Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 23, 1994 TAG: 9408250031
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENTS PAGE: 2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A few students traipsed from class to class. A teacher or two ghosted in or out of a red brick building from time to time.
But hovering over the quiet was a cloud, though it may be dispersed by the end of the month.
On June 9, Radford's president for 22 years, Donald N. Dedmon, abruptly announced his retirement amid faculty allegations that he had misused his discretionary fund. An audit was immediately launched, the results of which are due Aug. 29. Vice president for academic affairs Charles Owens was called back from vacation and appointed acting president; he has promised open communication and a push toward higher academic standards.
Dedmon's announcement came during a tumultuous 48 hours for the school.
On June 8 the school's governing Board of Visitors hastily called a closed-door meeting, where they spent six hours discussing "personnel" matters.
Three professors, Al Pearson, Tom Mullis and Sheila Reyna, saying they represented a faculty committee, entered and dropped 500 pages of documents on the conference table. The documents had been given to Pearson by Radford lawyer Ed Stone, who had held on to them for three years. They had been given to him by a disgruntled former Radford University employee.
The faculty members stayed about a half-hour.
What happened during the rest of the marathon hearing, held in a meeting room at Heth Hall, has been the subject of much speculation. But by the next day, rumor on campus was rampant: Dedmon was leaving. The official announcement came at midafternoon.
"I can think of no place I would have liked to spend the major part of my career than here at Radford," came the anemic announcement from Dedmon, a communications scholar known throughout the region for his engaging speeches.
Complicating the scenario has been Dedmon's health. The former president suffered a ruptured spleen in late winter and reportedly has been slow to recover. He is officially on sick leave until August 1995, after which his retirement takes effect.
By June 10, revelations began to spill over - even as the board's two leading officers, vice rector Bernard Wampler and rector Tommie Jones, left for vacations.
Wampler, now rector, (Jones' tenure on the board expired while she was away), scrambled to answer reporters' questions before he left.
As it turned out, the same discretionary fund being audited, worth $30,000 this year, had been the target of a state "whistleblower" audit in the spring of 1993. At the time, Dedmon was asked to repay more than $2,800 in personal phone calls and Federal Express charges, which he did with some embarrassment, according to the state internal auditor.
The auditor, John Huston, said Dedmon had authorized an employee to sift through expenses and pay his personal expenses with signed checks. How the mix-up occurred, Huston could not say.
Wampler, meanwhile, said he knew nothing of the audit until the events surrounding Dedmon's departure. He had chaired the board's audit committee.
Wampler also knew nothing of the guidelines governing the discretionary fund, which allow wide latitude in the president's spending.
The whistleblower audit went back to 1989, three years earlier than the review under way.
Among the documents reviewed this summer by the university's internal auditor are expenses for such items as a $2,100 TV for the RU president's state-owned home, Hickory Hill, and charges for nursery purchases and picture framing. A couple of CD players and VCRs also were bought during the time covered by the documents, 1986 to 1989.
The guidelines say the president can use the fund to buy furniture and accessories for his home, all of which belong to RU.
Meanwhile, what with the wide latitude allowed in Dedmon's spending, Wampler has said not to expect fireworks from the audit report.
Aug. 29 also is the day the board will announce how it will go about searching for a new president. A search committee is expected to be appointed.
by CNB