ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610140024
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR and ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITERS
TWO CONSULTANTS have been busy quizzing students and faculty about Douglas Covington's first 15 months as the university's president.
Midterm exams are under way at Radford University, but attention on campus last week was turned toward a pair of educator-consultants who spent two days on campus quizzing professors, querying students and striking up conversations anywhere they could.
Their mission? To sift through rumor, opinion and fact and find out just what's happening at the school.
Jill Alcorn, president of the faculty senate, talked for 30 minutes with Curtis McCray, president of Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., who visited the campus to assist consultant James Fisher of Annapolis, Md.
"I felt like he listened," Alcorn said. "He asked pointed questions. He seemed to know what was going on at the school."
What's going on at the school is the first independent evaluation of a Radford president that anyone can recall, an event that has prompted endless speculation about Douglas Covington's first 15 months in office.
To some, the evaluation is an attempt to rate the new president and a university that in recent years has had its share of upheaval, including longtime president Donald Dedmon's retirement under pressure in 1994. Jim Stutts, rector of the board of visitors, expects "a pretty thorough review of how Radford's doing, its strengths and weaknesses, the performance and leadership of the president and the leadership of the board."
But others have said the unprecedented evaluation is a move toward ousting Covington, the first black president of the predominantly white university.
Students, faculty and members of the Radford community, particularly the church community, have jumped to Covington's defense.
Some students - including members of the Student Government Association, Black Student Affairs Council and several campus ministries - faxed a letter to Gov. George Allen last week. They asked to meet with Allen to discuss the "volatile situation of the Board of Visitors and Dr. Douglas Covington." They also asked that the attorney general's office investigate the matter.
"We, the student body of Radford University, feel that our current president is being unduly criticized and targeted without cause," they wrote. "We strongly support him in his efforts to get Radford University back on track and are prepared to bring a delegation of students to Richmond to show our support."
That kind of support for Covington "shows that this evaluation is clearly an indication of individual board members with personal agendas," board member Nancy Wilson of Salem said late last month.
While charges of racism that surfaced two weeks ago are being soft-pedaled now, the call for a fair and open evaluation has intensified. The Faculty Senate will be sending the board a letter asking for just that, while a local pastor who said Covington has reached out to the community is calling for an investigation.
As for the consultant, a spokeswoman in his office said Fisher will have nothing to say to the media. He'll be turning his findings over to the board, which meets next on Nov.11.
"Ideally," Stutts said, "it'll be completed by then."
Since the report will be considered a personnel matter, it's up to the board and the president to decide whether it will be made public, Stutts said. But, he added, "I feel comfortable there will be some report released as to what has transpired."
`Let's find truth'
Elder Ronald Watson said he never wanted to make the controversy surrounding Covington a racial issue.
But "racism was the only word that could clearly explain the situation," said Watson, pastor of the Radford Church of God in Christ. "Someone asked me why I had used that word. I said `What other word do you know that would have gotten any action?'''
Watson said he was surprised when Stutts called two weeks ago and asked to meet with him.
After all, it was Watson who had helped stoke the controversy surrounding Covington. Watson wrote letters criticizing the board for calling for an evaluation, and circulated petitions - destined, once signed, for the governor's office.
Stutts was out to quell the fires, Watson said.
"He asked me what I felt needed to be done to bring closure to the situation," Watson said. "I told him there needed to be a fair and open evaluation and that at the end of the evaluation, [Covington] needed to be offered a three-or four-year contract."
Stutts declined to discuss the meeting other than to say it was "very cordial and very positive." Watson described it as "very fruitful. I'm hoping that he would abide by our conversation."
Yet if Stutts had hoped his 10-minute meeting with Watson would help quiet the controversy, he was wrong. Watson still is pushing for a state-level investigation into Covington's hiring, the board, the evaluation - "the entire situation."
"We need an investigation," Watson said. "Otherwise the truth is not going to come out. We want appropriate action to clear the air. Let's find out the truth behind this situation."
Board members, meanwhile, seem mystified by intimations that the evaluation is in any way racist.
"Absolutely absurd," said Carson Quarles of Roanoke, who also said he's sorry the evaluation got off on the wrong foot.
"That blew me away," Vice Rector Karen Waldron said when the issue was raised last month. "That angered me."
`Chance to succeed'
On Oct. 4, Covington held a lengthy news conference to discuss both his accomplishments of the past year and his vision for the future. At the top of his list was enrollment, a worrisome problem at Radford. The student population has dropped from 9,400 in 1992 to 8,270 full- and part-time students, though this fall brought the first boost in freshman enrollment since 1991.
Enrollment drops, Covington said, never are turned around overnight. When he arrived in 1995, enrollment was already down, and Radford had eliminated the job of admissions director in its restructuring efforts. Covington said he re-established the position. Then, a search ensued. The candidate who got the job, David Kraus, finished out the school year at the University of New Hampshire and started at Radford this summer.
Board member Ginger Mumpower of Roanoke said she received a call this summer from fellow board member Greg Goad of Hillsville, who apparently wanted to call a special board meeting.
"He said he was very concerned about Radford and the decline in enrollment," she said. "I was concerned about it, too. But after [Covington] explained it, I felt comfortable. I felt the numbers looked good."
Goad confirmed that there was discussion of a special meeting in the summer. But since it didn't take place, he said last week, he didn't think it appropriate to go into the subjects that might have been discussed. He did say that enrollment is a concern to him.
"No one is comfortable with a decline in enrollment," Mumpower said.
Should blame for the enrollment decline fall on Covington's shoulders?
"When you're talking about concern overall for the situation of the university, then he is the person who would have to address those concerns and answer the questions and ultimately be responsible for the different reasons," Mumpower said.
Mumpower also said the school is being more selective about the students it accepts. A number of initiatives, such as offering room scholarships that waive housing fees, have been launched in the last year to boost enrollment and maintain academic standards.
Many around campus say Covington has done well since his arrival.
"I think he should be given the chance to succeed or fail like anybody else," said Felix Amenkhienan, chairman of Radford's Accounting, Finance and Information Systems Department.
Covington himself always has said he is open to evaluation and will be held accountable. He has declined to comment on the board, or the evaluation, other than to say he wants it to be fair.
"I'm anxious for this evaluation," Mumpower said. "I feel the results will be positive and we can put this entire issue behind us."
LENGTH: Long : 145 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) 1. Covington. color. 2. Stutts. 3. Watson.by CNB