Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9407200095
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The vote was unanimous except for dissent from the board's most senior member, Nancy Wilson of Salem. She called the election of both Wampler and Karen Waldron, the new vice rector, ``well-planned, dictated, and put together.''
``I'm hoping the faculty will have some support,'' said Wilson, who is among the board members who worked to improve communication with faculty members last winter, after the faculty nearly voted no confidence in the board over a controversial tenure appointment.
Wampler's election at the university comes as dust begins to settle in a tumultuous year that started with the tenure flap. Last month, longtime President Donald Dedmon retired the day after the faculty presented the board with more than 500 documents they purported may show financial mismanagement of Dedmon's discretionary fund.
According to Wampler, ill health led to Dedmon's decision to depart. Dedmon is on sick leave until next summer.
Meanwhile, an audit of the fund was launched. Wampler said Tuesday that a full report to ``the board, the media, and the state of Virginia'' will be presented in August.
``If you're expecting some big scandal, you're wasting your time,'' said Wampler, citing broad guidelines governing use of the fund. He said he did not know about the guidelines when the audit was ordered.
The university's internal auditor, Bill Shorter, is charged with checking each invoice given to the board, including the whereabouts of such items as televisions and compact disc players. The guidelines allow purchases to furnish and equip the state-owned president's house, which Dedmon is allowed to occupy until his official retirement in August 1995, say university officials. He reportedly is spending most of his time at his South Carolina beach home.
Responding to Wilson's charge, both Wampler and Waldron said they did not like the ``negative'' fashion in which the faculty documents landed in the board's hands.
Saying it was only her ``gut feeling,'' Waldron said she got the impression that ``rather than trying to bring information to the board, [faculty was] trying to hurt Dr. Dedmon.''
Board members Ginger Mumpower of Radford and John Clayton of Richmond were absent for Tuesday's vote.
During the next year under acting President Charles Owens, Wampler will be influential as the university decides how it will replace Dedmon. Confirming that a search committee will be convened, Wampler said that details of how the search will be conducted will be announced Aug. 29, at the board's next meeting.
``We've got to find the best president, whoever she or he is, without personalities or whatever getting into the picture,'' said Wampler. He said that the board expects 150 applications.
Dedmon spent 22 years at Radford, replacing a president who likewise had spent two decades at the school. In an era when university presidents tend to remain in office only a few years, Wampler said, an action-oriented president may anger others over time.
Dedmon is widely credited with saving Radford College, then a dying women's college, by building it into a regional, coeducational university.
Owens has made the improvement of Radford's academic reputation a priority. Tuesday, he stressed that the school's longtime party image has got to go.
Owens has said he does not yet know if he will be a candidate for president.
He promises open communication, a call that seems to ring across Radford's campus these days.
``I think we're going to have more open meetings,'' said Wilson. ``The [board] members will have more input.''
by CNB