WILBERFORCE, Ohio

Fighting to overcome a political and financial crisis that nearly forced the school to close this summer, Central State University has hired a new president and terminated nineteen faculty members.

John W. Garland, associate vice provost for intellectual property and associate professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, will take over the presidency of Central State late this month.

Garland, a 1971 graduate of Central State and a 1974 graduate of the Ohio State University College of Law, served as general counsel at the University of the District of Columbia in 1988-91 before taking a position in Charlottesville. He said that he will lead a turnaround of his undergraduate alma mater.

"I have a passion for this university," he said. "I know what it can do in terms of producing some of the finest leaders in the country."

Central State has been run for more than a year by a temporary management team led by consultant Dr. George Ayers, former president of Chicago State University.

Fred Ransier, chairman of Central State board of trustees, was Garland's classmate at both Central State and Ohio State. Ransier's help in recruiting Garland prompted a fiery response from Dr. Graham Matthews, the runner-up in the presidential search.

Matthews, the vice president for institutional research, assessment and advancement at Dillard University in New Orleans, lashed out at the selection process in a letter to Ohio Gov. George Voinovich. He charged that the process was tainted by cronyism and nepotism and told the governor he was shocked at the many unethical, immoral, unfair and possibly illegal aspects of the search and selection process.

A spokesman for the governor said Voinovich supported the board's decision, and Ransier dismissed the complaints, saying the board's unanimous vote to hire Garland speaks for itself.

Garland will be taking over a school still struggling to balance its books anti pay off previous debts. In late July, the CSU management team terminated nineteen non-tenured faculty members - approximately one-sixth of Central State full-time faculty - because of budget constraints and a projected drop in enrollment. The university expects about 1,200 students to enroll in September, down from 1,960 last fall. The faculty layoffs will save about $835,000 a year from an annual budget of $24.3 million.