Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990 TAG: 9003092463
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Knapp's withdrawal left two other top candidates, according to published reports citing unidentified university sources. John Casteen, president of the University of Connecticut and a member of former Gov. Charles Robb's cabinet, and UVa law professor Richard Merrill have been named repeatedly as contenders.
University officials would not confirm the candidates.
In a news conference this morning in Athens, Ga., Knapp - who is president of the University of Georgia - said he had been "under very active consideration" at the time of his withdrawal.
Thursday, Knapp and his wife, Lynne, "visited with the students, faculty and board of visitors in Charlottesville," he said in a statement issued this morning. He called UVa "one of the nation's most pre-eminent institutions of higher education."
"But after carefully considering this possibility, it is Lynne's and my decision, for both personal and professional reasons, to remain at the University of Georgia."
The new president will replace Robert O'Neil, who announced last October that he was stepping down after five years at the UVa helm. A First Amendment scholar, O'Neil will become founding director of UVa's new Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.
Also this morning, a university spokeswoman said, "The Board of Visitors has called a meeting for election of a president at 2 p.m. today."
The announcement comes one day after acting Rector Edward Elson widened the search committee to the entire 16-person board, including Gov. Douglas Wilder's seven new appointees - whose terms started nine days ago.
The search committee was left without three of its original members when the term of Rector Joshua Darden expired Feb. 28 and Wilder chose not to renew the terms of Charles L. Brown and Lemuel Lewis, two board members eligible for reappointment.
The committee had hoped to recommend candidates for the presidency to the full board before old members' terms expired on Feb. 28, a goal that drew criticism from Wilder's office.
People close to the governor said he viewed the rush to appoint a new president as shutting out his new appointees - which included Patricia Kluge, wife of billionaire John Kluge, and Evans Jessee of Roanoke.
by CNB