Dr. Jim Mullen Chancellor, UNC-A Chairman, Buncombe Vision

Question 1:

Andrea Sumner:
Chancellor, can you give me a broad overview of what Buncombe Vision is and what they seek to do?

Dr. Mullen:
I'd be happy to. The Vision was born in 1995, and it came out of a wonderful community-wide conversation about how the community could come together and work through challenging issues, and the Vision became the convener. The Vision convenes in a neutral way, representatives from across the community for dialogue about the critical issues that we're facing together. And beyond that, it tries to be the honest scorekeeper, by providing clear benchmarks around where we want to go, how we're doing in meeting those benchmarks, and fostering dialogue that is really accountable. And I think that's the magic of the Vision at its best-broadbased conversation representing all aspects of Asheville and Buncombe county and accountable at the end of the day.

Question 2:

Dr. Mullen:
Well, I think the Education Coalition in Asheville and Buncombe county is in many ways the signature achievement right now of the Vision. The Education Coalition is an organization that grew out of the dialogues that the Vision leads. There are 30 agencies that have come together, again, all around the table ranging from the educational leadership, to teachers, to counselors, to parents, to the university, to the community college, the business community, all joined together with the target of making our achievement of students in Asheville and Buncombe county the highest in the state by 2010. And the issue that we focus most on through the Education Coalition is the achievement gap, and assuring that students who have the risk of dropping out, won't drop out and that they'll succeed. And I can tell you from a personal level that one of the most rewarding things for me is the opportunity to mentor a young student every year in the Asheville schools. And the Education Coalition leads that effort providing mentors that come from the business community, from the non-profit community and we're in schools every week sitting with students, trying to make a difference in their lives and trying to inspire them to go on and succeed in school. That's but one piece of what the Education Coalition does, but I think it's very symbolic of the Vision at its best. The Vision identified a problem, identified a challenge, provided clear benchmarks around where we needed to go, what our dropout rates are, where we want to be. We measure that every year, and then brought people together to solve the problem, and the Education Coalition grew from that. And today I think we're making progress. And the best part is that we're all engaged in it.