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The UNC chair, Margaret Spellings, who will step down on March 1 after three years, issued the following statement Friday to the press:
After nearly three years of significant progress made on behalf of the citizens of North Carolina, I decided to step down as President of the UNC System effective March 1, 2019.
All leaders are for a time. When I was hired in October 2015, the board of directors clearly defined its expectations. Over the past three years, my team and I, in partnership with the Board of Governors, our boards of directors and our chancellors, have met these expectations.
I am proud of the people around me. I am proud of the professors, staff and students who make up the UNC system. I am proud of our chancellors and my team here at the system office. I am proud of the work we have done and all that we have accomplished.
Together, we challenged national trends on key issues of affordability and accountability. Together, we have developed a muscular and measurable strategic plan that includes institution-specific performance agreements and publicly accessible dashboards that have created accountability, transparency and laid the groundwork for the years to come.
Together, we are putting a lid on tuition fees, the implementation of NC Promise, the introduction of fixed tuition fees for students who are enrolled permanently, and the success of two years without any tuition increases. resident students.
Together, we have strengthened each of our institutions, increasing enrollment, increasing graduation rates, increasing the number of people completed for underserved groups, including low-income students and students. In a rural area. We are funding more students in critical areas of the workforce and increasing funding for external research.
Our state's confidence in this world-class system is clear. The General Assembly has invested in us with the highest budget in a decade, and taxpayers have invested in us through the ConnectNC Bond, whose first buildings were opened for students.
All this has happened in the last three years in the middle of a changing landscape, upset by the urgent problems of the day. As a system, we have adapted and evolved to adapt to our times.
We have elevated the platform System and renamed the unified system to the scale of the state we are. And we used our platform to better tell the story of our university.
We have brought together state-wide opinion leaders to establish an unprecedented link with the continuum of education. Initiatives such as the myFutureNC Commission, our teacher preparation efforts and the Financial Assistance Task Force are examples of coalitions we have created across the state.
I entered this position with the intention of creating a culture of higher expectations and this change is underway.
But times are changing and these changes require new leaders and new approaches.
I will leave proud of my contributions during my tenure and never honored to have served.
I was fortunate to be able to travel to this state and meet its best and brightest. This university is the most important asset of the state; its most powerful engine.
UNC students, faculty, staff, and leaders are some of the most dedicated, talented, and inspiring people I've ever known, and they are the cornerstone of our work.
Great leaders have come before and great leaders will follow. Our public institutions are more important than ever before, and when we have the opportunity to manage them, to make them a little stronger than they were, we must assume this responsibility solemnly and treat it with the the gravity that it demands.
I am proud to have carried the torch during a period of reform and progress. A time when we focused on extending economic mobility for all North Carolinians.
Higher expectations and responsibility for our students and taxpayers.
And to serve and meet the public good.
The leaders of tomorrow are currently in our universities. These are our graduates. And I hope that they observe and believe that leaders can put aside their differences, work together for common goals and put the needs of the institution first.
As I make this decision, my highest priority – and the highest priority of this board – is to maintain and defend the people, mission and reputation of the UNC system, as well as to ensure a smooth transition.
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