The board of the North Carolina Community College System named a new president today, amid a statewide controversy over a directive that the state’s community colleges cannot deny admission to illegal immigrants.

The State Board of Community Colleges named Scott Ralls, president of Craven Community College, in New Bern, to succeed the system’s retiring president, H. Martin Lancaster. Mr. Ralls will not take over until April 2008, but he is sure to face questions about the flap over the system’s admissions policy.

Last month the system office issued a memo telling the state’s 58 community colleges that under state law they must admit students who are in the United States illegally. Many of the colleges were already doing that, but it had come to the system’s attention that more than 20 were not.

News of the memo caused a public uproar, with hundreds of people calling to complain and numerous politicians denouncing the policy, according to local news reports. The board at Craven Community College, Mr. Ralls’s institution, had never tackled the issue, according to a college spokesman.

Mr. Ralls will lead one of the largest community-college systems in the country, with more than 800,000 students. His annual salary will be $275,000. —Elyse Ashburn