Bill Carver to lead NC community colleges while system searches for permanent leader

The decision came during an emergency board meeting conducted virtually. Carver is familiar to the system. He was previously appointed interim president in 2020, after then-president Peter Hans was selected to lead the UNC system. Carver served until January 2021, when current system President Thomas Stith took office.

Wednesday's appointment came a day after the board announced Stith's resignation, which is effective Friday. The board is undergoing a search for a permanent president.

No reason for Stith's departure was disclosed. The move is said to have been months in the making, prompted in part by what two people familiar with the matter described as concerns over recent hiring decisions by Stith. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue was a personnel matter.

News of Stith's pending departure came after the board convened Friday in a meeting that included a closed-session mid-year review of “presidential goals,” according to a meeting agenda. The closed session lasted more than three hours.

Stith didn't respond to requests for comment about the reasons for the resignation. “I am thrilled that our community college system enhanced its offerings, making students more competitive for the workforce, entrepreneurship and transfer to four-year institutions,” Stith said in a statement Tuesday. “That was my job to do and my commitment to our state.”

Board Chairman Burr Sullivan said in emails Tuesday that Stith has conveyed “plans to pursue other opportunities” and that “severance compensation is under consideration.”

The state community college system has lost nearly all of its top-level leadership in recent years, with high turnover throughout the system’s central office. Nearly half of the system’s 58 schools have also changed leadership. The system has now had seven changes of leadership in the past seven years, four of them interim.

Efforts to reach Carver for comment weren't immediately successful.

Carver’s broad experience, and history as a former interim president of the system, make him a logical choice as the board searches for a permanent president.

He retired as Nash Community College’s president in 2019 after 14 years at the helm, a period during which he oversaw a campus expansion and sizable increase in campus and online enrollment, according to the system.

He spent much of his career at Nash in a variety of other roles, including time as an instructor, director of a small business center, director of business and industry services, dean of continuing education and vice president of instruction.

Carver is an N.C. State University graduate. He holds a graduate degree in business administration from Campbell University and he earned a doctor of education degree from Nova Southeastern University.

Stith, a Republican, is a longtime political figure in North Carolina. He was a Durham City Councilman from 1999 to 2007, when he lost a mayoral bid to incumbent Bill Bell. He worked for former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory as chief of staff. He was also state director for the U.S. Small Business Administration under former President Donald Trump.

The system’s bipartisan governing board has twenty voting members: ten appointed by the governor, four each by the state House and Senate, plus the Lieutenant Governor, the state treasurer. Sullivan, the chairman, is a House appointee.