Less than four months after taking the position, Rick Young has resigned as interim president at East Mississippi Community College.
Young submitted his resignation in a letter to EMCC board Chairman Jimmie Moore Monday, Moore said at Tuesday night’s board of trustees meeting. The rest of the board voted unanimously to accept Young’s resignation.
“Basically I think (the letter) just said that he felt like there was not total confidence in his leadership at this time, and he just felt it would be better for the institution that he does love to move on and let someone else serve,” Moore told The Dispatch after the meeting.
Young became interim president of the institution in May after president Thomas Huebner resigned to apply as president of Meridian Community College. Young previously served as president for almost 11 years, beginning in 2004 and retiring in 2015. He had worked at EMCC, in various capacities, for 40 total years at the time of his retirement.
Moore said there were “no ill feelings” involved in Young’s resignation.
“I hated to see it end like this, this interim presidency, because his intent was to be here until we had a permanent president,” Moore said. “But he just said, ‘I think it’s time for me to go. I’m going today. I won’t be at the board meeting.’ I honored that request certainly, as would anybody.”
After an hour-long executive session, the board announced they had chosen an individual to offer the interim position to, but Moore said trustees would not release the name of that candidate before Moore spoke to him or her, which he said he hoped to do Wednesday.
The board also voted to extend the application deadline for the position of permanent president from Sept. 18 to Oct. 31.
Young could not be reached for comment by press time. Moore had not provided a copy of Young’s resignation upon request to The Dispatch by press time.
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