ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606240108
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below
HARRY NICKENS IS the first and only president the College of Health Sciences has ever known. As the college seeks to secure its survival in the face of financial challenges, its success or failure rests largely on his shoulders.
Graduation day was bearing down on Harry Nickens when his high school sweetheart asked him what he planned to do with his life.
As he saw it, he had three options: get a job in a coal mine, join the Army or go to college. Only he didn't have enough money to take the college admissions test.
His girlfriend handed him $2 for the test, and Harry Nickens was on his way to becoming a college president.
Nickens likes to tell that story, perhaps because it demonstrates the contradictory forces that have pushed him and pulled him through life, shaping a man whose actions can be baffling to all but his closest friends.
He's a man with a driving ambition who still relishes a thick slice of humble pie. A leader in education and local government, he's shy of the spotlight but will linger in its glare to argue a point "ad nauseam" (his words), knowing all the while he's on the losing end of the debate.
"I know who I am," said the top administrator at the College of Health Sciences in Roanoke. "What you see is what you get. There is no pretense."
Nickens, who turns 52 later this month, grew up in the coal-mining country of Tennessee. He was 9 years old when his father died, leaving his mother to raise eight children. When his admissions test got him accepted at Tennessee Technological University, he became the first in his family to attend college.
His original plan was to become a public school teacher, but it didn't take Nickens long to latch onto a much bigger dream: a seat at the helm of his own college.
During his freshman year, he got a job in the student services office mailing college catalogues to prospective students for 50 cents an hour. The dean of students encouraged him to stay on and obtain his master's degree, then steered him to the University of Tennessee for his doctorate.
In a University of Tennessee publication, Nickens came upon a picture of Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton breaking ground for a new community college. Not sure of the address, Nickens sent a letter to "Gov. Linwood Holton, Richmond, Virginia," asking for a job. The letter found its way to the chancellor of the new Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap. The chancellor invited Nickens for an interview and offered him the job of coordinator of admissions and director of psychology.
"They had two employees and a trailer," Nickens recalled.
But it was the lack of housing in Big Stone Gap that made him turn down the job and start looking for other jobs in the state.
He was hired as a counselor at Virginia Western Community College in 1972. He would remain at the college for 17 years, working his way up to dean of student services.
Nickens' first taste of public life was not a pleasant one. Shortly after he accepted an appointment to the Roanoke County School Board, he was reassigned, moved out of the dean's office and given a job with fewer supervisory responsibilities. His staff was cut from 25 persons to a part-time secretary. Reports soon leaked out that then-VWCC President Harold Hopper had threatened reprisals if Nickens took the School Board post.
Looking back, Nickens says he's not sure whether Hopper felt threatened by his underling's ambitions. But Hopper certainly knew about them.
"I told him one day," Nickens said. "He asked, 'What do you want to do?' I said, 'I want your job. Not your job, Mr. Hopper, but I want to be a college president.'"
That probably did not set well with Hopper.
"Hopper had to be in control," said Mark Emick, who was hired by Hopper in 1978 and is now assistant to his successor. "Harry was comfortable in his role and felt openness to challenge authority and question it."
There was far more to the controversy than a clash of egos. In March 1980, Hopper was forced out after it became public that, among other improprieties, he was using college maintenance employees to work on his home.
Warner Dalhouse, chairman of the college advisory committee during that period, remembers Nickens as an outspoken critic of Hopper.
"He was a strong advocate of his own point of view." Dalhouse said. "As it turns out, he was probably mostly right because I had to fire Hopper when I learned that he had lied to me."
At the time, Dalhouse publicly defended Hopper against his critics and portrayed the firing as a voluntary resignation.
Later, Dalhouse and Nickens would come down on opposite sides on a much larger issue: consolidation. Dalhouse was just as vocal in his support for a merger of Roanoke County with the city as Nickens was in fighting the proposal. Dalhouse said he still believes Nickens was wrong on consolidation, but he now professes a respect for Nickens' actions during the Hopper controversy.
"He never did anything untoward," Dalhouse said of Nickens. "I never had anything but the utmost respect in his ability to articulate his point of view. He was not strident or combative in the sense of just causing trouble. may have disliked him because he was offended by his conduct."
Nickens doesn't like to talk about his confrontation with Hopper. He says he has fond memories of Hopper and recalls the former college president's parting words as: "Harry, I don't know why you're doing this but I want you to know if there's ever anything I can do to help you, just let me know."
With Hopper's departure, life settled down at Virginia Western. Nickens was appointed to the Board of Supervisors in 1982 without incident and has retained the Vinton District seat without a serious challenge for the past 14 years.
VWCC's new president, Charles Downs, encouraged Nickens to better himself in his educational career as well. Ironically, Downs met with some resistance. Although Nickens was reinstated as dean, Downs frequently found him counseling students as if he had never risen above his first job at VWCC.
"I teased him about that," Downs said. "I said, `Look, you've got to focus on either being a counselor or a dean.'''
Nickens still loves to tell war stories from his days as a counselor. He recalls one student who came to his office dressed in a cream suit accented by white boots and a cowboy hat.
"He stops the conversation and says, `They're talking to me.' And I said, `Who?'
"'The computers.'
"'What are they saying?'
"'Kill you.'"
Nevertheless, under Downs' direction Nickens weaned himself from counseling and gained experience hiring faculty and developing courses. He also began looking around the mid-Atlantic region for a small college that needed a president. After making it to the final two candidates for a small Tennessee college only to be passed over, he found out there was an opening just across town from Virginia Western.
