The Towerlight, April 15, 2002

tl20020415-000 "The Totilerii,ghb Baltimore's #1 College Paper - Published Twice-Weekly - www.thetowerlight.com Monday, 4/15/02 AMC takes over Commons theater 3 Cultures blend with Kaleidoscope 11 Tigers sneak past Wildcats, 12-10 17 TU tops Coppin for third straight .4r44 19 Departments News 3 Nation 5 Taking Stock 9 Arts 11 Entertainment Briefs 14 Sound Bites 15 Sports 17 Athlete of the Week 19 Classifieds 20 Opinion 22 Jones named acting president Regents invite provost to serve until interim is found, form team to meet with Towson Mike Morris The Towerlight Provost Dan Jones agreed to serve as acting University president when approached by the University System of Maryland Board of Regents after its closed-door meet-ing Friday morning. ""I could be acting [president] for four hours or a week or six weeks, we don't know,"" said Jones, who also agreed to work with the cam-pus on finding an interim president. Jones, 64, succeeds former President Mark L. Perkins, who was forced by the Regents to resign from the post after just nine months in office. In a statement issued Friday, Regents Chairman Nathan A. Chapman, Jr. said the Regents are fortunate to have someone of Jones' caliber and reputation to lead the University until an interim presi-dent is selected. Chapman also said the interim president will serve while a national search is conducted for a new presi-dent. He appointed a committee of Regents to receive nominations for the interim position. Regent Patricia S. Florestano, who will chair the committee, was one of four Regents on hand for a meeting held Thursday in the administration building. The pur-pose of the meeting was for a sam-pling of Regents to discuss Towson's future with administrators and faculty. ""It helped establish that they're not making decisions for us without consulting,"" Jones said of the meet-ing. It helps to have a conversation with the people that are in some sense the backbone of moving the University forward. It helps to hear from them because it's easy to mythologize these distant people who are making powerful decisions for us."" Florestano took time after the meeting to discuss both individual and group criticisms directed at the Board. Saul Stoogenke The Towerl2ght Provost and Vice President for Learning Dan Jones was asked Friday to serve as acting president of Towson until an interim president is found. Jones said the length of his tenure as acting president ""was not an issue."" She said she was not surprised by University groups who passed reso-lutions denouncing the Regents' actions, saying she understands why they chose to do so, but that she thinks in time they will understand the Regents' deci-sion. ""I understand they're disappoint-ed, they're upset,"" she said. ""I think as we move along they will under-stand why we did what we was not unexpected. I've been in higher education my whole life � you get denounced fairly regularly."" Regent Louise Michaux Gonzales agreed: ""... I think over time events will unfold and I certainly hope that in a relatively short amount of time they won't feel that way anymore."" Florestano added that the crit-icisms were the natural venting of people who are dis-appointed, and that as time pass-es, those criticizing will more than likely recognize that in the long run Perkins' resignation was ""the right thing."" ""We listened a lot and I think we did much to bridge the gulf of mistrust. It's the beginning and it will have good long-term benefits."" David H. Nevins did. It USM Regent REGENTS VISIT TOWSON ""We were looking simply to give four representative Regents the opportunity to hear from the lead-ers on campus � directly. face-to-face,"" USM Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg said regarding Thursday's two-hour on-campus meeting. Jones said there are a lot of facul-ty members who are not willing to trust the Regents. He said that he has to somehow find a way to address this concern because there is still a great deal of suspicion between the two parties. See JONES, page 6 Today High 76 Low 56 Tuesday High 84 Low 56 Wednesday High 82 Low 56 Thursday High 76 Low 53 Friday High 71 Low 51 "