ATLANTA

When Carlton Brown arrived at Clark Atlanta University last summer, the institution was clawing out of a $25 million deficit and its administration had a reputation for intimidating faculty and students.

On Friday, Brown took the helm of Clark Atlanta, a historically Black college where he will grapple with the tangible problems of modernizing Clark Atlanta's infrastructure and raising money, and intangibles like restoring its reputation among its students, faculty and alumni.

He spent much of the past school year as executive vice president and provost, and became one of the administration's most visible faces around campus, meeting and talking with students _ many of whom were frustrated over long lines at the financial aid office and a housing crisis after the school welcomed a record number of incoming freshmen. In February, Brown became Clark Atlanta's interim president when its second president, Walter Broadnax, stepped down after six years in office.

The end of Broadnax's tenure was marked by massive debt, which he addressed by making controversial cuts to several programs.

It was a climate ripe for Brown's style of leadership.

``I resigned myself a long time ago to the idea that this is what I do,'' Brown said in an interview last week with The Associated Press. ``I grow stuff.''

Such challenges have become a calling for Brown, who worked at Hampton University in Virginia and Savannah State University, both Black colleges that faced similar challenges to Clark Atlanta.

And like those schools, Brown said Clark had a strong foundation to build on. The decision to merge Clark College and Atlanta University, both founded in the 1860s, to form Clark Atlanta in 1988 only strengthened that foundation.

``The idea of building a stronger, bigger, more comprehensive institution with this new set of capabilities was one of the best thing that could happen,'' Brown said. ``I even have more fond regard for that decision now than I did then.''