The College of Health Sciences had been operating for seven years under a dean, but members of its advisory board wanted a president who would create better lines of communication with local government officials. The college's five-member search committee reviewed 46 applicants and unanimously chose Nickens in 1989.
Bill Reid, president of Community Hospital and chairman of the committee, said the selection of Nickens was based on his integrity, his commitment and his connections to the community.
Nickens' honeymoon period lasted about six months, he said.
"I was the knight on the white horse...then we had to make some difficult decisions," he said.
When Nickens arrived, the college had an unwieldy decision-making structure consisting of about a dozen committees. Budgets were drawn up with pen and paper. The college's computers could be counted on one hand, and no two were compatible. Even core English classes had no more than a half dozen students - too small to be cost-effective in Nickens' eyes.
Today, the college is fully equipped with computers, with two student computer labs and another on the way. Core class sizes have grown to 20, and educational qualifications for faculty members have increased. The college was re-accredited and developed into a four-year baccalaureate program. The governing structure has been reduced to five committees. Nickens admits he has been given a lot of latitude to run the college as he sees fit, within budget constraints.
Nickens also has attracted an impressive staff from prestigious institutions ranging from Georgetown to Virginia Tech.
"The only reason they're here is they sense a mission and a commitment in the tone for this institution, and I think I've helped set that tone," Nickens said.
He has a knack for attracting heavyweights as commencement speakers as well, including fellow Democrats Virgil Goode and Mark Warner.
"I've tried to elevate, absent dollars, to build an image for the college," Nickens said. "I try to elevate the image of the college through association with certain individuals."
That includes Del. Richard Cranwell, whose failed attempt to reinstate $950,000 in state funding for the college recently drew headlines. Nickens defended Cranwell when The Roanoke Times ran a story suggesting that the majority leader misled the General Assembly about the importance of that money to the college's survival. Nickens was quoted in the story as saying the college would remain open after Cranwell had distributed pictures of college employees he said would lose their jobs. Nickens said he was quoted out of context, and that he was expressing his determination to find another way to preserve the school rather than contradicting Cranwell.
Cranwell has nothing but praise for Nickens as well.
"Harry and I are the closest of friends," he said. "I think Harry Nickens is an honorable man."
Although the two men worked together on the college funding issue and earlier Cranwell was a background supporter of Nickens' entrance into local politics, Emick says Nickens is no Cranwell clone.
"I don't think there's as much synergy there as a lot of people like to think," Emick said.
In fact, the two are on opposing sides over a proposed transmission line the American Electric Power Co. wants to run through the Catawba Valley. Nickens was the project's sole proponent on the Board of Supervisors, while Cranwell has spoken against it.
Nickens' dual roles in both politics and education sometimes leaves him open to criticism, as in the case of the power line. Earlier this year, AEP agreed to give the college 38 acres for a new campus so it can move out of its overcrowded building downtown. That, combined with the presence of AEP officials on the college's board of directors and his support of the power line, raised a few eyebrows.
Jeff Janosko, a member of the anti-power line Roanoke County Preservation League, attacked Nickens in a letter published in The Roanoke Times.
Janosko admitted he had no evidence that the 38 acres represents a "payback," but said it creates the appearance of one.
"He is a very intelligent man and a very respectable man," Janosko said of Nickens, "and that's what makes this apparent impropriety so difficult to understand."
Nickens said he's been looking for land since April 1992, when the college's planning council made it a goal to establish a campus. He admitted the council viewed it as a "perfunctory goal," but he began pursuing a land search with the typical Nickens-style tenacity and energy. He approached AEP about land around its Vaught operations center, but found there wasn't enough for a campus. AEP instead offered the 38 acres off U.S. 11-460 in West Roanoke County.
Although Nickens brushes aside Janosko's criticism as the creation of one man with an agenda, he admits that questions about his credibility concern him. He recalled recent advice he gave to his 15-year-old son, Brad:
"It takes only one incident to cause it to be tarnished, and a long time to recover it."
Although Nickens says he doesn't aspire to be "a mover and a shaker," Roanoke County Democratic Chairman Dana Martin describes him as "one of our statesmen."
"My observation is the ones who want to do the moving and shaking will look to him for guidance," Martin said. "He does not really relish that role, but it doesn't change the fact that he's in it."
Supervisor Chairman Bob Johnson understands why his colleague tries to avoid such titles, and he's seen evidence of the pressure that has been placed on Nickens.
"I think sometimes he may take himself too seriously," Johnson said. "He's letting go a little bit easier than he used to."
Whether his clout will help Nickens pull the College of Health Sciences through its latest financial challenges is anybody's guess, but he's inspired a few believers.
"If anybody can make it work under the formidable obstacles of this day and time, Harry could," Downs said.
"Harry is a person that resolves to do something and typically succeeds," Emick said. "He enjoys challenge. It just steels his resolve. It makes him more of a bulldog than he already is."
Ask Nickens about the future and he'll tell you about his tomato plants. They were about the size of his thumb when he planted them, but he surrounded them with cages that tower over his head.
"My wife laughed and said, 'You're either an optimist or a fool.'"
Although he says he's always harbored a dream of operating an old-fashioned hardware store, Nickens said he's committed to sticking with his current job.
"I don't want to walk away from any good cause," he said. "I have too much personal commitment to this institution and the people and this region to even consider looking for another job. This is a challenge. We are going to make it, but we're going to make it based on faith and perseverance."
LENGTH: Long : 235 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: FILE/Staff. College President Harry Nickens hands aby CNBdiploma to a graduate in May. color. KEYWORDS: PROFILE