May 9—RANDOLPH COUNTY — The current president of a Texas community college has been named the new president of Randolph Community College.

RCC announced on Tuesday the selection of Shah Ardalan as its seventh president. He was unanimously selected by the RCC Board of Trustees. The State Board of Community Colleges approved the selection at a board meeting Tuesday.

Board Chair Mac Sherrill and Reynolds Lisk, chair of the trustees' Presidential Search Committee, said there will be several opportunities for local residents to meet Ardalan during the summer.

Ardalan, currently president of Lone Star College-University Park in Houston, was one of four candidates that the RCC Board of Trustees invited to interview and tour the campus during the week of April 17.

He was the only one of the four with North Carolina ties. He earned his master's degree in electrical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro and his bachelor's degree in physics from UNC Greensboro.

Ardalan said in the college's press release that "returning to North Carolina and leading RCC are like coming home and getting the perfect career opportunity as well."

"Randolph Community College is uniquely poised to build on its rich history and serve as a collaborative and critical engine of socioeconomic growth, workforce development, and prosperity for the entire community and our partners," he said. "RCC will thrive as a relevant, flexible, high-tech, and high-touch institution of higher education with deep respect for tradition and relentless drive for innovation."