CANDIDATE PASSES; AGRICULTURE DEAN HUNT GOES ON

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 31, 1992                   TAG: 9201310224
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
CANDIDATE PASSES; AGRICULTURE DEAN HUNT GOES ON
Virginia Tech's search for a new dean for its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has ended with the bull jumping the fence.
Roger Wyse, dean of research at Rutgers University's agriculture college and Tech's top candidate, has withdrawn from consideration for the Tech post.
A university committee formed to search for a new dean has been dissolved, said James Wolfe, vice provost at Tech.
Andy Swiger, who has been serving as acting dean of Tech's agriculture college since James Nichols retired on Dec. 31, will remain in that role indefinitely.
Wolfe said Provost Fred Carlisle told the faculty of the agriculture college Wednesday that he would consult with them in late spring about how to proceed with the hunt for a new dean.
Nichols, who led Tech's agriculture school for 15 years, announced a year ago that he planned to step down at the end of 1991. He stays on at Tech with other responsibilities.
The search committee narrowed the hunt for Nichols' replacement to three candidates from a list of 50 applications. Besides Wyse, the finalists were Thomas Payne, head of Tech's entomology department, and Handy Williamson, head of the agricultural economics and rural sociology departments at the University of Tennessee.
Wyse, who also serves as director of New Jersey's agricultural experiment stations, had not been formally offered the Tech job but was aware that he was the leading candidate when he withdrew his name from consideration, Wolfe said. Wyse's wife, a soil scientist at Rutgers, also was under consideration for a job at Tech.
Wolfe said to his knowledge Wyse had not mentioned Virginia's budget problems as a reason for pulling out.
John Hess, president of the faculty association in Tech's college of agriculture, said Virginia's budget woes may have been on Wyse's mind but mainly Wyse was interested in some other job offers.
"It's not a good feeling in knowing you haven't succeeded in going after your first candidate," Hess said. But things may have turned out for the better, he said.
He's concerned that the search for a dean may not be renewed until the summer, but because Tech is preoccupied with budget negotiations that's understandable, Hess said.
Swiger is an experienced leader who should be able to keep things going, he said.
Swiger came to Tech in 1980 as head of the animal science department and became associate dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 1986.
When the search for a dean is renewed, applicants for the job in the first search will not be foreclosed from applying again, Wolfe said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB