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

DATE: SATURDAY, January 28, 1995                   TAG: 9501300046
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RADFORD READY TO PICK

Radford University's Board of Visitors has called a special meeting for 2 p.m. Sunday at which it may choose the school's next president.

Douglas Covington of Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, the country's first black college, is the sole finalist and received an overwhelming show of support on campus after a series of interviews this week. Radford's staff and the Radford Foundation board voted unanimously to support Covington, and the faculty endorsed him with a vote of 154-5.

``We just feel it's timely to close this issue,'' said Bernard Wampler, the rector (or chairman) of the Radford Board of Visitors.

``Everybody is satisfied with that candidate, so there's no reason to delay,'' he said.

The other finalist, Jairy Hunter, president of Charleston Southern University in South Carolina, decided Thursday to remain at his current post.

Covington, president of Cheyney since 1992, put in place a team of administrators that helped turn the school around after 15 years of fiscal disorder. Last year, Cheyney posted a $575,000 surplus.

Cheyney's provost, former Virginia State University administrator Clinton Pettus, said Covington would do well with the legislature, in part because ``he is so presidential and presents himself well.''

Covington has been assistant to the chancellor for Tennessee's state university and community college system, and chancellor of Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. He also has been president of Alabama A&M University.

Covington would be the first black president of predominantly white Radford University.

by CNB