The Fayetteville Technical Community College board of trustees met Thursday in a special called meeting to receive recommendations from the Presidential Search Committee on the potential successor to President Larry Keen.

In January — after nearly 15 years of service at the school off Hull Road — Keen announced his plan to retire on Jan. 1, 2023.

“The full board met today almost entirely in closed session to discuss recommendations of the candidates that were recommended by the search committee,” said Catherine Pritchard, a spokeswoman for FTCC.

She said some candidates were interviewed last week before the Presidential Search Committee determined its recommendations for the job. Those applicants were then presented to the full board at the special called meeting.
After emerging from the approximately 30-minute closed session, Pritchard said, the full board accepted the recommendations from the search committee.

“They will invite those recommended candidates to campus for interviews the first week of August,” she said. “These are the finalists for the job.”

The names of the finalists were not released.
Pritchard said she didn’t know how many applicants remain in the running for the job and, if she did, she would be unable to release that information at this time. Likewise, she didn’t know the overall number of applications the school received for the position.

Keen’s successor will be the fifth president in the history of FTCC. Keen joined FTCC as the college’s president on Aug. 1, 2007.

The board of trustees is scheduled to meet again on Aug. 15, when its members are expected to discuss the finalists and may come to an agreement on its top candidate.

Once the board comes to a consensus, its recommendation will go before the State Board of Community Colleges.

“It would be anticipated that the state board would consider and, hopefully, approve the candidate in September – Sept. 23,” Pritchard said.

Fayetteville Tech serves roughly 28,000 students annually.