McClaurin out at Shaw U.

Irma McClaurin, Shaw University's third president in three years, has stepped down.   Neither McClurin or the university would say what led to the resignation, both said it was a mutual decision.  McClurin is Shaw's 15th president and the school's first femaie leader.  She held the job less than a year.  She was hired Sept. 6.

"Shaw University has seen many changes and experienced challenges in the last six months. And with change comes transitions," the university said in a statement issued today.

In June 2009, Dorothy C. Yancy took over as interim president after the abrupt announcement that President Clarence Newsome was taking a one-year leave of absence and would not return.

Shaw in 2009 announced that it was drowning in more than $20 million in debt. In 2010, the university was given a $31 million federal loan to keep its doors open.

On April 16, the school suffered more than $3 million in damages after a tornado touched down on campus. More than 27 buildings were damaged.

The school mounted a rapid recovery. Classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 17, with all classrooms and residence halls open.

On Sunday, McClaurin said Shaw's financial burden had prompted her to seek new investors.

McClaurin said she planned to take her "Imagining More" campaign - an effort to improve upon prior blueprints - to private investors and alumni across the country.

"We still have a funding challenge," she said Sunday. "The goal is to boost donations more aggressively."

Board members referred questions about the resignation to Willie Gary, chairman of Shaw's board of trustees. Calls to Gary were not immediately returned. 

James Cheek former president of Howard & Shaw Universities passes

James E. Cheek, who served as Howard University's president for 20 years and oversaw major expansions at the school, has died. He was 77.

University spokesman Ron Harris said Cheek died January 8 at a hospital in Greensboro, N.C. Cheek died after a long illness, said Tanya Wiley, spokeswoman for Shaw University where Cheek earlier served as president.

Cheek presided over the historically black Howard University from 1968 to 1989. During that time, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in 1983.

"Dr. Cheek's vision and passion for the university and his view of Howard as a national treasure led to bold action, which eventually resulted in a dramatic boost in our budget with increased federal support," current Howard University President Sidney Ribeau said in a statement.

During Cheek's tenure, the university's enrollment increased by 6,000 students, and its budget soared from $43 million to $417 million. The school founded the nation's first black-owned public television station, created WHUR radio, established a School of Business and built Howard University Hospital. Cheek also expanded Howard's divinity and law schools.

Cheek was born Dec. 4, 1932, in Roanoke Rapids, N.C. He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and went on to earn degrees in sociology, history and divinity from Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C., Colgate Rochester University in New York and a Ph.D. from Drew University in New Jersey.

Before coming to Washington, Cheek was president of Shaw University, named to that position at the age of 30. Previously, he was a professor of New Testament theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Va.

Cheek is survived by his wife, Celestine, two children and four grandchildren.

Shaw selects Yancy as interim president

Shaw University named former Johnson C. Smith University President Dorothy Cowser Yancy as interim president this morning, making her the first female to head the historically black school in its 144 year history.

Yancy, who was also Johnson C. Smith's first female president, headed the Charlotte-based historically black school from 1994 until June 2008, according to the school's Web site. According to a Shaw University news release, she raised $145 million in fundraising campaigns for Johnson C. Smith and increased its endowment from $14 million to $53 million.

Yancy replaces Clarence Newsome, who took a one-year leave of absence in mid-May amid rising about Shaw's ballooning debt, decaying dormitories, the payment of everyday expenses on credit and a graduation rate that hovers around 36 percent.

Conditions at the private school so disturbed alumni that in March, the Greensboro chapter stopped donating or raising money for their alma mater. This stance stayed in place until mid May, when Shaw announced Newsome would leave his post with a paid, one-year sabbatical. At that time, the agency that accredited Shaw in 2002 said it will demand a plan for paying down the debt once a new president replaces Newsome.

"He lost his credibility with the students, the faculty and staff and the alumni," said Robert Caple, chairman of the Greensboro alumni group. "We knew something had to happen."

Shaw's board of trustees chairman Willie Gary praised Yancy's leadership abilities and her track record at Johnson C. Smith.

"As they used to say when I was growing up, she brought them from the projects to the pros," Gary said.