Johnson C. Smith University president Ronald Carter announces resignation

As Johnson C. Smith University prepares for its 150th anniversary next year, the school will simultaneously bid farewell to its president, Ronald Carter.

Carter, who spent eight years transforming the university physically and academically, announced that he will step down at the end of the 2016-17 academic year.

Since becoming president of Johnson C. Smith in 2008, Carter has implemented changes throughout the campus as well as the surrounding communities. Some of Carter’s major achievements include the new master’s programs and a science center on campus, leading the charge with civic affairs and also establishing Metropolitan College, which helps “nontraditional students manage work, family and get their degree,” according to the college’s website.

According to an article in The Charlotte Observer, Carter also helped lift Johnson C. Smith’s endowment from $47 million during his first year to $64 million.

In a letter to faculty, staff and alumni, Carter highlighted features that have been installed, buildings that have been constructed, programs that have been instituted and other accomplishments the school has achieved during his eight-year tenure.

“These past few weeks have been the perfect fulfillment of an adventure that started eight years ago,” Carter said in the letter. “I can see and experience the effects of the university’s radical transformation. As we begin this 2016-2017 academic year, the university’s sesquicentennial anniversary, I can say with confidence that the university’s radical transformation is now a thriving reality … There is no doubt in my mind that this is the turning-point time for me to make room for a successor to look well to the growing edge of this historic institution with a new strategic plan in mind to move the university to another fertile plateau.”

Carter’s successor has not yet been chosen.