Bill Roper will serve as UNC-System interim president through June 2020 to give the Presidential Search Committee time to find a permanent replacement, UNC-System Media Relations announced Wednesday. Roper has "no plans to seek" the position of permanent system president.
In January, Roper replaced Margaret Spellings after she unexpectedly announced her resignation in October 2018. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of UNC Health Care and dean of the UNC School of Medicine.
“After serious contemplation and consultation with others, I believe that setting a clear time frame is the right course of action to give our system the time to plan for a successor,” Roper said in a statement. “This additional time in service will allow me to reach the goals and obligations set when I began the role of interim president."
The announcement comes just one day after Harry Smith announced his resignation as Board of Governors chairperson. Following the announcement of Roper's position as system president in November 2018, Smith said that Roper was his “number one choice” for the position.
Roper's short time in the position did not come without controversy. This summer, it was discovered that he failed to disclose corporate board seats he held between 2011 and 2019 while those corporations did business with the state.
In his position as UNC-system president, Roper oversees 17 UNC campuses, including UNC-Chapel Hill. He appointed Kevin Guskiewicz as interim Chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill during his time as interim president, and Guskiewicz has said they have a positive working relationship.
One of the system president's duties is to conduct interviews with the candidates the Chancellor Search Committee recommends to him or her. Then, the system president recommends a chancellor candidate to the BOG. The Chancellor Search Committee has begun meeting and, in a proposed timeline distributed at its first meeting, said a new chancellor could be nominated to the BOG as early as Dec. 13 — before the time Roper plans to step down as system president.
