N.C. university system president quits

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Margaret Spellings, a former U.S. education secretary under President George W. Bush, resigned Friday as president of North Carolina’s public university system, ending a tenure marked by cultural controversies and a hard-edged governing board that didn’t choose her.

The University of North Carolina board of governors approved a separation package for Spellings paying her more than $500,000 when she leaves as president of the state’s 17-campus system in March, three years after she started.

Spellings got the job after the Republican-majority North Carolina university board in 2015 forced out her predecessor, who got the job under Democratic control. But the board has almost entirely been replaced since Spellings’ arrival and new members appointed by the Legislature, including several conservative former lawmakers, have sought to disrupt a public university system that had been seen as self-satisfied and elitist.

The ascendant board members, like Spellings, have said their goals included making campuses more affordable and efficient. But Spellings, who turns 61 next week, left little doubt the conflict made leaving the job her better option.

“Governance is always being calibrated and recalibrated over and over, and that’s part of the fun of the job,” she said.

Spellings will continue to collect her $775,000-a-year salary until March.