RELEASE DATE: March 29, 2007
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Community college presidential search committee to convene
RALEIGH – The State Board of Community Colleges officially begins the task of finding a successor to H. Martin Lancaster, president of the North Carolina Community College System on Monday, April 2 at 10:00 a.m. in the Caswell Building. This will be an organizational meeting where the panel, led by Board member Herbert Watkins, will discuss the search process they will follow and determine a time frame to receive proposals from search consultants.
Lancaster has announced he will retire on May 1, 2008, when he will have served as president of the country’s third largest community college system for almost 11 years. During his tenure the NCCCS has experienced significant growth and secured $600 million of a $2.5 billion bond from North Carolina voters for buildings and equipment, the largest capital investment in higher education in the system’s history and at that time the largest educational bond issue in the country’s history.
The committee plans to select one person to fill two successive positions. Former Robeson Community College president, Fred Williams, now the executive vice president and chief operating officer for the System Office, has announced his September 1, 2007 retirement. The plan Lancaster and Williams presented to the State Board will have Lancaster’s successor serving as the second in command from September until May. Then, the new president will find a new chief operating officer to present to the State Board for approval.
Born and reared on a tobacco farm in Wayne County, North Carolina, Lancaster graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with undergraduate and law degrees. In 1967 he became a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Navy, serving three years on active duty and continuing to serve as an active Reservist until his retirement as a Navy Captain in November 1993.
After release from active duty, Lancaster returned to his hometown of Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he was engaged in the private practice of law and served as a member of the General Assembly from 1979 until 1987. Elected to the United States House of
Representatives in 1986, he took office in 1987 and served until January 1995. Upon leaving Congress, Lancaster worked briefly for Governor Jim Hunt, served as Special Advisor to President Bill Clinton on Chemical Weapons and as Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works), leaving that post in June 1997 to come to his current position..
As president of the North Carolina Community College System, Lancaster has shared his expertise across the country and across the ocean. He is well respected as an education and economic development authority. He was instrumental in the development of Thailand’s community college system, which is patterned after North Carolina’s. He is presently working with educators from Northern Ireland on an ambitious partnership. His professional and personal association with UNC System President Erskine Bowles is the heart of the growing cooperative climate between the two systems.
State Board Chair Hilda Pinnix-Ragland has called him “one of the best.” She appointed Watkins and his search committee colleagues - Norma B. Turnage, vice chair, and members Dr. Bob Greene, G. Gordon "Buddy" Greenwood; Anne-Marie Knighton, Dr. Linwood Powell, John Q. Shaw, and student member, Bently Pagura. Richard Sullins, executive director of the State Board, and David Sullivan, System legal counsel, are staff support.
NOTE: This is an open meeting under the guidelines of the Open Meetings Law.
-NCCCS-
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