Harley Flack serenades his wife at home. Flack is a composer, and said time goes faster when he works at music.
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The message was racist, profane, threatening - and anonymous. The writer said he intended to kill Flack to prevent him from turning Wright State into a "nigger" school.
Flack wasnt sure what to make of it. Was it a prank? Could it be real? He called some of his fellow black presidents around the country, many of whom led predominantly white universities, to ask if they had ever received such a threat.
None of them had.
This was Flack's introduction to his first university presidency. And while the threats have subsided, the spotlights glare has not. Today, Flack finds himself at the center of frequent controversies, ambitious initiatives and sweeping changes, all colliding at a pivotal time in Wright State's history. The school, after three decades of growing pains, appears poised for the institutional equivalent of a midlife crisis.
At the university's helm is a consensus-builder and a listener, a musician and composer, a private man of humble Ohio roots who has struggled against racism since childhood. Above all, he sets a strong moral and ethical standard - and he expects others to embrace it as well.
But the tolerance and patience that Flack exhibits elsewhere does not extend to those who violate that moral and ethical code, and his reactions have triggered controversies and landed him - and the university - in court, defending against lawsuits.
Harley Flack serenades his wife at home. Flack is a composer, and said time goes faster when he works at music. |
"People sometimes look to me to do things right, instead of to do the right thing. I can't do that," Flack said. "I've got to do the right thing, or I can't sleep at night - and I haven't had a sleepless night yet."
Flack was born 53 years ago in Zanesville, son of a Bell Telephone Co. janitor. His mother attended what is now Wilberforce University; she would later become a school teacher. The Eighth Street neighborhood was predominantly white, except for his great-grandmother, who lived just up the street. The Union Baptist Church his family attended - his great-grandmother helped found it in 1893 - also was across the street.
Chuck Brock of Madison Twp. grew up on that same Zanesville block. As kids, he and Flack used to collect empty pop bottles for the 2-cent deposit until they could buy a pint of vanilla ice cream and a bottle of red cream soda. Then they'd sit on the porch and happily devour ice cream floats.
"His parents and family, they were the nicest people you could ever meet," Brock said. "I'm not surprised he is so successful. If you knew that family, you'd almost expect Harley to go on to become president of a university."
He heard his share of racial taunts at school, but his parents urged him not to fight. One day, in third grade, Harley wore a new shirt to school. A classmate taunted him because of his color and tore his new shirt. The same thing happened the following day.
On the third day, the classmate tore Harley's shirt again - "and I knocked the hell out of him," Flack said.
"He never called me nigger again."
He helped keep his great-grandmother's house clean and cooked waffles for her on the weekends. She taught him a thing or two about money, and about education: She used her savings to help send young church members to college.
In high school, it seemed Flack was always the only black student in honors classes in math and chemistry. His fellow black students resented him for it, thinking he must consider himself better than them. But he followed his parents' (and great-grandmother's) direction, didn't drink, smoke or get into trouble. "I made it through school without ever getting paddled," he said.
These core values, and the ethical standards that flow from them, have shown up often in Flack's actions as WSU's president. And those actions have made headlines:
- In March 1995, Flack announced he had suspended WSU education dean Fred Gies for alleged conflicts of interest. The action triggered a legal quagmire that includes a yearlong criminal investigation by the Ohio Highway Patrol and the Ohio Ethics Commission, the results of which are under review by a Greene County grand jury. But it also triggered lawsuits by Gies and a business partner of his naming Flack or WSU as defendants.
Flack acknowledged the case has "taken up a lot of my time, and a lot of my staff's time," but he said he "absolutely" had no regrets over how he handled the matter.
"I could've looked the other way, glossed it over," Flack said. "But to me, it was a situation you have to face up to ... even if in the process you open yourself up to difficulty and hard times."
- In December, Flack played a significant role in an edict targeting WSU basketball coach Ralph Underhill, directing him to avoid drawing technical fouls or face suspension or firing. The edict came after Underhill drew a crucial technical in a game against Wisconsin on Dec. 5, then was ejected after drawing two technicals against the University of Dayton four days later.
- In January, Flack placed Vice President for Student Affairs Donald Peters on administrative leave after ordering a review of conflict-of-interest allegations involving the hiring of a friend of the vice president's in a department Peters oversees. Peters later resigned from the administrative post but remains at WSU as a tenured faculty member.
Flack's expectations regarding morals and ethics have drawn mixed reactions on campus. Some faculty members, for example, believe Flack acted too quickly in the Gies case, and improperly in the Underhill matter. And the hiring flap that claimed Peters' administrative position would likely be ignored by many other administrations, they say.
