NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam on Wednesday recommended Chattanooga State Community College President Flora Tydings as the next chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents system.
The board is scheduled to hold a conference call meeting Tuesday to vote on her appointment to oversee the state’s 13 community colleges and 27 colleges of applied technology.
The new chancellor will take office following Haslam’s decision to spin six four-year public universities out of the Tennessee Board of Regents system. The Republican governor has named boards to each school to control budgets, tuition and the selection of university presidents.
Haslam has said the move will allow the Board of Regents to focus on his Tennessee Promise program that offers free tuition at the state’s two-year colleges to all high school graduates.
Haslam’s emphasis on two-year colleges is part of his Drive to 55 initiative to increase the percentage of Tennesseans with higher education degrees or certificates. He wants to boost the current 38 percent to 55 percent by 2025.
Tydings came to Chattanooga State in July 2015 from Athens Technical College in Georgia, where she had been president since 2003. She also served as interim president for several months each at Central Georgia Technical College in Macon and Sandersville Technical College.
She earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgia Southern University; her master’s at Mercer University, and her doctorate in education at the University of Georgia.
If approved by the board, Tydings will take office early next year. She succeeds Interim Chancellor David Gregory, who is retiring after nearly 19 years with the Board of Regents. He took over after former Chancellor John Morgan stepped down in January.
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