THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 29, 1995 TAG: 9511290410
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
Teachers and students aimed rapid-fire recommendations for three hours Tuesday at a search committee seeking a new chancellor to run Elizabeth City State University.
By the time all of the virtues proposed for the new chancellor were listed, Stanley Green Jr., the chairman of the search panel, conceded he was in trouble.
``It's clear we're looking for Superman,'' said Green.
``Or Superwoman,'' the Raleigh banker added hastily.
The 15-member search committee held two campus ``auditions'' to give ECSU faculty members and students a chance to sound off about the sort of leader they felt should run ECSU.
These were some of the faculty-recommended characteristics of an ideal chancellor:
``The grace and style of Colin Powell.''
``A black focus on the university.''
``Sensitivity and a sense of values.''
``Someone who will let you have your own opinions.''
About 40 students showed up in Moore Hall for the student meeting that followed the faculty session in the Kermit White Center.
The students were considerably less inhibited than their teachers:
``The new chancellor should understand camaraderie. We want to see him all over the campus.''
``Better community relations with Elizabeth City.''
``Our increasingly positive reputation should be spread outside of North Carolina. We need a chancellor who can be a good press agent.''
``We need a visionary. Dreamers make things happen.''
``A motivator to motivate students.''
Members of the search committee, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a row across the Moore Hall stage, applauded some of the student recommendations.
``We're listening to you,'' Green told the students, ``Everything you've said is being recorded and someday you may find that we picked the chancellor you recommended.''
Green said it will be next July - at the earliest - before the search committee finishes hearings and interviews that will result in ``at least two candidates'' being recommended to the ECSU trustees and to C.D. Spangler Jr., the president of the statewide University of North Carolina system.
Spangler, in turn, will pass along recommendations to the UNC Board of Governors, who will ultimately vote on a new ECSU chancellor. ECSU is a member of the 16-campus UNC system.
The search for a chancellor began after Jimmy R. Jenkins Jr. resigned last August following 12 years as chancellor of the Elizabeth City institution. Spangler almost immediately appointed Mickey L. Burnim, a former North Carolina Central University provost, to be interim chancellor.
Nobody mentioned Burnim as a possible candidate during the Tuesday faculty and student meetings. And only one person - a student - said he thought Jenkins' idea of making ECSU a technology-based university should be perpetuated.
Green said the concept of auditions for faculty and students ``originated'' with the search committee.
``Everything we've heard will be part of the reports we'll study before we make any recommendations,'' he said.
Green emphasized the importance of the opportunity given the students to participate in the selection of a chancellor.
``It's been 12 years since this university got a new chancellor and you are all now part of the process,'' Green told the students.
Members of the search committee include six alumni of ECSU as well as community leaders from across North Carolina. James Cherry, president of the ECSU student government association, is the student representative on the panel.
Following the faculty and student meetings, the 15 members of the search committee headed for the campus radio station to participate in a call-in show that sought further public specifications for a new chancellor. An open meeting for input from the general public followed in the Kermit White Center. by CNB