DATE: Saturday, June 14, 1997               TAG: 9706140271

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   64 lines

EDUCATION DEAN WILL RETURN TO NSU CLASSROOM

Norfolk State University's longtime education dean, who became a national voice warning about the shortage of minority schoolteachers, is stepping down from her position to return to teaching full-time.

Elaine P. Witty, the dean of NSU's School of Education since 1979, said she expects to leave her position sometime in the fall semester, after a successor has been chosen.

``I have gone as far as I think I can go in this position,'' Witty, 61, said. ``I think it's time for a new person, young and fresh, who's going to come on and move us to another level.''

Witty also wants to return to the classroom and spend more time on her research, which will continue to examine the recruitment of minority teachers. ``I love teaching,'' Witty said. ``. . .It occurred to me that I would enjoy being a full professor and having some time to do some reading and writing.''

Witty said her decision was not based on the change of leadership at the university. On July 1, Marie V. McDemmond will succeed Harrison B. Wilson as Norfolk State's president.

Witty helped bring attention to the issue of minority educators with an annual conference she spearheaded at NSU in the '80s. She has also written articles for publications ranging from Essence magazine to the Journal of Negro Education.

``The words I want to use are heroine, extraordinary, role model,'' said David Imig, chief executive officer of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. ``She is one of the most-admired people in my world.

``The major thing she did for the profession 20 years ago,'' Imig said, ``was to blow the whistle and say, `Wait a minute; there's a major problem we're ignoring. . . . There has been a falloff in the number of African-American teachers coming in, and we have to seriously address that.' She was the first person to make that claim loud and clear, and she galvanized many people to attend to it.''

Has there been much progress since Witty started pressing the issue?

``The good news is the awareness level is very high,'' she said. ``School personnel are in search of minority teachers. They understand that they want to reduce the disparity between the ratio of minority teachers to minority children.

``Another good thing is that universities and colleges are much more sensitized to the need to teach all teachers to be effective with all of the children.''

Yet sometimes, Witty said, she despairs that progress has been slow. She recently served on a New York task force looking at proposals to increase the diversity of that state's teaching corps. ``I was happy they were addressing it,'' Witty said. ``I was not as happy that there was not as much boldness as I thought we needed.''

Locally, minorities make up 14 percent to 46 percent of the teacher staffs in area school districts, according to a recent Virginian-Pilot analysis. Under Witty's leadership, NSU has worked with local districts to increase those numbers. For instance, the university has helped train minority teacher's aides and secretaries to become teachers.

Witty joined Norfolk State in 1969 as professor and department head in elementary education.

In her new role, Witty said, she will not be assigned to any one department and will teach in a variety of areas - including special education, elementary education and secondary education. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Elaine P. Witty

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