The State Board of Community Colleges met Friday, Dec. 15 for a virtual session to discuss and approve personnel changes at four community colleges.

The Board approved Dr. Ken Ingle, former chief officer of information services at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, as the new president of Alamance Community College. See the press release from the college here.

The Board also approved Dr. Brian Busch, Martin Community College’s Executive Vice President, as Martin Community College‘s acting president starting Jan. 1, 2024 and Dr. Larry Keen, former president of Fayetteville Technical Community College, as interim president starting Feb. 1, 2024 following the retirement of Wesley Beddard. The Board approved both roles as Dr. Keen could not begin until Feb. 1 and the college needs a president by law.

Dr. Jim Ross is also retiring as the president of Pamlico Community College. The Board approved Michelle Krauss to take on the role of acting president. 

The Board also approved two semi-finalists for president of Wilkes Community College: Michael Rodgers and Carolyn Strickland. Wilkes is searching for a new president after former president Dr. Jeff Cox became president of the North Carolina Community College System.

Additionally, the Board discussed a new funding model for North Carolina’s community colleges. The model, which was previewed at the Board’s Nov. 16 meeting, was unanimously approved by the North Carolina Association of Community College presidents at their meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 13. Cox called the new model “Propel NC.”

“After a lot of good back and forth with our presidents, questions, concerns, thought through and vetted, (I’m) really, really proud to see a unanimous vote of our presidents to endorse what I think is going to be a transformational new model,” Cox said. “Very innovative, aligning our funding model directly with the labor market and really putting us in a great place to meet the needs of business and industry and helping our citizens across the state earn credentials of value that will help them with their own economic mobility. So it’s a great step forward.”

The State Board of Community Colleges will review the funding model at its next meeting on Jan. 18-19, 2024.

Editor’s note: This article was updated Jan. 2, 2024 to include the names of the two semi-finalists for the presidency for Wilkes Community College and Jan. 8, 2024 to include the names of the acting and interim presidents at Martin Community College.