Mel Goldfinger, a faculty member who is leading a drive to unionize the faculty, said Flack's sense of moral and ethical outrage can lead to problems if the president allows it to interfere with due process and normal faculty self-governing procedures.
But Donna Schlagheck, president of WSU's faculty senate, called Flack's stance "refreshing and overdue."
Flack, the former provost of Rowan College in New Jersey, had no experience as a university president, and acknowledged the first weeks on the job were surprising in their pace and intensity. Everyone, it seemed, had "expectations that youre going to be all things to all people."
He doesn't use the word "overwhelmed" to describe his first weeks on the job, but Flack did say, "It seemed like the first two weeks, there was a crisis a day." Still, it "was an exhilarating time, exciting and uplifting," he said.
The death-threat note came about two weeks into his term. "At that early time in my tenure, it was something Id rather not have had to think about," Flack said quietly.
His wife, Mignon, had not joined him in Ohio, and "went ballistic" when she heard about the threat, Flack recalled. After consulting with security specialists, Flack and WSU officials assigned 24-hour security to the president. That lasted about three weeks, Flack said.
Fred Schantz, chairman of the WSU board of trustees that hired Flack, said the long lame-duck period "was a mistake we (trustees) made at Wright State, and Harley has paid the price for it ... he had a struggle in the first two years of his tenure here."
WSU's governing board has not formally evaluated Flack. Schantz said he considers Flack's term to have begun in October 1995, when he had a complete staff of vice presidents, "so it's sort of hard to say much as to whether he has been successful."
Toby Pinkerton, WSU student government president, said he respects Flack for his openness, and noted that some of the negative publicity the university has endured stemmed from Flack's strong sense of morality.
Schlagheck agreed that Flack came to WSU at a critical time, when the university had depleted financial reserves and developed operating deficits in its Nutter Center. Plus, Flack faced additional pressures as the universitys first black president, Schlagheck said.
"He has my admiration. He took on a big challenge," Schlagheck said.
Not all faculty members share Schlaghecks admiration. One long-time faculty member said WSU has languished since Flack took over.
"We haven't done anything in two years," the faculty member said. "We are without direction, we are without effective leadership, we are witnessing the erosion of the academic program, and faculty morale is abysmal."
Goldfinger said Flack's administration "leaves much to be desired." The university has focused resources on entertainment ventures such as the Nutter Center and on other non-academic areas, to the detriment of academics, Goldfinger said.
Former faculty President Jim Sayer said Flack does indeed try to lead by consensus, rather than taking the point alone, as Flack's predecessor often did. Though that approach avoids hasty decisions, it also can prove cumbersome, Sayer said.
"There are times you're not sure you're going to live long enough to see fruition" of some of the initiatives, Sayer said.
"To a very large extent, we are right on track" with a five-year plan he laid out for the university when he arrived, Flack said. University officials are gearing up for an ambitious fund-raising campaign, and an accrediting agency evaluation team just told WSU officials it would recommend Wright State for a 10-year renewal of its accreditation - the longest term the agency gives.
Wright States focus, while still primarily on the Miami Valley, has expanded. Its customers are changing: last fall, for the first time, a greater percentage of incoming students came to WSU from outside the surrounding area - Montgomery, Greene, Clark and Miami counties - than from within, proving that WSU has grown out of its commuter-school image and is developing a statewide reputation.
At Flack's direction, WSU is hammering out a strategic plan that will paint a picture of what kind of university Wright State will be a quarter-century from now - a "Visioning 2020" plan. The president has announced intentions to create three "centers of excellence" in information technology, geriatrics and disability education, details of which are developing. But slight dips in enrollment and the anticipated cost of some of the proposals contributed to a decision to cut 3 percent out of all departmental budgets to allow for re-allocating the money.
Flack said his vision for WSU calls for the university to identify and promote excellence and prominence in selected academic programs; enhance services to students so WSU will become the first choice for the Miami Valley's high school graduates; empower employees and students; and dedicate the university to the concept of continuous improvement.
But above all, he will continue to embrace the core values that frame his ethical standards - the values that were woven by his life experiences on Eighth Street in Zanesville.
"It is proper to expect exemplary behavior from high-profile people at this institution, including myself."\
CREDIT: BILL REINKE/DAYTON DAILY NEWS
(#2) Flack's good humor is evident as he enjoys a light moment on
campus. (COLOR)
(#3) Flack listens intently to Gov. George Voinovich, who was discussing a new manufacturing plant. (B&W)
CREDIT: BILL REINKE/DAYTON DAILY NEWS