THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 26, 1995 TAG: 9508260415
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
University of North Carolina President C.D. Spangler Jr. is shedding little light on the question of who will replace Elizabeth City State University Chancellor Jimmy R. Jenkins Jr.
"President Spangler is keeping his selection of the interim successor strictly to himself," said Joni Worthington, a UNC spokesperson. "We have no idea when he will announce his choice."
Spangler, by law, must select an interim chancellor to run ECSU while the UNC Board of Governors goes through a lengthy and complicated process of picking a permanent successor to Jenkins.
First, the ECSU Board of Trustees must forward to the Board of Governors the names of several nominees to be ECSU chancellor. Then the governors must interview the candidates and discuss at length their qualifications.
"This could take months," Worthington said.
Most frequently mentioned as likely interim chancellor candidates are Helen M. Caldwell, the present senior vice chancellor at ECSU; and Paul Vandergrift Jr., a former special assistant to Jenkins.
Jenkins' abrupt resignation followed reports of disagreements - including shouting matches - between Vandergrift and Jenkins in recent weeks. Vandergrift left the ECSU campus just before Jenkins announced his resignation on Aug. 3. There has been no official information from Spangler's Chapel Hill headquarters about Vandergrift's present status.
Meanwhile, names of two more possible permanent successors to Jenkins surfaced last week. They are:
State Sen. Frank W. Ballance Jr., a Warren County attorney, who is an important Democratic political leader in the General Assembly. Ballance said last week that he had heard the reports - "and I'm honored" - but suggested that a heavy personal and political workload made his candidacy unlikely.
J. Parker Chesson Jr. of Hertford, the former president of the College of the Albemarle, who is now chief operating officer and vice president of the N.C. Department of Community Colleges in Raleigh.
"I hadn't heard that one," said Chesson last week, "and I have to tell you that I'm enjoying what I'm doing in the community college system."
Others who have been mentioned as possible Jenkins successors are Janice McKenzie Cole, a Hertford lawyer and former judge, who is now President Clinton's United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, and Ronald G. Penny, an Elizabeth City lawyer who is now Gov. James B. Hunt Jr.'s state personnel director.
Chesson's name was probably put into circulation by a group of conservative northeastern political leaders who tried to get Chesson picked as chancellor of ECSU more than a decade ago after the death of Marion Thorpe, Jenkins' predecessor.
Chesson turned down the opportunity after Thorpe died, but his name is again among those mentioned as possible successors to Jenkins.
In Elizabeth City last week, rumors continued to circulate about a special state audit reportedly ordered after Jenkins' resignation.
The rumors caused State Auditor Ralph Campbell Jr. to issue a new statement on Friday.
"Our office is required by law to audit all of the state universities and institutions on a regular basis," Campbell said. "Such an audit is now in progress - and has been for some time - at Elizabeth City State University.
"Our auditors are using an office on the university campus, as they always do. This is not in any sense a `special' audit," Campbell said. by CNB