THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300363
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: 65 lines
Two highly qualified educators - a fisherman and a football fan - emerged as finalists Wednesday in the search for a new chancellor at Elizabeth City State University.
The candidates, picked from five contenders at a special meeting of the ECSU board of trustees, are:
Dr. Mickey L. Burnim, 46, who has been serving as interim chancellor of ECSU since last Sept. 1. He had been an administrator at North Carolina Central in Raleigh.
Dr. Carl A. Carpenter, 52, a long-time education professor, administrator and interim president at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, S.C. He left to found a consulting business in 1995.
Stanley Green Jr. of Raleigh, chairman of the ECSU trustees, said the names of Carpenter and Burnim would be sent to University of North Carolina President C.D. Spangler Jr., in Chapel Hill.
Spangler will in turn select one candidate for final consideration by the UNC Board of Governors. Spangler must send a recommendation to the governors, although he is bound more by precedent than strict protocol in following the wishes of the ECSU trustees.
If Spangler so chose, he could throw out the two recommendations from the ECSU trustees and send along his own candidate.
The earliest the Board of Governors could consider the ECSU nominee would be on June 14 at a regular meeting, said Joni Worthington, a spokesperson for Spangler.
``Only the UNC governors can select a university chancellor,'' she said.
Worthington expressed surprise that the ECSU trustees had released the names of Burnim and Carpenter. Both are African Americans. ECSU is one of five mostly black universities in the 16 campus UNC system.
``Until a selection has been made by the Board of Governors, no names will be released by this office,'' Worthington added.
Green, the chairman of the ECSU trustees and of the 16-member search committee named to find a new chancellor, declined to identify the three other candidates who failed to make the cut when the search committee met Wednesday.
``It wouldn't be appropriate,'' Green said.
Burnim and Carpenter have eminent credentials as prospective chancellors.
Spangler named Burnim as acting head of ECSU after former Chancellor Jimmy R. Jenkins Jr. unexpectedly resigned last Sept. 1 after 12 occasionally controversial years as head of ECSU.
Jenkins took a post as a biology professor.
Burnim has won many friends and supporters since he came to Elizabeth City. His son plays varsity football at the University of Virginia and Burnim was quick to tell the ECSU student body that he would often be visiting Charlottesville when his son was on the field.
At South Carolina State University, Carpenter, the one-time interim president, was also well-known by the nearly 5,000 students at S.C.State, also a traditionally black institution.
Prior to assuming the acting presidency in 1992, Carpenter was a professor in the education department for 21 years. He also served as a professor at the University of South Carolina, in Columbia, and was a student training supervisor at the South Carolina State Department of Education.
Carpenter last year organized an education consulting service in Orangeburg, S.C., and serves as president of the facility.
Carpenter was busy fishing on Wednesday and didn't find out about his nomination as one of two candidates for ECSU chancellor until late afternoon.
``I got a few bream with crickets and bass with plugs in Lake Santee, and any fisherman will tell you that's important, too,'' said Carpenter. by CNB