ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
One of the three finalists for the top post at Hollins College was named president of Sweet Briar College on Monday.
Sweet Briar officials made their announcement just three days before Hollins' selection committee was to decide on its final recommendation to the board of trustees.
Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, dean of undergraduate studies at Florida State University in Tallahassee, will become Sweet Briar's ninth president.
"Sweet Briar is going to get a good president," said Anna Lawson, chairwoman of Hollins' presidential search committee. "She wouldn't have been one of our finalists if she hadn't been damned good."
Lawson said the committee was aware that Muhlenfeld also was a candidate at Sweet Briar.
Sweet Briar president Barbara Ann Hill announced in November that she plans to retire at the close of the academic year. The following month, Hollins president Jane Margaret O'Brien said she was leaving to take the top post at St. Mary's College in Maryland.
Muhlenfeld's departure leaves Hollins with two candidates: Janet Rasmussen, vice president for academic affairs at Nebraska Wesleyan University; and Constance Rooke, associate vice-president of academics at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
"We have two really exceptional people still," Lawson said.
She said the search committee has not made its choice for president because it was waiting for feedback from faculty, students and alumnae who have been meeting with the candidates since last week.
Although the search committee's instructions are to give the board of trustees up to three names for its consideration, Lawson said she believes it will narrow its recommendation to one candidate.
The search committee will select that candidate Thursday, and forward the recommendation to the board of trustees when it meets Saturday.
Sweet Briar's presidential search had been narrowed from 150 candidates to three finalists. Spokesman Dave Blount said Muhlenfeld was the only name on both colleges' short lists.
Muhlenfeld said her job search was limited to the two Virginia colleges.
"I was definitely interested in a small liberal arts college, preferably an all-woman's college, in the mid-Atlantic area," she said, noting that she graduated from Goucher College before the Maryland school began accepting male students.
After visiting both campuses, Muhlenfeld said, Sweet Briar "seemed like the institution that probably provided the best fit."
Sweet Briar's plans to revamp its curriculum fit well with her own interest in curriculum development, she noted. The Amherst County college already has introduced new science and honors programs and is beginning to develop inter-disciplinary courses.
Sara Lycett, chairman of Sweet Briar's board of directors, said Muhlenfeld was chosen because of her track record in student recruiting and retention as well as her background in Southern literature.
Muhlenfeld oversees 8,000 first- and second-year students at Florida State. Since she was named dean in 1984, her work in retention has contributed to an increase in enrollment from 16,500 to 22,000.
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