THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 10, 1995 TAG: 9508100467
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Chancellor Jimmy R. Jenkins Jr., who for 12 years steered Elizabeth City State University toward accomplishment as well as controversy, has resigned.
His unexpected decision has been accepted in Chapel Hill by C.D. Spangler Jr., the banker-president of the 16-member University of North Carolina system, a UNC spokesman said Wednesday. ECSU is part of the UNC network.
Jenkins wrote Spangler on Aug. 3,and Spangler released without comment a copy of the ECSU chancellor's seven-paragraph resignation on Wednesday.
``I have determined that the time has come for me to make a change in my life,'' wrote Jenkins, ``I am therefore respectfully submitting my resignation as chancellor, effective August 31, 1995. In order for my family and me to make the necessary transition, I will need sufficient time to make other living arrangements.''
Jenkins' action ended a crescendo of recent rumors about top-level administrative difficulties on the campus of ECSU.
According to a member of the university's board of trustees, Jenkins' problems came to a head last week after he went to Chapel Hill to see Spangler. Since then Jenkins and several ECSU officials have been in Hilton Head, S.C., where they have been incommunicado.
Spangler would say only that ``Chancellor Jenkins' letter speaks for itself,'' and insisted that no confrontational quit-or-be-fired showdown took place after Jenkins went to Chapel Hill.
Spangler said he would soon appoint an interim chancellor to serve until a permanent chancellor is selected.
Campus speculation has pointed to Dr. Paul Vandergrift Jr., a special assistant to Jenkins, as a possible temporary chancellor.
In Elizabeth City, many top ECSU administrators appeared bewildered by the sudden developments that culminated in Jenkins' resignation. Nearly all of them asked for copies of Jenkins' letter to Spangler.
In a concluding paragraph to his letter, Jenkins told Spangler he hoped to ``catch up on developments in biological sciences which have occurred during the period of my chancellorship prior to resuming my position as a tenured professor'' at ECSU.
As chancellor, he was paid $95,530 plus housing and other benefits.
The chancellor's departure shocked hundreds of loyal ECSU alumni, who have been fiercely supportive of the boyish-looking 52-year-old educator.
But equally outspoken were some white members of an anti-Jenkins faction that for years has been critical of the leadership at the predominantly black university.
Jenkins' tightrope walk at ECSU began early in his tenure as chancellor when he seemed to be determined to strengthen the black identity of the university.
Several white members of the ECSU trustees' board at the time were openly trying to make the school a more colorblind ``University of North Carolina at Elizabeth City.''
At one point a group wrote Spangler with a request that Jenkins be removed from the chancellorship, contending the university was developing an increasingly racist attitude toward whites.
Jenkins, with the unflagging support of devoted alumni, publicly spoke of the increasing integration of ECSU but his critics argued that the African-American orientation of the university was encouraged behind the scenes.
KEYWORDS: RESIGNATION by CNB