CFCC president resigns

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Wilmington’s two top institutes of higher learned are both without full-time leaders. Cape Fear Community College joins UNC Wilmington in looking for a top administrator after CFCC President Ted Spring resigned this afternoon.

Spring quit after a closed session meeting with the school’s Board of Trustees, but it’s not clear what exactly led to his departure. CFCC Board of Trustees Chair Jason Harris told WWAY he did not expect the meeting to end the way it did.

“There was some corrective action we felt we needed to take, and it was the will of the board,” Harris said, “and he offered his resignation, and we accepted.”

When asked if the corrective action had to do with recent news reports about issues with Spring’s spending at the cost of the college, including airfare for his wife and mileage reimbursements for a car provided to spring at no personal cost, Harris said, “No. Not really.” When pressed for more information, the board chair would only say it was a “personnel matter.”

At the New Hanover County Commission meeting earlier this week Commissioner Woody White, who is a member of the CFCC Board of Trustees, addressed issues he had with the school’s higher-ups.

“You know no one wants to acknowledge, I don’t know why, the lack of oversight or management of how the bond funds have been spent to date. Much of it spent, or some of it at least, on lavish and extravagant buildings that lack adequate classroom space and student use,” White said Tuesday.

Harris says there’s no timeline yet on finding a successor. The Board of Trustees has appointed Dr. Amanda Lee interim president. Lee was second in command at the school under Spring as VP of Instructional Services.

Students say the change doesn’t really impact them.

“I mean things will probably just stay the same or they could get somebody better. I don’t know,” student Emerald Josey said.

Spring came to CFCC as president in November 2012. He replaced Eric McKeithan, who had retired the previous summer after 18 years on the job. McKeithan had originally announced plans in 2006 to retire, but trustees convinced him to stay on after they struggled to find a replacement citing a high demand for college presidents at the time.

During his tenure, Spring oversaw the completion of the Union Station classroom building and the beginning of construction for the Humanities & Fine Arts Building at the downtown campus. Those projects were paid for by a $164 million bond voters approved in 2008. Tuesday, New Hanover County Commissioners approved spending issuing the last $40 million of that bond money for an Advanced & Emerging Technologies Center on CFCC’s North Campus.