ATLANTA
For Spelman College
student Toria Davis, just
the thought of getting a
new campus president
with ties to the White
House speaks volumes
about the search to
replace Dr. Johnnetta B.
Cole.
“It’s an honor just
to think someone
who’s so important would be interested in coming to
Spelman,” said Davis after learning that the school’s
search committee is considering former Secretary of
Energy Hazel O’Leary, acting U.S. Surgeon General
Audrey Forbes Manley and University of California at Los
Angeles Vice-Chancellor Claudia Mitchell-Kernan as
finalists for the school’s president post.
“It makes you feel real good about the being at Spelman,”
said Davis, a biology major from Scottsdale, Arizona.
With less than a month to go before the committee
makes its final decision, supporters of the school say
they also feel good about the slate of traditional and
non-traditional candidates.
About 125 candidates expressed interest in the job,
said search committee chair Dr. June Gary Hopps, dean
of the Boston College
School of Social
Work. The diverse
pool, she said,
included men and
women — Black and
white — and a few
international contenders.
As news of the committee’s top
choices spread, some
people said they
were taken aback by
such a high-profile `short list.’
But there’s no need for surprise, said Dr. Henry
Ponder, president of the National Association for Equal
Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), the membership
organization of historically Black colleges and
universities (HBCUs). “This is not new, we’ve always
had the top of the line as persons to choose from [for]
our presidents,” Ponder said. “No one should be
surprised and anyone acquainted with the selection of
presidents for our institutions should definitely not be
surprised.”
The bottom line in choosing O’Leary, Manley and
Mitchell-Kernan was their track records of achievement,
said Hopps.
O’Leary, while controversial during her tenure in the
White House cabinet, is a trained attorney
with strong executive and corporate skills.
