Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 30, 1994 TAG: 9408300094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 14-member committee was named Monday by the board of visitors and will choose one of two executive search firms to help find a new president. The meeting, which will be closed, will begin only hours after the audit into Dedmon's discretionary fund is released. The audit was launched the same June day Dedmon announced his retirement amid faculty allegations of improper use of the fund.
Meantime, acting President Charles Owens said Monday that he's thinking seriously of becoming a candidate for the permanent job.
"I think I have a good sense of where the university needs to go," he said.
Owens already has given the board plans to revamp the university bureaucracy.
"The risk of not doing [the revamp] is greater than the risk of doing it," he said. "The university is ready to move forward in a number of roles.
"The university does not want me in the role of caretaker, and I don't want to be."
The search committee was put together by Bernard Wampler, rector of the board of visitors, who also has narrowed the field of executive search committees to two: the Kaludis Consulting Group of Nashville, Tenn., and Korn Ferry International, with a regional office in Washington, D.C.
"The old days of two or three people getting together and discussing and selecting a president are gone," said Wampler, as he announced his committee. He said he sought a broad and balanced group.
Members include vice rector Karen Waldron, J. Carson Quarles, James C. Stutts and Ellen C. Nau, all members of the board of visitors; Charles W. King and Meredith Strohm, university administration; Tom Mullis, Felix Amenkhienan, Gwen Brown and Margaret Devaney, faculty; Ali Hebler and Travis Williamson, students; Charlene Curtis, an alumna; and Fred L. Newhouse Jr. of the RU Foundation.
Board member Nancy Wilson stressed the need for input from both rank-and-file workers at the university and Radford residents not affiliated with the school.
Just when a president will be chosen remains up in the air.
"It's going to be a long process and, frankly, that doesn't bother me at all, because this university is not in a state of emergency," Wampler said.
by CNB