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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994                   TAG: 9407280010
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RADFORD'S ACTIVE ACTING PRESIDENT

He is acting, rather than serving simply as a caretaker, while the university's Board of Visitors undertakes the task of finding a permanent successor to Donald Dedmon.

Owens is right to do so.

In the flap over how Dedmon handled a presidential discretionary fund, there may be a hot potato or two. But they're small potatoes compared to the big issues:

How can state-supported Radford best serve the people of Virginia and the 9,000 students on its campus? How can it do so in a time not only of severe budget constraints on higher education in Virginia, but also of public doubts about the efficiency with which higher education goes about its business?

Those questions are too urgent to defer entirely for the months a thorough presidential-search process will take.

Good answers are likeliest to come not from this actively acting president alone, but from a collaborative effort involving the whole university community. The days of the exalted-leader model of college presidencies, exemplified somewhat by Dedmon's increasingly isolated administration, are numbered.

Owens' stated emphasis on open communication as better than the rumor mill for exchanging information, his insistence that honest differences of opinion be kept separate from personal feelings, and much of his administrative reorganization seem directed toward establishing a greater sense of collegiality.

Other items on Owens' announced agenda - moving forward with the new College of Global Studies, an innovative initiative of great potential benefit to the region; working to improve both the academic quality of the admissions-applicant pool and the academic support given students once they arrive at Radford - also seem apt.

They dovetail with the university's place in Virginia's system of higher education. They would build on foundations already laid. And they would do so without unduly tying a new president's hands, whoever he or she may turn out to be.

To say that Owens, or the university, or Owens in collaboration with the university community, has good answers to those questions about Radford's future would be ludicrously premature. He may not have time enough, in any case, to make much of an impact. But the early going is encouraging.