UNC President Margaret Spellings resigns: 'All leaders are for a time'

University of North Carolina President Margaret Spellings announced Friday that she will leave her post heading the 17-campus system on March 1.

"All leaders are for a time," Spellings said during a news conference following her closed-door meeting with the UNC Board of Governors to hash out details of her separation. "Times change, and those changes demand new leaders and new approaches."

Spellings, who was hired three years ago, still has two years left on her contract. The Board of Governors has agreed to pay her $500,000 for a research leave provision in her contract and a projected performance bonus, as well as $35,000 in relocation expenses. The money won't come from taxpayer funds.

She said she plans to return to her home state of Texas, although she has no definite plans right now.

"I like to think I'm young enough to have a few more licks in me," the 60-year-old former U.S. education secretary said. "I hope [my next job] will be in continued public service. I expect it will be back in Texas."

Although Spellings has repeatedly said in interviews over the past year how much she loved her job and couldn't think of leaving, she said Friday simply that it's the right time for her to move on.

"I've given it my all," she said. "I hope I left the place better than I found it."

Board Chairman Harry Smith said North Carolina is "by far better off" because of Spellings' work, and he thanked her for her service to the state over the past two-plus years – her March 1 departure will come on the third anniversary of her first day as UNC president.

"Its a tough job. Late at night, early in the morning, [you have] issues coming left and right," Smith said. "I can't say enough things about how she's shouldered it. She's done it with grace and dignity."

The Board of Governors will now turn to finding her successor, he said. Noting the complaints over the process used to select Spellings, he said the board would take time to gather input from various groups.

"We're not going to be in a rush," he said. "Our focus will be to get it right."

Although Spellings sometimes bumped heads with board members over issues such as the "Silent Sam" Confederate statue on UNC's flagship campus in Chapel Hill, she said relations with the board and between board members didn't factor into her decision to leave.

"Governance is always being calibrated and recalibrated," she said. "That's part of the fun of the job."

Spellings said she believes she met the expectations the board set for her when she was first hired.

"We have defied national trends on key issues of affordability and accountability," she said. "We strengthened each of our institutions, raising enrollments, raising graduation rates, increasing completions for underserved groups, including low-income and rural students. We are graduating more students in critical workforce areas and increasing external research funding."

During her tenure, she also had to confront issues such as transgender rights, diversity and free speech. But she said that didn't distract from her focus on affordability and accountability.

"All of these things are on center stage in American higher education," she said. "That's part of the job. ... It's the central place where we litigate those issues in our society."

Spellings will continue to collect her $775,000-a-year salary until March. She received a $90,000 incentive bonus in 2017 and another $95,000 bonus earlier this year.

Spellings' compensation ranked 13th among U.S. public university executives in 2016-17, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported earlier in July.

She came to North Carolina after running the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas. She also served on the board of directors for a student-loan collection company and for the for-profit University of Phoenix's parent company.

As Bush's education secretary from 2005 to 2009, Spellings oversaw the initial implementation of the No Child Left Behind federal education law. In 2006, she convened the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which released a report calling on colleges to focus more on training students for jobs and encouraging research that businesses could commercialize.

"She has lived up to her reputation as an exceptional leader in higher education and made a big impact on our state’s students and college communities," North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore said in a statement. "We will certainly miss President Spellings’ presence in North Carolina and wish her all the best as she moves on to new opportunities."