The Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors will interview two candidates on December 16 for the position of interim president of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. Cheyney’s current president, Dr. W. Clinton Pettus, will retire December 31. He has held the position since 1996.

Members of the Executive Committee will meet with the candidates for the interim position in the morning and could make a selection on behalf of the full Board later in the day. The interim president will serve as the University’s chief executive officer until a search for a permanent president is completed.

· Wallace C. Arnold, a retired major general in the United States Army and former commander of the national Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Upon his military retirement, Arnold was recruited to serve as director of the Hampton University Data Conversion & Management Laboratory in Hampton, Virginia. Hampton University is a prominent member of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).

· Dr. O. Clayton Johnson, former president of Quincy College in Massachusetts and provost for the Wayne County Community College District in Detroit. Upon retirement from academe, Johnson founded and serves as president of Vanbrook Associates in Ypsilanti, Mich., a consulting practice in higher educational review, planning and community services.

Arnold holds a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial education from Hampton Institute and a Master of Arts degree in personnel management and administration from George Washington University. He also is a graduate of the Naval War College and has studied at both the University of Michigan and Harvard University.

Arnold retired from the Army in 1995 as assistant director of personnel at Army headquarters. He was responsible for formulating and guiding the review of the Army’s five-year human resources management program, which defined military and civilian manpower requirements through 2001.

He was commander of the Army’s ROTC program from 1990 to 1993, serving as the chief executive officer of the national organization, which included 6,400 staff and 45,000 college and 125,000 high school cadets, with a $200 million annual budget. He was charged with ensuring both the curriculum and training for the college program met the needs of the service for new Army lieutenants, while increasing the quality and number of ROTC cadets. Arnold also served for six years as commander of the ROTC’s Eastern Region.

Arnold joined the Army in 1961, serving in a variety of posts, including positions in Washington, D.C., and in Europe.

After retiring from military service, he served as regional director of business development for Computer Sciences Corporation and executive vice president and chief administrative officer for Information Technology Solutions before going to work in his current position in June 2001. Arnold now serves as administrator for all data conversion and technical services contracts awarded to Hampton University.

Johnson holds bachelor’s degrees in social science and history from Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., as well as a master’s degree in continuing and higher education administration and a doctoral degree in social and philosophical foundations of education, both from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

He served as president of Quincy College in Quincy, Mass., from 1983 to 1993. During part of that time, he also was interim chief executive officer of Hudson County Community College in Jersey City, N.J. He moved from there to the Office of the Chancellor at Wayne County Community College District, where he was assigned to develop a plan for operating the reopened Western Campus, and for defining concepts for overall site-based management, outreach and other system wide efforts. He also served as provost of the Downriver Campus, which supports the southern tier of the nation’s seventh-largest county.

Johnson’s other administrative assignments have included vice president of Worcester State College in Worcester, Mass.; assistant chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, Wisc.; vice president and associate graduate professor at the State University of New York-Binghamton; and associate academic vice president of Governors State University in Park Forest, Ill. He began his academic career as a lecturer and assistant chairperson of the Division of Business at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in 1965. He also taught at both Rutgers and SUNY-Binghamton.

He founded Vanbrook Associates in 1998 and continues as president of the consulting business.

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is one of 14 state-owned universities that make up the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. With more than 104,000 students, the State System is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its universities combined offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. More than 375,000 System alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg. The regional centers are part of the Educational Resources Group, which is responsible for coordinating statewide programming.