WSU NAMES OHIO NATIVE AS PRESIDENT

NEWS

"We weren't wealthy by any manner or means," Flack said, "but I think we were wealthy when it comes to the expectations our parents had for us."

For Flack, 50, Thursday was "the culmination of decades of work and the fulfillment of many personal and professional goals" - he was named the fourth president of Wright State University.

Flack, who is executive vice president and provost of Rowan College of New Jersey, will be the first black to serve as president of WSU.

He takes office Feb. 1, replacing Paige Mulhollan, who is retiring. His salary will be $150,000 a year, plus fully paid life and health insurance benefits and use of a university car and the president's on-campus residence, Rockafield House.

"Today we turn a new corner in Wright State's history," said Sarah Harris, who leads the WSU board of trustees, which unanimously voted Thursday to hire Flack. "He's an outstanding president for Wright State as we move into the 21st century. We're excited to have attracted, and now appointed, somebody who brings such stature and background to the university."

"We're very happy," said Dr. Marguerite MacDonald, president of the WSU faculty. "Dr. Flack had strong support from the faculty and we look forward to working with him. It's a very exciting time. It's always a renewal and an energizer to have a new president."

Flack said his first priority will be to familiarize himself with Wright State and the Dayton area. His long-term goals: To continue with the "metropolitan university" concept that stresses close ties between WSU and the surrounding community and to "expand the excellence and greatness" of Wright State.

He said he plans to be a visible presence in the Dayton area and a strong advocate for WSU. He described himself as "a consensus-maker, a good listener, (with) a concern for people and their problems."

It's a homecoming of sorts for Flack, a Zanesville native who holds degrees from Ohio State University and Kent State University, as well as a doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

His mother, Mary, a retired teacher who was widowed 11 years ago, lives in Zanesville. His sister, Sally Flack Holman, lives in Shaker Heights. He has a cousin, Bennette DeCoux, who's a Dayton public schools counselor, and another, Sharon Lee, who's a teacher at Fairborn's Palmer School.

Flack and his wife, Mignon, have four sons: Harley II, 27, a Maryland police officer; Oliver, 25, a Fairfax, Va., accountant; Christopher, 24, a senior at Howard University in Washington, D.C., majoring in economics; and Michael, 21, a senior at Oakwood College in Alabama, majoring in business.

As a child, Flack wanted to be a musician. He started playing piano at the age of 3, and had his first performance when he was 5. Years later, he wrote The Goree Suite, a musical composition inspired by his 1976 trip to Africa. He released the piece on audio cassette last year. From 1957 to 1982, he served as organist in Baptist churches in Ohio and Maryland.

In his high school years, Flack dreamed of becoming a physician. After graduation, he went to Ohio State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in physical therapy in 1965. He switched to rehabilitation counseling when he went for his master's at Kent State "because I found I like talking to people more than manipulating their bones and muscles."

Starting in 1968, Flack attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he earned a doctorate in counselor education and counseling psychology. His dissertation was titled Demographic Characteristics of Black Unemployed Males.

While he was coordinating a summer program to provide rehabilitation services in inner-city Buffalo, Flack caught the attention of the dean, who got Flack interested in pursuing a career in university administration.

He left SUNY-Buffalo for Howard University, where he was a dean and professor from 1974 to 1987. After two years as academic vice president of SUNY's College at Old Westbury, Flack became executive vice president at Glassboro State College in New Jersey.

Glassboro State was renamed Rowan College last year after industrialist Henry Rowan donated $100 million, the largest gift made to a U.S. public college or university. Flack's office drafted the various proposals leading to Rowan's gift, and he is the "point person" overseeing the use of the money. He also was responsible for Rowan's 15-to-20-year strategic planning effort.

He co-edited a book, African-American Perspectives on Biomedical Ethics, which was published last year by Georgetown University Press. He co-authored Case Studies in Allied Health, which is to be published next year.

Like WSU, Rowan College is a predominantly white public institution with a large commuter population, near a city (Philadelphia).

WSU's enrollment is more than 17,000.

Whatever changes are in store for WSU in the Flack administration, the new president promised decisions won't be made in a vacuum.

"The vision I'll try to develop here is a shared vision," he said, "one in which we try to bring together the perspectives of the board (of trustees), the faculty, the staff, the students, the alumni and the community."