ACADEMIC DEAN TAKES GODDARD COLLEGE REINS

By Neil Davis - Free Press Staff Writer

PLAINFIELD - The presidency of Goddard college change hands Wednesday, with academic dean Jack Lindquist stepping up to replace Victor Loefflath-Ehly.

Loefflath-Ehly said he pushed for the trustees to vote on whether to retain or replace him. He said it was necessary that the Board show itself solidly behind whoever is to preside over the vastly reorganize college next fall.

Board chairman Richard Sontag said the Board was faced with "a difficult choice" and decided upon Lindquist because he is the architect of the college's new educational design scheduled to go into effect in the next school year.

Loefflath-Ehly, 40, became president last October, was credited by the board with shepherding the college through a severe financial crisis.

"The focus now will be on the experimental education area," Sontag said.

"It was not that we were dissatisfied with Victor at all," the chairman said. He said the Board would like the ousted President to remain in the college administration.

Lindquist, also 40, of Saratoga Springs, New York, has been a theorist, author, researcher and consultant in the field of planned change and academic renewal of higher education institutions.

"In a way, this will be an opportunity to find out whether any of the stuff I've written is true at all, or at least whether I'm the guy to implement it," he said.

His biggest worry, however, is not whether his ideas can be put into practice but whether the college will complete its reorganization and get beyond its financial crisis, he said.

"We're still a few steps from getting our financial house in order," Lindquist said. "That's the major trepidation at the moment."

"We need to get some funding very quickly if we're going to make it to the fall semester at all. The problem is very much short-term, not long-term."

Lindquist said his rivalry with Loefflath-Ehly for the presidency was cordial. "There was no jockeying for the Board's favor," he said.

Lindquist has a doctorate in higher education from the University of Michigan. He previously was director of the Institute for Academic Improvement at Memphis state University.

He is the author of several book and articles and has been a consultant to more than 100 colleges and universities.