Meet the New Boss

Most people expected the “insider” to become the next president of the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS). The big question was, which insider would the governing State Board of Community Colleges choose at its December 6 meeting?

In what might be considered a triumph of the visionary over the financial expert, Dr. Scott Ralls, the current president of Craven Community College in New Bern, was selected over Kennon Briggs, the system’s vice president for business and finance for the past ten years. Before becoming Craven CC’s president, the 43-year-old Ralls was the NCCCS vice president for economic and workforce development.

Ralls earned a B.S. in industrial relations and psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill, and also has an M.A. and a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Maryland.

He will replace H. Martin Lancaster, who has been the system’s president for 11 years. Lancaster’s comments at the announcement were brief and jovial. “The king is dead, long live the king,” he joked. Ralls will begin his new post in April 2008, although Lancaster will not actually retire until May. Ralls will receive a salary of $275,000 a year, a substantial jump from Lancaster’s current $211,000.

Ralls will be taking over a vast system. There are over 800,000 students at 58 community colleges in North Carolina, with 214 campuses or centers in 90 counties. The variety of resources and communities is also considerable, ranging from state-of-the art facilities to aging classrooms and serving everywhere from Charlotte and the Triangle to the most remote rural areas.

There was a third candidate, Philip R. Day, Jr., currently the chancellor of the City College of San Francisco. However, the qualifications for the position included “a broad and extensive knowledge of the North Carolina Community College System,” and there were other indications that the local candidates had an advantage.

Talking to the press after the meeting, Ralls said he the first thing he intends to do when taking office is to listen. “Don’t look for me to come in day one and make some very significant changes,” he said.” He remained noncommittal about the current controversy raging over the enrollment of illegal aliens as students in the community college system.

As his educational background and experience suggest, Ralls is likely to focus on issues involving workforce development and the economy, particularly the role of the community colleges in keeping the state competitive in the global market. “We now have, over the last decade, anywhere from 1.5 to two billion new workers internationally because of the emergence of China, of India, of the former Soviet Republics,” he explained. He suggested this massive increase in workers was affecting North Carolina’s economy: “We’re seeing changes in the types of the jobs within the economy, where the jobs are moving up the food chain, and we have to help our people in North Carolina move with them.”

The idea that U.S. workers might not be raising their skills to meet the demands of this emerging global economy “causes me to stay up at night and worry,” said Ralls. He cited an OEDC study “that showed for fifteen-year-olds we ranked 25th in math.”

Ralls favors a “seamless” approach in which the community colleges work with the area public schools, the university system, and with the local economy to address weaknesses and create opportunities. He is also likely to be receptive to attempts to modernize various aspects of the educational system. One innovation he referred to was “an Early College program that has been recognized by some as a model for North Carolina.” Early College is a program on community college campuses that permits talented high school students to take college level classes for credit.

A partnership between Craven CC and the NC State College of Engineering illustrates the concept of a “seamless” education system. Through this partnership, “you can not only go two years with us and complete a two-year degree and then transfer to NC State, but you can complete a four-year NC State degree…and never leave our county,” Ralls said.

Ralls said that he also looks forward to working with UNC system president Erskine Bowles, with whom he worked with in the past as a member of the Rural Prosperity Task Force. Ralls also serves as a director for the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Editor’s Note: Jay Schalin is a writer/researcher for the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh.