Greenville Technical College receives ACCT awards

The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) will present two regional awards to Greenville Technical College at ACCTs annual meeting in New Orleans in October. The first is he 2016 Southern Regional Trustee Leadership Award presented to Area Commission member and former chairman Paul Batson. This award recognizes trustees for their commitment to the community college mission and active participation in various local and state roles.

Batson taught at Greenville Technical College for several years before establishing his own accounting firm and has served as a member of the Greenville Technical College governing board since 1998, a term of service that includes four years as chairman. In 2008, he was appointed as a member of the South Carolina Association of Technical College Commissioners and elected chair of that group in 2012. In 2015, he was selected by the governor and confirmed by the South Carolina Senate to be a member of the Commission on Higher Education as the sole commissioner representing the technical college system.

The second award is the 2016 Southern Regional Equity Award. This award is given to colleges that provide evidence of leadership in setting policies that promote and enhance opportunities for institutional diversity, inclusion and equity for women, persons of color, LGBTQs or members of any other underrepresented or underserved population.

Greenville Technical College set on a clear path to take the college’s commitment to diversity to a higher level in 2012, when Dr. Keith Miller created a task force to establish a diversity plan. Once that plan was developed, Wendy Walden, associate vice president of executive affairs, began implementing it. Since then, Walden has led the college to establish a strong infrastructure for diversity and inclusion including internal and external advisory groups. She has established required training for all employees that helps create a welcoming environment. Hiring practices have been improved to better support diversity and inclusion, and multicultural respect is cultivated through a variety of events and activities.

One of five regions, ACCT’s southern region includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Regional awards are combined at the October meeting, and an overall recipient is announced.

The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) is a non-profit educational organization of governing boards, representing more than 6,500 elected and appointed trustees who govern over 1,200 community, technical, and junior colleges in the United States and beyond. ACCT educates community and technical college trustees through annual conferences focused on leadership development and advocacy, as well as through publications and online and face-to-face institutes and seminars.

“Paul Batson balances a demanding career with a strong commitment to Greenville Technical College and the state, and I am thrilled to see him recognized for service to the students of South Carolina over a 44-year period,” said Dr. Keith Miller, president of Greenville Technical College. “I am also very pleased to see the college recognized as an environment in which the word “differences” is now understood to be a positive term, and I greatly appreciate the employee effort that has made the equity award possible.”