Letter from the Chancellor

by Glenn DuBois

from Inquiry, Volume 6, Number 2, Fall 2001, 4-5

© Copyright 2001 Virginia Community College System

Return to Volume 6, Number 2


Since my arrival in Virginia as Chancellor of the VCCS in July 2001, I have been gratified to find a vibrant and diverse statewide system strategically poised to play an even greater role in advancing higher education and workforce training opportunities for all Virginians.

This has been repeatedly demonstrated in my visits to colleges throughout the late summer and fall, where I’ve been delighted to meet and talk with dedicated faculty and staff members who every day are out there furthering our mission. The work you do is tremendous, as it directly touches, on a daily basis, the students we serve.

You know first-hand that the 325,000 students who each year seek credit and noncredit instruction at one of Virginia’s 23 community colleges are the heart of our system. Your colleges form a tremendous network for linking students -- and the communities they live in -- with the higher education and workforce development opportunities they need to prosper.

As I’ve traveled around the Commonwealth, I’ve outlined four major goal areas in which I intend to focus my attention as Chancellor of the Virginia Community College System. They include:

  • Ensuring that quality higher education and workforce training programs through Virginia’s community colleges are accessible to all Virginians at an affordable price.
  • Strengthening workforce development programs that respond to the unmet needs of Virginia’s employers.
  • Raising the public image and awareness of the VCCS as a system, and the 23 community colleges that comprise the system, throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and the nation.
  • Working with federal, state and private stakeholders to enlarge the funding base for the VCCS in order to more effectively respond to the needs of the Commonwealth.
  • Your scholarship and academic commitment, evident in this publication as well as in all of the work you do, gives me great confidence that we can meet these goals and that we can continue to strengthen Virginia’s community colleges as an incredible higher education and workforce training resource for the citizens of the Commonwealth.

    Please know that I look forward to working with the entire VCCS community to meet the needs of all Virginians.

    Glenn DuBois
    Chancellor