WELCOME BACK: In Brief

Valarie Swain Cade, a longtime minority affairs administrator at the University, rejected an offer in June to become Cheyney University's permanent president -- three days after indicating she would take the job. Cade returned to her University post as assistant provost and assistant to the president in early August, following an eleven-month leave of absence to serve as Cheyney's acting president. Tennessee educator Douglas Covington -- who was initially passed over in favor of Cade -- was instead appointed president of Cheyney, the oldest historically black college in the country. In a letter to James McCormick, chancellor of the State System of Higher Education, Cade, 39, cited concerns about the length of her proposed three-year contract and about Cheyney's long-range efforts to reduce its debt. Cade's change of heart came as a surprise to state officials who believed they had found a new leader for Cheyney. Many officials attended a reception in June where Cade was introduced to as the president-designate. Tony Bullett, Cade's executive assistant at Cheyney, said Cade initially accepted the job, but then reconsidered and declined the offer. Chief among Cade's concerns, Bullett said, was that a lingering budget deficit would hinder Cheyney's development and that the state was not prepared to help eliminate that deficit altogether. Cade also had wanted a five-year contract to "send a message" that there would be "stability at the top," said Bullett, because recent presidents of Cheyney have remained in office only a short time. "These are concerns she had raised throughout," he said. "The more she thought about what she needs to do at [Cheyney], she realized she was always going to be constrained by the deficit. It became more what was good for this university than what was good for Valarie Cade." Scott Shewell, a spokesperson for state education officials, said that Cade will serve at Cheyney through August 1. Before taking a leave of absence from the University, Cade handled a variety of tasks for the administration, ranging from minority affairs, capital planning and space allocation. -- Scott Calvert