The physician, the professor and the politico - candidates for the presidency of Spelman College - Cover Story

Black Issues in Higher Education, April 3, 1997 by Gail Hagans Towns

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.

During her stint at U.S. energy secretary,

she garnered a $4.8 million settlement

for the families of Americans who died after

being injected with uranium and plutonium

as part of a 1940s experiment. She also

brought in a reported $2.3 billion in gas and

oil business for the U.S. In addition to

working for the Carter, Ford and Clinton

administration, O'Leary also managed a

multi-billion-dollar division of Northern

Electric in Minneapolis for several years. While

she was secretary, the Department of Energy

increased its awards to HBCUs by 173

percent, from $21.6 million to $59 million.

Manley, a 1955 graduate of

the school and wife of former

Spelman president Albert

Manley, has worked closely

with the women's school over

the last few decades. While her

expertise is in public health,

Manley is also a consummate

"cheerleader" for Spelman, say

those who know her.

Alumnae describe her as a

very formal person who, always

in uniform, has her own

style of marketing. Appointed

in 1995 to the position formerly

held by Dr. Joycelyn

Elders, Manley is seen by some

insiders as a front-runner for the job.

Observers say it's time for an alumna to

run the school.

Still, few are willing to count anthropologist

Mitchell-Kerner out. The only

traditional candidate in the trio,

Mitchell-Kerner is a former Havard professor

and current presidential appointee to

the National Science Foundation's Science

Board. A widely published author on

subjects such as African American marriages,

mental retardation and sociolinguistic

issues, Mitchell-Kerner has worked as a

Harvard faculty member and is a former

director of UCLA's Center for Afro-American

Studies. She now heads the academic

affairs of the school's graduate division and

is a professor in the biobehavioral and

anthropology/psychiatry departments.

"We did not look at anyone who was

not an extremely high achiever," Hopps

said. "We're looking for a trailblazer, a

visionary. We want people who are

committed and people who will help take the

college to the next step in its upward

trajectory."

That will be the biggest challenge of

whoever succeeds Cole, Atlanta-area

observers say. Under Cole's leadership,

the school brought in

more than $113 million for a

capital campaign that set a

record for fundraising by

historically Black colleges. It was

also during her tenure that

philanthropists Bill and Camille

Cosby became big donors to

the school. The bills have been

paid and the real challenges

already met, say some supporters.

"For anybody to follow

Johnnetta Cole is a tough, tough

assignment," said Michael

Lomax, chair of the National

Faculty, a high-brow professional

development organization based in Atlanta.

"She's rewritten the book on what it means

to be a college president because she's so

dynamic."

Lomax, like many other observers, says

she has "engaged Spelman with rest of the

world in a way that the expectations are

going to be much higher for her successor."

Cole, who took the helm in 1987, is

stepping down in June to take a one-year

sabbatical before going to teach at Emory

University in the fall of 1998. Shortly after

her announcement last summer, the search