Video: Board Committee Meetings
At around 5:30, the committee starts to discuss the budget issues, including disbursement of the CARES Act funds and the hiring of a new marketing firm. At around 27:00, the committee discusses the new stimulus funds coming out of Washington, as well as the status of state aid.
Video: The Public Session
We encourage you to watch Dr. Williams’ report, which begins around 10:30. At around 27:50, Vice President Richard Newman delivered these remarks:
Recently, Dr. Williams and I had a brief email exchange in which we clarified some fine points in the administration’s messaging regarding COVID-related health and safety measures on campus. I joked with him that dealing with these communications issues can sometimes feel like trying to slay the hydra. You think you have solved one problem, when two more grow in its place—in part, because no amount of messaging, no amount of care and vigilance in honing protocols, will satisfy everyone.
In my field, the problem that Dr. Williams and I were working on is called audience awareness, which means not just knowing who your audience is, not just sharing information with them, but demonstrating that you have made the effort to understand what you have written through their eyes. You don’t have to agree with how they will see it and you will never get it 100% correct, but showing your audience in concrete and specific ways that you have made a good faith effort is one way that you build the kind of trust that will transcend all but the most fundamental, deal-breaking disagreements.
Everyone, after all, has a line they will not cross.
I imagine that dealing with the college budget can also feel like trying to slay the hydra, and since we all know what’s at stake in dealing with the budget—and I am talking here about avoiding any loss of jobs—I want to express the NCCFT’s commitment to working together as a campus community, with full audience awareness all around, to find ways to preserve jobs. In the long-term interests of the mission of this institution, we really don’t have a choice.