VGCC Dean Retires After Two Decades
Dr. John J. Beck of Apex (above), Dean of Arts and Sciences at Vance-Granville Community College, recently announced his retirement. Under different titles, Beck has held his post, overseeing College Transfer among other programs, since 1987. “Through Dr. Beck’s leadership, VGCC has been recognized as one of the state’s top colleges for producing transfer students who excel at four-year universities,” VGCC President Randy Parker said. “His scholarship and his experience will be missed.”In 2006, Beck was one of Parker’s Presidential Excellence in Leadership Award recipients. Beck earned his bachelor’s degree in world history from the University of South Carolina and his master’s and doctoral U.S. history degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He taught at James Sprunt Community College in Kenansville, N.C. prior to accepting the position at VGCC. Beck was also an adjunct professor of history at North Carolina Wesleyan College during the summers of 1993-1995. His articles and reviews have been published in the Journal of Southern History, the Journal of the Association of Historians in North Carolina, and the Encyclopedia of North Carolina (2006).As Dean of Arts and Sciences, Beck oversaw the English, Fine Arts/Humanities, Mathematics/Physics, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Early Childhood Associate, Teacher Associate, Bioprocess Technology, and Developmental Studies programs — including more than 40 full-time instructors and 50 adjunct faculty — in addition to a Day Care Center and a tutoring center. Though much of his time was spent in an administrative role, Beck has frequently said that he derived his greatest satisfaction from his teaching duties. Beck taught various history, politics and humanities courses, including a course in Southern culture. The Southern culture course, which he co-wrote with VGCC instructors Wendy Frandsen and Aaron Randall, is due to be published as a textbook by Carolina Academic Press this year. VGCC was one of the first North Carolina community colleges to offer the innovative, interdisciplinary course, and in 1997-98, it was the first to offer an online version of the course, designed by Beck, Randall, Frandsen and former IT director Darryl McGraw. In fact, under Beck’s leadership, students gained the ability to complete an entire college transfer program online starting with the fall 2004 semester. Beck directed the college’s distance education efforts from 1994 to 2002.Beck played a major role, at the N.C. Community College System level and at the college level, in the process of revising the Associate in Arts and Associate in Science degree requirements and program offerings. He also served on several committees that negotiated the comprehensive transfer articulation agreement between the University of North Carolina system and the N.C. Community College System in the 1990s.Beck said that one of the VGCC experiences he will never forget was helping to organize and moderate a Community Memorial Service to honor those who lost their lives in the September 11 terrorist attacks. The service was held on Sept. 18, 2001, at the gazebo on Main Campus, and included the participation of area law enforcement and fire officials.Beck is a former president of the southern division of the Community College Humanities Association, a former member of the North Carolina Humanities Council, and an honorary member of Phi Theta Kappa. He has completed the Community College Leadership Institute (1990) and the Community College Executive Management and Leadership Institute (1995). Beck has also served on an advisory committee for North Carolina Central University and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Halifax-Warren Head Start.
