RALEIGH, NC — Another chancellor of North Carolina’s public university system has announced he is stepping down, this time at the state’s largest university by enrollment.
North Carolina State University Chancellor Randy Woodson announced his plans to retire Thursday at the university’s board of trustees meeting, capping nearly 15 years in the role. His term officially ends June 30, 2025, Woodson said.
His departure marks another chancellor vacancy in the University of North Carolina system, which is working to fill three other vacancies, including the state’s flagship campus, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Seventeen schools are members of the system.
“I feel good that I’m leaving the institution better than I found it, but I also feel good that the next leader has a lot to do at NC State,” Woodson said during the meeting. “This is a great place.”
With his contract expiring in June, Woodson told reporters it was “just a good time” to step down as chancellor. The 67-year-old said he had been considering retirement for some time.
Woods received a two-year contract extension in 2021 allowing him to stay until 2025, something UNC System President Peter Hans said he “resisted staying at the time.”
“When I think about where NC State was 15 years ago and where NC State is today, it’s an extraordinary testament to the leadership of this man and the team he’s built around him,” Hans told reporters after the meeting.
Woodson began serving as NC State’s chancellor in 2010. He came from Purdue University, where he served as provost, dean of the college of agriculture and in several other leadership positions.
To be below long service at NC StateWoodson led the university in increasing graduation and retention rates and research funding. The university’s enrollment has also grown to more than 37,000 students in fall 2023.
His tenure included radical changes to the college athletics landscape, including the Atlantic Coast Conference adding the University of Pittsburgh and Syracuse University to all sports, the University of Notre Dame to all non-football league sports, and the move of the competition to add Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Southern Methodist University this year.
He is the third longest-serving rector of the university and one of the longest-serving rectors within the university system.
While he has no immediate plans for the future after his chancellorship, Woodson said he plans to remain in Raleigh.
Woodson’s announcement means the UNC System will once again be searching for a chancellor, after four vacancies were filled in the past year. Those new chancellors now lead four universities: James Martin at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Karrie Dixon at North Carolina Central University, Bonita Brown at Winston-Salem State University and Kimberly Van Noort at UNC-Asheville.
Three other universities currently have openings for chancellors: Appalachian State University, Elizabeth City State University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Former Appalachian State chancellor Sheri Everts was the most recent chancellor to step down in April.
The search for UNC-Chapel Hill’s next chancellor — a position that opened after former Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz stepped down in January — continued Wednesday as members of the search committee began considering candidates. The chancellorship is currently held by interim Chancellor Lee Roberts, who has been endorsed by GOP legislative leaders to become the next chancellor.
The search committee has been “aggressively out in the marketplace” for several weeks to find suitable candidates, but competition from other universities conducting chancellor searches has created challenges, Laurie Wilder, head of search firm Parker Executive Search, said during the meeting.
Hans told reporters after the meeting that he believed the high turnover among chancellors was partly due to university leaders delaying their departures to ensure governance would function smoothly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Associated Press editor Aaron Beard in Raleigh contributed to this report.