Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408220079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Charles Owens, former vice president for academic affairs, took over in June for longtime President Donald Dedmon, who retired the same day an audit was launched into his discretionary fund.
Dedmon, who has been ill, officially is on sick leave until August 1995.
Owens spoke to a convocation of faculty and staff, the first at Radford in years. A second, student-oriented convocation will be held Monday.
"I think everyone knows that there have been significant and exciting changes at Radford University this summer," Owens said.
Among the changes is a renewed push toward becoming the best comprehensive university in the state, Owens said. And even as a committee has begun to hammer out the university's first official set of admissions requirements, Owens made clear that he does not intend to close Radford to students who may not have been valedictorian.
"While we are not, and are not expected to be, an open-admission institution, neither are we expected to be elitist or unnecessarily exclusive," he said.
Among his other announcements, Owens said Charles Wood - the assistant to the president who was closely identified with Dedmon - will take over university advancement operations, which include fund raising. His title and salary remain the same, Owens said.
Wood was the focus of controversy a year ago, after the board of visitors granted him tenure without the six-year scrutiny demanded of faculty. Faculty who led the battle against the board over the appointment always said that their issue was not with Wood.
Both Wood and Owens on Friday said the job change is not designed to distance Wood from the politics still brewing after Dedmon's departure. A report on the audit is due Aug. 30.
Owens also is reappointing Kevin Williams to the post of assistant to the president. This summer, Williams was moved from a similar post. Owens said at the time he did not need an assistant to drive him about and go through files, as Williams apparently had done for Dedmon.
But with Wood's new duties, Owens said that he does now need an assistant.
Wood already had been doing some fund raising.
"I believe we are poised for some really significant fund raising," Owens said. "Our potential for private fund raising is much greater now than it has been in the past."
Owens received warm applause from the faculty, many of whom were out of town during this summer's controversy.
by CNB