RALEIGH (May 16, 2025) – The UNC System’s governing board hired a new chancellor for Elizabeth City State University this week. It gave the System President a big raise. And the President raised the prospect of creating a new accrediting agency.

The UNC Board of Governors named Dr. S. Keith Hargrove, formerly the provost at Tuskegee University, as Elizabeth City’s new chancellor. Hargrove has experience as an engineering professor, dean and administrator at three historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Hargrove will succeed Karrie Dixon, who is now Chancellor at NC Central University.

At a time when small rural schools are facing difficulties, “Elizabeth City State University has a proud history of resilience,” said System President Peter Hans. “Elizabeth City State has defied the odds.”

Hans credited Dixon with strengthening the university, which has rebounded to enroll 2,200 students; as well as NC Promise, which allows several UNC System schools to offer in-state tuition of $500 a semester and out-of-state tuition of $2,500 a semester.

Hargrove developed aviation and data science programs at Tuskegee, and he was dean of engineering at his alma mater, Tennessee State University, Hans said.

“I am enormously hopeful about his plans for Elizabeth City,” he said. “There are glorious days ahead for Elizabeth City State University.”

THE BOARD also gave Hans a big raise. It voted to renew his term for an additional five years, increase his compensation by $145,000, to $600,000,¹ and to contribute $442,200 to his retirement plan.

Hans has helped keep UNC System tuition flat for nine years and reduced student debt, said Board Chair Wendy Murphy.

He has overseen searches for new chancellors at 11 of the System’s 17 campuses, and he helped secure $40 million in state funds to help more nurses enter the profession, she said.

AT A COMMITTEE meeting Wednesday, Hans also raised the notion of creating a new accrediting agency in collaboration with other public universities. Accreditation is critical to colleges’ receipt of federal financial aid for their students.

There’s been a push in conservative states – particularly Florida – in recent years to abandon the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), which accredits colleges in 11 Southern states, and adopt alternative accrediting agencies.

That push intensified in North Carolina after SACSCOC President Belle Wheelan criticized efforts by the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees in 2023 to bypass university faculty to create a new School of Civic Life and Leadership.²

The NC General Assembly then passed a law that requires North Carolina colleges and universities to switch accreditors every 8- to 10-year cycle.³

Hans did not say which other state university systems North Carolina might join to create a new accreditor. But he did say the current accreditation process is both cumbersome and expensive, especially for smaller institutions in the 17-campus UNC System.⁴

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1 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article306500256.html.
2 https://publicedworks.org/2023/02/chapel-hill-board-antics-catch-accreditors-eye/.
3 https://publicedworks.org/2023/09/florida-style-bill-would-make-colleges-switch-accreditors/.
4 https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article306413611.html.