ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TAG: 9609250074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Lede
One year after Douglas Covington was inaugurated as president of Radford University, the school's board of visitors has directed its consultant to evaluate his performance - a move that some students, faculty and residents are calling unjust and the beginning of a movement to oust him from office.
Last month, the board asked Dr. James Fisher - an author and evaluator from Annapolis, Md., who has been the board's consultant since last year - to conduct the evaluation. Though the evaluation has been characterized as "institutional" in scope, it will focus on Covington, said rector James Stutts.
"Our intent is to measure how effective his leadership has been with the university," Stutts said Tuesday.
Covington is the first black president of the predominantly white university.
The board has no plans to remove Covington from office, Stutts said. The request for an evaluation has been "blown way out of proportion," said Karen Waldron, the board's vice rector.
But board member Nancy Wilson said discussion of firing Covington surfaced within the board this summer. She said she could not elaborate.
If the board's call for an evaluation of Covington is based on his performance, board members won't say specifically what about his performance troubles them.
Stutts declined to praise or criticize Covington's performance. He said Covington has had successes during his tenure, but would not specify what successes.
Radford has its first increase in freshman enrollment in five years this academic year. Nonresident applications have increased 17 percent.
Stutts said it was the general consensus of the board to have an evaluation and to direct Fisher to conduct it. There was no formal board vote on the evaluation.
"The board felt that Dr. Covington had been there for over a year, that 15 months had evolved and an annual evaluation was appropriate," Stutts said. "The measure of the governance of this university is looked at as a positive exercise. Yet there are all these negative signals going out."
The board's actions have touched several nerves, on and off campus. Four officers of Radford's Student Government Association wrote a letter to the board of visitors expressing their concern that the board was evaluating Covington without established criteria and procedures. The students also objected to any effort by the board to remove Covington from office.
"What we need now is stability. That's what Dr. Covington brings to us," said Lauren Egan, SGA president. "He's doing good things. We've got to let him continue to do that. I mean, it's only been a year."
Thomas Mullis, a psychology professor and member of the Radford faculty for 25 years, wrote a letter to the Tartan, the campus newspaper, out of concern that Covington was being treated unfairly.
"The concern on my part was that he might be treated unjustly if, in fact, the board was discussing terminating him before any evaluation was done," Mullis said.
Elder Ronald Watson, pastor of the Radford Church of God in Christ, said petitions began circulating Sunday in the Radford community in support of Covington. The petitions blast the board for action believed to be "the result of institutional racism on the part of some of the members of the board of visitors."
"I think they just don't want a black man over a major white institution," Watson said.
Waldron, the vice rector, said she was angered by the suggestion that the board's actions had racial undertones.
"I'll be damned if anyone's going to try to throw that in my face," said Waldron, who's received a slew of letters, many critical of the board. "I saw red all over that. How dare someone insinuate such a thing."
Covington, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, has agreed to the evaluation. In a statement faxed to The Roanoke Times on Tuesday, Covington wrote that every university president expects to be evaluated and that he was no exception.
"I feel confident that the University is positioned for continued progress under my leadership as its president," he wrote. "Therefore, a performance evaluation that is conducted in a fair and professional manner, not only reinforces effective presidential leadership, it also preserves the institutional integrity and good name."
What prompted the call for the evaluation a year into Covington's tenure has puzzled some people. No one interviewed for this story could remember precisely how often Donald Dedmon - who served 22 years as Radford's president before he resigned in 1994 under pressure from faculty - was evaluated.
Mullis said he doesn't remember any of the university's presidents ever being evaluated. Waldron said Dedmon may have been evaluated every few years.
Wilson said she and other board members had been told that Covington's evaluation was being done because the state now mandates a yearly evaluation of all presidents of Virginia's colleges and universities.
But the State Council of Higher Education - the policy-making body for state colleges and universities - has no such mandate, said Michael McDowell, council spokesman.
"We don't because that is strictly a matter of a university's board of visitors," he said. "We're not involved in the hiring or promotion of any faculty members, including the president. By law, we're prohibited from that."
The council has called for state higher education institutions to rigorously review their tenured faculty every two or three years. People might be confusing that with presidential reviews, McDowell said.
"I'd find it strange" if an institution didn't evaluate presidents every year, he said. "Everybody has some kind of evaluation in place. Some of the presidents have multiyear contracts. They might have a rigorous review at the end of their contract, then something else every year."
Covington has no contract with Radford - nor had any of the university's other presidents, Wilson said.
McDowell called that "very unusual." Most presidents of Virginia's colleges and universities - public and private - have some kind of contract, he said.
Covington, former president of Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, was one of two finalists for Radford's presidency. He became the only finalist when his lone competitor - Jairy C. Hunter Jr., president of Charleston Southern University in South Carolina - withdrew.
Covington received an overwhelming show of support on campus after a series of interviews. Radford's staff and the Radford Foundation board voted unanimously to support Covington, and the faculty endorsed him with a vote of 154-5.
The board of visitors' vote in January last year to hire Covington as the university's fifth president was unanimous. Covington assumed the post that June.
"My own view is that he is doing an outstanding job," Mullis said. "But any president gets criticism. I have criticisms. But I don't think the criticisms are substantial enough that there should be consideration for termination."
LENGTH: Long : 125 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Covington. color.by CNB