique, multi-year, national program with a simple vision of helping more community college students successfully complete courses, and earn certificates and degrees.  It has been implemented in just 102 colleges across the country; we were proud to have been selected as one of the Colleges to offer it.

The business leaders in the private sector have told us over the years the areas and skills that will have the greatest impact on the overall economic vitality of the area.  Putting together the curriculum and the training programs for those areas is the easy part; getting people interested in those programs and successfully through the system is the challenge not just in Greenville, South Carolina, but all over the country.

The biggest obstacle to economic success in South Carolina is that there is a large population of people that we have had trouble reaching in terms of education. There are a tremendous number of individuals in the area that Greenville Tech serves that fall into the category of facing significant barriers to achieving educational success: financial, life at home, single parents, and broken homes.  How do you work your way through college while you are dealing with these issues? Achieving the Dream is designed to address those issues and help students be successful once they are here.

The key to the Achieving the Dream program is that it is data driven.  Our faculty does intensive research and analysis of the information that we collect about these barriers that our students face, and that in turn informs our decisions on what services to offer. Colleges that have implemented this program in other states have seen a tremendous improvement in student graduation rates, and we are already seeing positive changes at Greenville Tech. 

UpstateBizSC:
How has Greenville Tech been affected by the economic downturn?

Keith Miller:
Our revenue sources have changed dramatically because of the downturn. Despite this, we have sought to invest in the College with a goal of not just maintaining our core services, but improving them. The Colleges are set up to pull their operating budget from two sources of income: state appropriations and student tuition and fees.  Faced with a significant decrease in state appropriations, we have had to make up the difference with higher tuitions. Greenville Tech has also explored other methods to mitigate a continuous increase in tuitions by looking to be more effective and efficient with our services.

After the initial round of budget cuts, we had to do a significant amount of restructuring of the organization and unfortunately had to lay off 40 employees. While nobody likes to have to implement layoffs, we communicated those necessary changes as a part of the College rallying around our core mission of teaching and learning.  In that sense, the timing of the new strategic planning process was beneficial. Our overall objective was to have zero impact on direct student services (faculty) and support services.

UpstateBizSC:
How do you deal with the morale issues of layoffs?

Keith Miller:
It’s tough when you lose colleagues that have given great service to the College for a number of years. You can’t bury your head in the sand and pretend that it does not affect morale.  Sometimes the best that you can do is communicate clearly to everyone in the organization that the changes are necessary, and that they will be implemented with a goal of enhancing your core mission.  People can at least come to accept that.

UpstateBizSC:
Where do you see tuition going over the next five years?

Keith Miller:

Even if state funding stabilizes, I do see a gradual increase in tuition over the next couple of years because of steady increases to our annual cost of operations. When we talk to the private sector and promise them their future labor force will be trained and ready to go to work on day one, we have to be able to deliver training on the latest systems in that business or industry.  We have also heavily invested in technology that allows us to deliver the course content material in a convenient and accessible manner for students via internet, for example.

UpstateBizSC:
What changes have you seen in technical education over the past several years?

Keith Miller:
Five years ago, when a business was thinking of expanding or relocating to a particular a area, they would list 5 or 6 economic factors that were important to their decision.  At the top of that list would be assistance in the form of tax incentives to build facilities; at the bottom of the list would be workforce development. Today, workforce development is far and away the most important factor mentioned by prospective companies.  It has amazed me the number of times that Greenville Tech has been invited to sit down at the table as companies consider locating to this area.  The message we are getting is that capital investment is pointless unless you have a skilled, educated local workforce. 

The linkage between the College and local economic development agencies that I have witnessed in Greenville, South Carolina is stronger than I have seen anywhere else.   That is our strongest asset going forward and that bodes well for the economic future of this region.