Howard president's tenure marked by turmoil

James E. Cheek, 77, who was president of Howard University during a tumultuous 20-year period from 1969 to 1989 and left the university in the wake of a student uprising, died Jan. 8 in Greensboro, N.C., where he was living. The cause of death could not be learned.

Dr. Cheek came to the historically black university in the heart of Washington after the school had been rocked by two years of demonstrations and student boycotts. Only 37 when he took office in September 1969, Dr. Cheek sometimes appeared in dashikis and seemed to speak the language of a new generation.

He pledged to launch a "new era" at the university and to help Howard maintain its standing as one of the nation's preeminent black educational institutions.

In his first year, as riots and student disruptions engulfed campuses nationwide, Howard students demanded reforms in the faculty and curriculum. Grades were temporarily suspended, and all students were assured of passing.

Dr. Cheek vowed to stand up to the students.

"Your president will not attempt to administer under intimidation, violence or coercion of any kind," he said. "Those who resort to such tactics demonstrate their unworthiness to be members of our academic community."

He decided to redefine the school's mission as a "second emancipation of blacks in America," with a curriculum more reflective of the African American experience.

While preaching black power to the students, Dr. Cheek also knew the importance of green power and proved to be an especially skillful fundraiser, cultivating major players at the highest levels of business and government. He increased Howard's budget from $43 million in 1969 to $417 million 20 years later and launched ambitious building programs at the university's medical school and other colleges.

Dr. Cheek's desire to raise the school's academic standards and to improve the faculty had mixed success. Howard found itself facing the same realities confronting other historically black colleges during the era of integration as it became increasingly difficult to recruit top students and teachers.

Within a few years, Dr. Cheek also began to see a backlash over what some considered his autocratic and arrogant style of management. In 1977, the university's security guards went public with protests that Dr. Cheek used them as his personal chauffeurs and bodyguards.

He issued new rules forbidding any member of the faculty to write a news release, hold a news conference or invite anyone on campus without the consent of his office.

In 1983, a new round of student demonstrations broke out after Dr. Cheek expelled a student editor who published a report accusing a top university official of sex discrimination.