THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TAG: 9609250398
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 140 lines
A bold innovator. A nimble fund-raiser. A charismatic talker. A popular glad-hander in Richmond.
Educators and supporters of Norfolk State University want it all in the person who succeeds Harrison B. Wilson as president next summer. But tops on the list of many is a person intent on enriching academic offerings at the university.
``My main concern would be the academic direction the university goes in,'' said Paul C. Gillis, president of the Nansemond-Suffolk branch of the NAACP. ``I would prefer to see someone that will lift the university to the next academic level.''
Dr. L.D. Britt, the rector of the university's Board of Visitors and chairman of the presidential search committee, agreed. ``I want somebody whose first and foremost agenda is academics,'' Britt said.
``We've done a wonderful job. Harrison Wilson has put us in a good position, and he's run an outstanding race, and I want the next person to run just as fast.''
As Gillis sees it, the key is expanding graduate programs, especially in the sciences. Norfolk State has one doctoral program - in social work - which opened last year.
``It would lift the prestige of the university and serve the community,'' said Gillis, who received a bachelor's degree in business and social work from NSU in 1986. ``I think we should have a direct service attitude toward providing those science people to the community.''
James Dyke, who was state secretary of education under Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, also said graduate programs should be a top priority for the new leader - even if academic expansion encounters political resistance in Richmond.
``We should expand the mission of traditionally black institutions to make them attractive to more students,'' said Dyke, a lawyer in Northern Virginia. ``Given the population of the Hampton Roads area, there is ample need for more higher education opportunities.''
Norfolk State, he said, needs ``somebody that is prepared to build on what Dr. Wilson has done but recognizes that as we approach the 21st century, there is opportunity to reshape the mission.''
Britt, the rector, hopes the new leader will boost academics by way of technology, such as the use of telecourses. ``I want somebody who's up to date,'' he said. ``I want somebody who will continue emphasizing academics, but to do that in real time - adjusting for advances in technology.''
At NSU's board meeting last week, Vice President Jesse Lewis said the university now offered 10 classes through closed-circuit television and was about to install a satellite uplink to beam courses to and from other schools.
In contrast, Old Dominion University's Teletechnet program already enrolls thousands of students across Virginia, winning strong praise - and millions of dollars in aid - from Richmond.
Wilson announced in July that he will retire next summer, after 22 years leading the university. Britt immediately formed a search committee and set Sept. 1 as the deadline for applications.
Britt said last week that he had received about 50 applications. To maintain the confidentiality of the applicants, he declined to name any candidates. But two Norfolk State administrators said they have applied - Joseph L. Boyd, dean of the School of Business and Entrepreneurship, and Moses Newsome Jr., dean of the School of Social Work.
Britt said that the search committee had yet to meet to discuss the applicants, but that he was confident of meeting the deadline he had set of naming the next president by January.
He said he still has not decided whether he will publicize the list of presidential finalists and invite them to campus for open forums.
A college president must wear several hats - academic leader, fund raiser, political bridge-builder, to name a few - and satisfy an ever-growing group of constituencies: legislators, board members, professors, alumni, students.
A national report issued this month by the Commission on the Academic Presidency, led by former Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, complained that the conflicting demands had weakened too many college presidents.
``The authority of college and university presidents is being undercut by all of its partners - trustees, faculty members and political leaders - and, at times, by the presidents' own lack of assertiveness,'' the study said.
At Norfolk State, though, Wilson has consolidated widespread power and faced virtually no challenges from professors or board members, though he has engaged in disputes with state officials.
Educators say it's important that his successor also be a strong leader, though their definitions sometimes vary.
``Leadership skills are the most important,'' said Gordon K. Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education. ``It's the ability to help an institution get its work done, mobilize all its resources and make people think they can be better.
``This is going to be a tough time (financially). We're going to need people with courage, compassion and a lot of intelligence.''
James Fisher, a Maryland consultant who helped Old Dominion University select James V. Koch as president in 1990, said, ``A leader should make a difference. . . . Apresidential candidate must have a career that is marked by change.''
And that also means the president will already have faced some controversy, Fisher said. ``Controversy is essential. There is not going to be significant change without significant controversy.''
Davies noted that ``fund-raising ability is going to be very important in the next 20 years; we are in for a prolonged period of revenue scarcity.'' Norfolk State, in particular, has one of the lowest per-student allocations from the state and a relatively small $4.5 million endowment.
But Granville M. Sawyer, chairman of entrepreneurial studies at Norfolk State, warned that fund raising alone doesn't guarantee a successful presidency. A Northeastern college president helped raise more than $25 million but was recently fired because ``he was not sensitive enough to the needs of faculty,'' Sawyer said.
Norfolk State ``must continue to improve its academic performance, as it is doing now,'' he said. ``The university must continue to raise funds externally. One of the reasons that everybody is not fit for the position is that it takes someone who can do well at all of those.''
Everyone seems to have his long list of desired attributes for the next president. For Britt, it includes academic focus, fund-raising skills, background in college administration, ability to work with the community and media, and a ``powerful presence.'' ``You put that together, and you have a strong president,'' he said.
Boyd, who has been business dean since 1983, said: ``The person should be a visionary leader. He should be a person who can focus on teamwork. He has to really communicate what he is doing. And I think he needs to be a person who can get broad participation of all the constituents affected by the university.''
Boyd himself has created a series of teams - including the curriculum, students and resources teams - that cut across all departments to help direct his school.
Students say Wilson's successor should have their interests at heart. ``Our next university president should be very much student-oriented,'' sophomore Maleena Lawrence, 19, said. ``We need somebody challenging who will have pride in the university. . ., somebody we can look up to.''
Should Norfolk State's next president be a Virginian? Eddie N. Moore Jr., the president of the state's other public historically black school, Virginia State University, says it's a big plus. Moore previously was the state treasurer.
But Britt said Virginia experience wasn't a major concern for him. ``I assume any president would be a quick study; Virginia is not some complex foreign country,'' he said.
Historically black colleges generally choose presidents from among their ranks. But Davies, the director of the State Council of Higher Education, said Norfolk State shouldn't necessarily limit itself to those schools.
``There are 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States,'' he said. ``There are numerous excellent people in them, and if you cast a wide net over the whole universe, you're apt to find the people who are the most exciting.'' MEMO: Staff writer Kia Morgan Allen contributed to this story. by CNB