North Carolina community college system names new president

The North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges on Friday named Jeff Cox as the state community college system’s new president.

He will lead and oversee the state’s system of 58 community colleges and serve as the system’s chief administrative officer. Cox will be the system’s 11th president.

Cox, a North Carolina native, is currently the president of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, a position he has held since 2014.

The move to hire Cox follows previous system president Thomas Stith’s resignation from the position last July after less than two years on the job. Bill Carver, a longtime leader at Nash Community College, has served as interim system president since Stith left the post.

The board voted unanimously, with four members abstaining from voting, to approve Cox as the system’s new president. He will start the job July 1.

Cox “exemplifies the experiences, the qualities and the competencies that we outlined in our profile,” search committee chair Shirley Carraway said during Friday’s state board meeting.

Speaking to The News & Observer after the announcement, Cox said being selected as the new system president is “certainly the pinnacle of my career in education.”

Cox is an NC native, experienced educator

Cox will bring three decades of educational and leadership experience to his new post, with a career that includes time in teaching, principal and superintendent roles in counties around the state.

He became the fifth president of Wilkes Community College in 2014, and he has also served on the MyFutureNC Commission, a group established to “discuss state education and training needs, identify obstacles to meeting those needs and to generate policy recommendations,” per a news release from the community college system.

At Wilkes, Cox is credited for more than doubling the completion rate at the college, from 25% to 55%, over five years, as well as “developing a strategic plan seen as a national model for other institutions,” per the release.

He is a previous finalist for the state community college system’s President of the Year award.

“Dr. Jeff Cox has proven to be among the best education leaders in the country during his time at Wilkes Community College and as a North Carolina K-12 superintendent, and we’re excited to announce Dr. Cox as the new president of the North Carolina Community College System,” state board chair Burr Sullivan said in a news release. “We know our community colleges need strong statewide leadership and dynamic future-forward approaches to business and workforce development and Dr. Cox is that leader.”

Cox holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s of school administration degree from Appalachian State University, and he received his doctorate in educational leadership from UNC-Charlotte.

Cox currently lives in Wilkesboro with his wife, Reba, but the couple will relocate to Raleigh for his new role.

Stith resigned in July 2022

Stith, the previous system president, had previously served in staff roles at high levels of Republican politics, including as the North Carolina director for the federal Small Business Administration under former President Donald Trump and as chief of staff to former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory.

Upon his resignation last July, Stith offered little explanation for his departure — but the move came just a few months after his first annual review from the state board.

Stith’s predecessor, Peter Hans, left the community college system in 2020 to lead the UNC System, a position he still holds.

The search process for a new system president began last September when the state board appointed a bipartisan search committee consisting of 13 members — nine from the state board and four with community college and business experience. Recruiting and search firm Buffkin/Baker, contracted in December, assisted in the national search process.

Carraway, the search committee chair, said the committee received 40 applications and conducted 10 interviews. From that group, the committee selected three finalists, including Cox.

Current community college bills being considered

Friday’s announcement of the system’s new president comes as the General Assembly is considering bills that could alter the governance and appointment structures of the community college system — including stripping the board of its power to name system presidents in the future.

The state Senate on Thursday advanced Senate Bill 692, the “Community College Governance” bill, which builds upon House Bill 149.

SB 692 would give lawmakers at the General Assembly more control over the 58-campus community college system, while stripping power from the state board and the governor. The system president would also gain more power under the bill, further reducing the authority of the state board, which would reduce in size.

Republican legislators have hailed the proposed changes as a way to provide more coordinated and effective leadership in the community college system, but Democrats view it as a detrimental power grab.

Five former North Carolina governors sent a letter to lawmakers Wednesday opposing the legislation and other moves to shift power, saying that they feared the changes “would inflict real chaos and harm upon the people of our state.”

Cox told The N&O after the state board’s meeting Friday that he views the debate at the General Assembly as one over the balance of local autonomy with state control.

“So it sounds like our legislators are feeling like we might need to pull a little bit more of that authority to the state level,” Cox said. “And having been a community college president, still a community college president for another little while, I understand that delicate balance of accountability.”

Cox said he expects dialogue between community college stakeholders and legislators to continue, and “we’ll keep working with our friends in the legislature to make sure we find the right kind of governance that’s going to position our community college system and our state to be No. 1 in the country.”