Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994 TAG: 9406200051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
On Friday, Charles Owens will stroll the red-brick campus at Radford University and greet all of the parents accompanying their children to freshman orientation.
Owens, hastily appointed Radford's acting president 11 days ago as longtime president Donald Dedmon retired under a cloud, is prepared. He knows they'll ask. And he'll tell them:
"Despite all of the issues of the last week, Radford is a healthy university."
Owens, Radford's vice president for academic affairs, takes over the university during what may be its greatest upheaval since Dedmon himself arrived in 1972. Back then, the all-women Radford College was losing enrollment during the era of growing coeducation. The president, like Dedmon, had stayed for years.
An audit is under way of financial documents that faculty allege show mismanagement of the university discretionary fund by Dedmon. Numerous Federal Express charges of items apparently sent to family members and televisions, VCRs, and compact disc players purchased for the president's home are among items being reviewed. Guidelines adopted by the board of visitors allow broad use of the fund, including the purchase of furniture and accessories for the president's state-owned house.
It is not known when results of the audit will be completed. But Dedmon, who recently had spleen surgery and is on medical leave until his retirement takes effect in August 1995, has left town for his South Carolina beach house.
Against this backdrop, Owens must move ahead. And so, he says, must the university.
"I think for us, as a university, to spend any more time on [the controversy] is not good," he said. "Let Dr. Dedmon and everyone work out whatever that is."
Owens, who as the university's chief academic officer has had four years to consider Radford's future, has set priorities. One is the New College of Global Studies, still under development.
The all-new concept in higher education will infuse the school with 2,000 new students. There will be a ground-breaking in August for the school's first $5 million building, and the General Assembly this session set aside money to plan more buildings. A pilot class of 50 will enter in 1995, to learn how to marry foreign business affairs with technological learning - perhaps on a year-round basis.
"We are at a very critical stage of development of that college right now. We need to be sure it's successful," Owens said, only days before Provost Meredith Strohm's first five founding faculty come aboard July 1.
The high-profile experiment can only benefit from Owens' other priorities: Emphasizing academic excellence, improving communication, and getting rid of the cumbersome bureaucratic paperwork that bogs down simple processes.
Owens said he'll set up a committee "almost immediately" to consider ways to improve the school's academic profile, including a review of admissions criteria. While Radford does not have open admissions, average SAT scores for starting freshmen are below 1000. Owens said he'd like to see students who've taken advanced classes in high school, "rather than the minimum."
"The profile of students at Radford University is probably not so different from other schools," Owens said Friday in a relaxed, lengthy interview.
Bookending many typical, middle-of-the-road students are the intellectual whizzes and some marginal students who either shouldn't be in college or need help that can be a drag on other students in a class. Owens said he is talking to New River Community College about offering classes on Radford's campus for students who are behind.
Owens also wants to improve communication - an effort to help move the university beyond current controversy, as well as to help continue to improve the university's profile.
"One of my convictions is, Radford doesn't enjoy the reputation in the state it deserves," Owens said.
Alumni surveys are routinely sent out, asking graduates how they feel about their Radford educations.
"Generally, it's always been true, graduates have a higher opinion than they think other people do," he said.
That outside opinion, however, has improved in the past four years and should continue, he said.
Inside the university, cumbersome paperwork for myriad approvals, from moving desks to approving courses, may be cut. Internal governance will be re-examined, with the possibility of establishing a formal faculty senate.
Committees will be formed to figure out how to accomplish these aims.
Owens, who is married and the father of four, is a chemist who spent much of his academic career at the University of New Hampshire. He said Friday, only a couple of days into his new position, that it was still too soon to tell whether he would be interested in the permanent president's job.
It isn't known when the school's board of visitors will convene a presidential search committee. The next regularly scheduled meeting is in August.
"Despite the circumstances that brought it about, I do welcome the opportunity to guide the university," Owens said.
"I intend to conduct an open and honest administration that treats everybody fairly, on-campus and off-campus," he said.
Memo: NOTE: below