Inside sources confirm: Harold Martin is the new Chancellor

 The A&T Register confirmed rumors and reports that current UNC System Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Harold Martin, will be the next Chancellor of A&T. Inside sources reported on Tuesday, and confirmed again on Thursday that Martin was selected.

The UNC Board of Governors will hold a special session meeting on the campus tomorrow at 11 a.m. in the Center Ballroom of the Alumni-Foundation Event Center. The meeting will be held via teleconference and Martin's appointment is the only thing currently on the agenda.

The search committee decided early on that it would not hire a professional search firm like the one that provided current Chancellor Stanley F. Battle to A&T, citing the cost of the search, the economy, and where that money spent could have been used to help students.

The University spent over $190,000 on the search firm previously. Many institutions reach out to use these firms to help them find their leaders.

In an early Search Committee meeting, Committee & Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Franklin McCain, said that one of the main reasons they didn't want to use the search firm was the concern that A&T was not being presented with the best options.

"There is a very small talent pool for these kinds of things," McCain said. "We want to make sure that we are getting the best of out it."

With the meeting and announcement scheduled for tomorrow, the search committee will meet its goal of finding a replacement by Battle's last day, on June 30. This will prevent the need for an interim chancellor at the start of a new fiscal year.

Battle announced his resignation on Feb. 24, sighting “personal and family reasons,” forcing the University to begin another Chancellor Search. The resignation left many students and faculty with mixed feelings.

In a survey conducted on ncatregister.com over the course of 6 weeks, 46 percent of the people surveyed said they believed there were other reasons behind Battle’s resignation. 25 percent said that they were completely shocked, and didn’t know why he was leaving so soon.

Martin will become the third Chancellor of the institution since the retirement of Dr. Edward B. Fort in 1999.  He comes with quite a bit of experience in the realm of leadership.

Martin was the eleventh chief administrator and the seventh chancellor of Winston-Salem State University from January 2000 to July 2006.

While at WSSU, he guided the reclassification of WSSU from a baccalaureate I to a master’s II institution, created a School of Graduate Studies and Research, established seven master’s degree programs and enhanced the quality of overall academic programs.

While at WSSU the university’s enrollment doubled since 2000, giving WSSU the fastest growing enrollment in the University of North Carolina system.

He received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from A&T, and was the former Dean of the College on Engineering. 

In an interview with The News & Record, McCain addressed concerns of the new chancellor facing challenges.

“There are going to be challenges for whoever is selected, but A&T has seen challenges before,” McCain said. “The new chancellor will have to be an innovator, be a leader, and have a vision. And we have to lend them our support and come together. I believe we will.”