NC lawmakers seek more power over community college system
Republican state lawmakers are touting a bill that would give them control in the future over who is named president of the state's community college system — an effort that comes as the system's board meets to select someone for that very role.
Senate Bill 692 would restructure the governance of the 58-campus system, taking power away from the governor, other members of the Council of State and local school leaders at the state and campus level.
Under current law, the state community college board makes most of the decisions that are then carried out by the system president. They have the authority to select a president or to force one out. The bill would put that power in the hands of state lawmakers instead.
The timing of the bill is conspicuous. The State Board of Community Colleges met Wednesday and planned to meet again Thursday to discuss candidates for its vacant president position.
Thomas Stith, a Republican, resigned from the role in July following an 18-month tenure and after what people familiar with the matter described as concerns over his hiring decisions.
If the bill becomes law, there's a chance that whoever is chosen for the position could be denied by the legislature. It all depends on the timing.
Burr Sullivan, chairman of the state community college system, declined an interview request. In a statement, he said the board said is aware of the bill and will follow whatever laws are passed.
Sponsor Sen. Amy Galey, R-Alamance, told WRAL News that the goal of the bill is to improve workforce development in the state. She says the relationship between the system board and the president is "muddled" at present, and the 58-campus system is not centralized.
"The plan is to change this kind of feudal system that we have, where you have community colleges that too often operate independently of one another," she said. "We need to have the structure for education, higher education in this case, that is nimble and that is responsive."
Galey said she has a good relationship with the two community colleges in her district, Alamance and Randolph community colleges, both of which are collaborating with Guilford Tech on a training center for the Toyota megasite. But she said others are less forward-looking and less cooperative.
"Of our 58 community colleges, there's enough that are not responsive to the needs of industry that this change would be contemplated," she said. "You have your people who are dedicated to the way things were done 15, 20, 25 years ago, and we live in a world that changes, it seems like, by the hour."
Senate Bill 692 calls for the state board to shrink from 22 to 18 over time. The governor's ten appointments would be given to state lawmakers. The student representative would be eliminated. And the appointments would no longer have to include at least one member from each of the state's six community college regions. By 2027, the state Treasurer, state Labor Commissioner and Lieutenant Governor would also be eliminated from the panel.
The system president would have additional executive authority, particularly in the hiring and firing of campus-level leaders. Campus presidents' contracts would be limited to no more than four years. State lawmakers would also have the power to cut funding to specific campuses they believe are unneeded or are not meeting performance expectations. Those decisions would not be subject to judicial review.
The proposal would also shrink the size of campus boards of trustees from 13 to 12 by removing the student body representative, and give lawmakers the eight appointments on each local board currently given to the governor and the local school board.
The bill comes on the heels of S512, another Senate bill stripping the governor of executive power to appoint members to a long list of policymaking boards. That measure, should it become law, is likely to end up in the courts, challenged by supporters of sitting Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. But Galey believes this one will not.
"The Constitution gives the General Assembly' the oversight responsibility of higher education in the state," Galey said, "and this falls completely in line with a reasonable exercise of authority."
Cooper says that reducing a governor's ability to make appointments to community college boards would damage the state's job recruiting efforts.
"The governor is the chief economic recruiter for the state, community college workforce training is a critical part of coordinated job recruitment, and it makes no sense to destroy a system that is working well simply to gain political power," Sam Chan, Cooper's press secretary, said in a statement. "This move will hurt North Carolina long after Governor Cooper leaves office and we urge legislators not to pass this harmful legislation.”
Current state community college board member Ray Russell, a Cooper appointee, said he supports some parts of the bill, particularly those that allow the central office to respond more rapidly to problems at local campuses and those that would make it simpler for community colleges to collaborate. The current funding model, he said, doesn't make that easy.
But Russell, a former Democratic state representative and current Watauga County commissioner, said he's concerned about the removal of the student representatives on the boards at the state and local level. He said their perspective is "invaluable" to the work the boards do.
"Our colleges are the student experience at our colleges. Without that, there is nothing else," Russell said. "They keep us grounded. Everybody I've talked to thinks that's a really bad idea."
Meanwhile, the search for a president continues. Sullivan and Shirley Carraway, the chairwoman of the system president search committee, said in a statement Wednesday that they were satisfied with the progress in their search. The board planned to reconvene Thursday.
"We’ve had a robust level of interest from across the country since we formally announced the position in January," Sullivan and Carraway said in a joint statement. "We are nearing a decision point and may have an official announcement of the new president in the very near future.”
