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

DATE: TUESDAY, August 23, 1994                   TAG: 9408250014
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENT                    PAGE: 18   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                 LENGTH: Medium

FOR A STAND-IN, RU'S OWENS SEEMS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Since then, the acting president has taken steps to calm the upheaval, and has taken strong action toward several goals.

Owens is the former vice president for academic affairs, Radford's chief academic officer. He will serve as acting president until a new president is chosen, which may take months.

In the meantime, Owens has plans:

Improving admissions standards. A committee has been created to start looking into whether minimal SAT scores or required high school courses ought to be demanded of would-be Radford freshmen. This is step one toward Owens' more sweeping goal of improving Radford's overall academic excellence and shedding its good-time party image.

Owens is throwing open the doors. He's talking to community groups and doing what he can to free up an atmosphere that had increasingly become stifled-despite Dedmon's reputation as a communications scholar.

With the approval of the school's governing board of visitors, Owens has made a couple of appointments.

Look for Kathleen Green, former dean of the nursing school, in Owens' old office. She's acting vice president for academic affairs.

James Nicely will take over the duties on an acting basis in Green's former post at the Waldron College of Nursing and Health Services. Nicely has taught at Radford for 15 years.

At a meeting last month, Owens told the board of visitors that morale at Radford ``seems to be at an all-time high - at least in my experience here.''

In June, 10 days after Dedmon left and the mystery of his alleged misuse of a discretionary fund hung over campus like a pall, Owens called the college community to a meeting at Porterfield Theater.

Vacationing faculty still in town came, as did a few townsfolk. Owens called for healing. He called for openness, honesty, and communication.

Owens came to the school in 1989 after a long career at the University of New Hampshire. The chemistry professor, originally from the Midwest, worked his way into a variety of administrative posts in New Hampshire before he came here.

He's the father of four grown children who are scattered around the country.

Owens says he's still not sure if he wants to be Radford's next president. But for now, he's the new breath of fresh air.