Bill giving legislators more power over NC community colleges passes state Senate
The North Carolina Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would significantly restructure how the North Carolina Community College System is governed.
But in its current version, the bill includes significantly less power for the system’s president than legislators originally proposed to give that position.
Senate Bill 692 would give legislators more power over the state’s community college system and local campuses, increasing the appointments they can make to governing boards at both levels, while stripping those powers from the governor and some local bodies.
As previously written, the bill also would have given the system president “executive authority” over the system, increasing the position’s power — including over staff decisions and college courses.
But much of that authority was stripped in a new version of the bill introduced in a committee Monday by Sen. Amy Galey, a Burlington Republican who is a sponsor of the bill. The bill passed the Senate Wednesday by a vote of 31-19 and now heads to the House for consideration there.
New system president named last month
The move to scale back the bill’s proposed powers for the system president comes shortly after the selection of a new president for the system.
The State Board of Community Colleges on April 21 named Jeff Cox, president of Wilkes Community College and an educator of 30 years, as the system’s president. He will start in the role July 1, and fills the spot held by Thomas Stith before his resignation last July.
SB 692 retains a provision that would require future system presidents selected by the state board to be confirmed by the General Assembly, but Galey said in committee that process would not be applied retroactively.
Speaking to The News & Observer Wednesday after the Senate vote, Galey said the selection of Cox prior to the bill passing did not affect, for her, the decision to walk back the powers the bill would have originally given the president.
“I can’t say whether it did for other members,” Galey said.
But Senate leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, told reporters after the Senate vote that because the legislature did not have the opportunity to vet Cox using the new confirmation process outlined in the bill, there were “concerns as to whether or not we ought to give that additional power to that particular president.”
“I think over time we will continue to look at that and we may come back to that issue,” Berger said.
Republicans previously wrote in a news release that the bill would empower “the next Community Colleges System President to have a greater say in the administration of the System” and allow the president “to deploy resources more effectively across North Carolina and allows our community colleges to work together in a coordinated approach.”
Speaking to The N&O after the state board announced him as system president, Cox said he viewed SB 692 as a debate over the balance of local autonomy with state control over the state’s community colleges.
“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.”
General Assembly would still gain appointments
The new version of SB 692 would — as in the original version — see the General Assembly gain more power in appointing members of the State Board of Community Colleges and local campus board of trustees.
At the state board level, the General Assembly would gain the authority to appoint 18 members, up from eight currently.
Appointments to local community college campus boards of trustees would also change under the bill, with the governor and local boards of education losing their ability to appoint four members each. The General Assembly would be able to appoint eight members to each board — it has none now — and local boards of county commissioners would continue appointing four members.
“It’s my belief that the legislature is in a good position to make those kinds of decisions, and I think the legislation that has passed this chamber is a part of what I think needs to be done as far as community colleges,” Berger told reporters Wednesday. “I also feel that the system itself needs to be reorganized in a certain way.”
The bill includes provisions for trustees at community colleges that serve more than one county, allowing county commissioners in counties outside of the county where a college’s main campus is located to appoint two additional trustees to that college’s board of trustees.
One county commissioner in each county a college serves would be permitted to serve on the local campus boards of trustees under the new version of the bill.
Sen. Julie Mayfield, an Asheville Democrat voiced opposition to the bill in committee, citing “the changes in the way that the local community college boards would be appointed under this.”
Galey said after Wednesday’s vote that she hoped the bill would help the community college system “be more responsive, increasing its responsiveness to the needs of employers.”
“It’s all about workforce development, and making sure that the needs of the students are met,” she said.
This story was originally published May 3, 2023 at 6:29 PM.
