Ralls to lead community colleges

Scott Ralls, who has led Craven Community College for the past five years, will be the next president of the North Carolina Community College System.

Ralls was selected today to succeed Martin Lancaster, who will retire in May after nearly 11 years as president, Jane Stancill reports. Ralls will be paid $275,000 a year.

The State Board of Community Colleges interviewed three finalists for several hours today behind closed doors before voting for Ralls in an open session.

More to come.

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Ralls, who will become the seventh system president, has experience at the system level and in state government. He was vice president for economic and workforce development at the central office and a director at the N.C. Department of Commerce. He received a doctorate and a master's degree from the University of Maryland and an undergraduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill.

He will lead the third largest community college system in the United States. There are 58 community colleges across North Carolina with about 800,000 students, including more than 270,000 degree-seeking students. The system is the state's main provider of workforce training and adult education.

In recent weeks, the system has been at the center of a controversy over its policy requiring the campuses to admit illegal immigrants.