March 9, 2002 – Selection of a new University of the Virgin Islands president may be close at hand.
The UVI Board of Trustees is meeting Saturday in executive session, university spokeswoman Patrice Johnson said, and a decision on which of three finalist candidates will be chosen to become the institution's fourth president was expected to come up.
"They are meeting in executive session today, and the outcome of today's session will likely determine who will be the university's next president," Johnson said in a telephone interview Saturday morning.
In February, the board's Presidential Search Committee announced that it had narrowed the selection process to three candidates to succeed UVI President Orville Kean, who is retiring in September. The committee recommended Robert Jennings, Laurence Petersen and Laverne Ragster to the full board, which has responsibility for making the final decision.
Jennings is executive vice president for Future Focus, a research and training group affiliated with the graduate studies program at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Peterson is dean of the Kennesaw State University College of Science and Mathematics in Georgia. Ragster is senior vice president and provost at UVI.
The final steps in the selection process are being taken in confidentiality. Johnson said she could not even say where the trustees' meeting is being held. "I don't know the location," she said. "It could be St. Croix or St. Thomas."
Even if a decision is made Saturday, Johnson said, the board may put off announcing its decision for another day or two.
