Hughes gives progress report on CCRI to Northern Chamber dinner

CCRI PRESIDENT Meghan Hughes addresses the crowd at the 26th Annual Dinner of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce at Twin River Casino. / PBN PHOTO/MARK S. MURPHY
CCRI PRESIDENT Meghan Hughes addresses the crowd at the 26th Annual Dinner of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce at Twin River Casino. / PBN PHOTO/MARK S. MURPHY

LINCOLN – Community College of Rhode Island President Meghan Hughes promised attendees of the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce annual dinner that her keynote speech would last for 10 minutes. And she kept her word.

Hughes used her short time in front of the approximately 500 business executives who attended the chamber’s 26th annual dinner, held at Twin River Casino, to give a focused rundown of what she and her staff at CCRI were hoping to accomplish and how they were going to reach those goals.

Hughes’ talk fit with Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s ongoing push to connect Rhode Islanders, through appropriate educational programs, to the jobs that Ocean State employers are looking to fill. She said the school has a mandate to serve the needs of the state’s workforce through affordable and effective educational programming, using employer partnerships to the fullest extent possible.

That mandate, Hughes said, will be accomplished through three guiding principles:

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  • “Say yes to everything,” she said. Respond quickly, “be hungry.”
  • Examine all employer partnership opportunities through the lens of these three questions:
    • Are the jobs high-wage and are the jobs in high demand? “Is this an opportunity that will serve our students?”
    • “Is it ours to do?” Are other institutions offering a similar program already? Or is it appropriate for CCRI to take it on?
    • Does the school have the resources to begin immediately, and if it does not, what will it take to secure them?
  • The third and final guiding principle, one Hughes said was the “anchor principle,” is the expectation that CCRI is a bridge for its students to a good job and a four-year college degree.

She went on to explain what she has spent her first year doing, again using bullet points for emphasis, defining the school’s operational focus and its measuring sticks for progress.

First off, she has been focused on building a culture and systems to improve academic achievement and transfer rates. The second area of emphasis is workforce development, she said, one that takes into account the diversity of CCRI’s student body, which is made up of students who are the first in their family to attend college, part-time students, students who are working while attending, and many who need remedial help upon arrival.

At the same time, Hughes said, the significant gap between minority students and the rest of the population in income and educational attainment create a large challenge for the school in meeting its goals.

Using the Brookings Institution’s January 2016 report as her guide, Hughes identified seven areas of focus for CCRI’s job training partnership efforts. Two are already underway: a partnership to train workers for General Dynamics Electric Boat at the Westerly Education Center; a program about to launch with University Medicine Foundation to take its entry-level workers and train them for more advanced positions through education that will lead to associate’s degrees.

She then announced a collaboration with the state Department of Labor and Training to build a partnership in advanced manufacturing, calling on attendees of the dinner to contact her so that the program can begin as soon as possible. She said that the program is specifically designed for small employers with common needs.

She went on to mention other initiatives CCRI has undertaken, including the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, which is designed to be what she called “a compressed MBA” for small business owners.

Hughes said that the school’s new chief academic officer, Rosemary A. Costigan, a graduate of CCRI, Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island, is getting things done, breaking down internal silos in the administration for the benefit of students. “I’m incredibly inspired by that approach to work because I know it’s what our students deserve.”

She ended her remarks with a call to those in the room to: believe in the Community College of Rhode Island; believe in its students; and hire its graduates.

Hughes’ remarks dovetailed with Raimondo’s remarks earlier in the program, which emphasized the governor’s workforce development focus and her belief in the potential of Rhode Island. She took special inspiration from the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl victory. She drew a couple lessons from the team’s epic comeback – never give up and believe you can win.

“Sometimes we’re overcome by cynicism,” Raimondo said, but “I believe in my bones that this is the best place to live,” and start and grow a business.

As is always the case, the dinner also saw the presentation of two awards. Receiving the Barbara C. Burlingame Distinguished Public Service Award was R.I. Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, while the recipient of the Ben G. Mondor Award was Rhode Island Monthly Owner and Publisher John J. Palumbo.

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