No shortage of applicants for PCC president position: Experts report increase in higher education leadership turnover

There is no shortage of candidates interested in becoming the sixth president of the sixth-largest community college in the state.

The number of applicants seeking to fill the position held by Pitt Community College President Lawrence Rouse has exceeded expectations, PCC Board of Trustees Chairman Charles Ellis said. The application deadline is Friday.

“There’s already been a significant amount of interest in the job as there was when Dr. (Dennis) Massey left and we were looking for his replacement,” Ellis said. “It’s a tribute to Pitt Community College and the history.”

The 63-year-old college began its second president search in six years after Rouse announced in January that he would retire at the end of June.

Kennon Briggs, a consultant with the Association of Community College Trustees, said the vast majority of community colleges across the state have hired a new president in the last decade. ACCT is a nonprofit assisting the college’s Board of Trustees in its search.

“You’re seeing a wave, both within our system and across the country,” said Briggs, who has aided in 14 presidential searches in the past six years, 11 of them in North Carolina.

“If you look at our system over the past eight or nine years, there’s been almost a complete turnover,” he said. “That’s not every school but there are 58 community colleges in our system, and I would say 45 or so have turned over in executive leadership.”

Neighboring Martin Community College named a new president last month, and a new president began at Halifax Community College in Weldon last year. Briggs cited numerous reasons for the turnover rate, from the retirement of Baby Boomers to the demanding nature of a college president’s position.

“The work of a community president has become so broad and deep,” he said. “It’s not just running the institution … It is fundraising. It’s working with business and industry. It’s being involved in the community. It’s being involved at the state level. It’s just so comprehensive, the role, that it wears people out. I don’t mean that in a negative way. But if they do the work internally and externally, it’s a heavy lift.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that across the nation, the average tenure of college presidents is shrinking. According a 2023 survey by the American Council on Education, typical presidents have been in their current job for 5.9 years, down from 6.5 years in 2016 and 8.5 years in 2006.

Rouse, who has more than 40 years of experience in higher education, held the position at PCC for six years, which is less than half the time he served as president and CEO of James Sprunt Community College. Rouse’s PCC predecessor, Dennis Massey, served as president for 15 years.

Ellis said trustees knew when they hired Rouse that he did not plan to remain for a decade.

“He was so well qualified; he was a great hire for Pitt Community College,” Ellis said of Rouse, who was named the N.C. Community College System’s President of the Year in 2016. “We were very happy and lucky to have him. He was in his 60s when he agreed to take the job so we knew the amount of time we would have him would be seven or eight years max.”

Rouse has agreed to help with the transition in leadership, Ellis said. “But the focus was and is now hiring the best president we can hire with the interest of the students.”

Briggs said some of the applicants for the president’s job did not follow the same academic pathway as Rouse, who has a master’s and a doctorate in education. Some potential candidates have degrees in business, law or even medicine. Others have education degrees but have followed different career paths.

“Not only are there good, qualified community college people who are applying for presidencies, but there are also folks that are coming across from other areas of education, whether it’s university level, community college level or public school level. We’ve had a number of presidents in our system who were former superintendents,” he said, adding that the N.C. Community College system president, Jeff Cox, is a former schools superintendent.

Following the closing of the application period, Briggs expects six to eight people to be selected for virtual interviews, followed by an invitation for finalists to visit the campus in May for tours and public forums. He said PCC hopes to have the state Board of Community Colleges approve the Board of Trustees’ selection by June.

Rouse’s retirement announcement came two months before Pitt County Schools Superintendent Ethan Lenker said he plans to step down at the end of July.

Briggs said it is not necessarily a bad thing that the two retirements are coming close together.

“Pitt Community College and Pitt County Schools partner so well together for high school students, early college high school and students matriculating from the Pitt County Schools to the college,” he said. “There’s already a very good relationship.

“It’s really healthy that you have two new leaders who can grow and learn this relationship together, and the students will be the beneficiaries.”