Susanne Adams didn’t want to leave her post as president of Brunswick Community College before the school had completed the reaccreditation process.

The on-site visiting team from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) that will be part of that process will be at the school Oct. 18, Adams said Friday.

She plans to retire after seven years at the helm in January 2019.

“I wanted to make sure that the college was on that reaccreditation path,” Adams said.

One of the main reasons accreditation is important is because it ensures the school is able to offer students federal financial aid. Two major parts of the process are compliance certification and a quality enhancement project.

“Of course, we also want accreditation because it’s a peer review process and it assures that we are completing our strategic planning, we’re connecting our budget to our strategic plan, that our programs resonate with the community,” Adams said. “So there are a lot of other advantages to having them on campus because honestly, they give us good advice.”

In choosing her retirement plans, Adams (pictured at right) also wanted to give BCC time to find a new leader. On Thursday night, Alan Holden, chairman of the BCC Board of Trustees, asked the board’s executive committee when they could meet in March to discuss what the search process will because there are many options open to community colleges when it comes to looking for a new president.

“I want to make sure the college has enough time to get the leader that they want and try to avoid an interim president because that disrupts the college community twice rather than once,” Adams said.

Adams said she feels she will be leaving the college in good shape, pointing to the school’s planned allied health facility as an example.

BCC will be repurposing an existing building and adding space to it for an eventual 27,000-square-foot facility, a project that will be paid for with the help of $1.7 million from Brunswick County (in exchange for BCC signing over to the county the deed to the South Brunswick Island Center) and $2.9 million from the ConnectNC Bond.

BCC officials approved schematics for the building Thursday.

Another example of a BCC achievement that occurred under Adams' tenure is the Brunswick Guarantee program, a partnership with Brunswick County that provides free tuition and books and no fees for qualified students to attend BCC.

Before taking the president's job at BCC, Adams, who has 35 years of experience, was in the Virginia Community College for four years and was vice president of Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst.

Her salary at BCC is $183,000.

Adams said Friday that while enrollment has dipped or remained static in recent years for full-time curriculum students (those working toward a two-year degree), the workforce development side of BCC is "growing like gangbusters."