Old Dominion's next president will bring 19 years of experience in higher education, a proven record of management and fund raising, and a high level of energy when she assumes the post a year from now, Board of Visitors Rector Lawrie Falck Rollison said in her introduction of Roseann Runte at a news conference June 26.

Just minutes earlier, the board had voted to appoint Runte, the president and vice chancellor of Victoria University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as the seventh president of Old Dominion University, effective July 1, 2001. She will succeed James V. Koch, who is stepping down at the end of the 2000-01 academic year. After a period of leave starting next July 1, he will return to the university in fall 2002 as the Board of Visitors Professor of Economics.

"She works nonstop," Rollison told campus and community members who had packed the room in Webb Center. "It's easy to see why the people in her university love her and will be sorry to see her go. But I'm overjoyed that she's coming to us."

When she assumes the office next summer, Runte (pronounced Run-tuh) will become only the third woman to head a four-year college or university in Virginia.

Following a standing ovation, Runte thanked the search committee and the board for their confidence. "I look forward to coming and joining the team, to rolling up my sleeves and getting busy, and working hard," she said.

Runte's appointment concludes an eight-month-long rigorous process by the search committee, which was composed of officers and standing committee chairs of the Board of Visitors, six former rectors, a faculty representative and a student representative. The board also utilized the services of a consulting firm, James L. Fisher Ltd., of Baltimore, to assist in the identification and screening of potential candidates and to prepare an institutional review that offered prospective candidates an independent assessment of the university.

The search committee reviewed and interviewed many qualified candidates, including more than 30 sitting university presidents, George Dragas Jr., vice chair of the search committee, said at the news conference. "She exhibited leadership, good management capabilities, scholarship, abundant energy, excellent international credentials and the ability to bring people together, which may be the most important," Dragas, an alumnus of Old Dominion, said.

Dragas, who had chaired the presidential search committee in 1989 during his tenure as Board of Visitors rector, noted that members on this latest search committee were so impressed with Runte that "we likened her to a steel magnolia."

Koch, Old Dominion's president since 1990, describes Runte as "a superb choice." At the news conference, he said, "She is a highly experienced administrator with a very strong track record of success. I have no doubts at all that she's going to be a terrific leader for Old Dominion University during this next decade."

Born in New York state, Runte, 52, received her bachelor's degree in French from State University of New York at New Paltz, and her master's and doctorate in French from the University of Kansas. She holds dual citizenship in the United States and Canada.

Runte has served as president of Victoria University since 1994. A liberal arts school with an enrollment of 4,000, Victoria is federated with the University of Toronto and comprises two colleges: Victoria College, which includes arts, science and commerce, and Emmanuel College, a theology school.

"Some of you are going to say, 'My goodness, what's a scholar in French doing in a place that has high technology? Is she going to be able to handle it?,'" Runte said at the news conference.

"I think that sometimes people combine in their likes and their abilities different things, and I've always enjoyed working with technology," she added, pointing to her experience in establishing an educational television station and creating a distance education network at universities in Canada. "I'm not totally a neophyte."

Responding later to a question, she said, "The new discoveries that await us are when we cross disciplines, when we break down the barriers that are in our minds, and so I really think there could be some very exciting interdisciplinary endeavors we could undertake and that we could use the technology with."

At Victoria University, Runte has raised more than $30 million, doubling the scholarship endowment; supervised major renovations to student residences, the library and investment properties; overseen several construction projects and Internet wiring for all buildings; and created a fund for faculty research and academic innovation.

Prior to her presidency at Victoria, Runte served from 1988 to 1994 as principal of Glendon College (York University) and from 1983 to 1988 as president of l'University Sainte-Anne, both in Canada. At Glendon, she increased enrollment by 30 percent, inaugurated international exchanges and added new, interdisciplinary programs.

At Sainte-Anne, she was credited with starting a center for business, adding new science laboratories, a theater and museum, and introducing new academic programs. She is also a former department chair and assistant dean Runte has continued to teach and publish throughout her administrative career, editing nine books and writing three creative volumes, 70 articles and book chapters and more than 100 reviews. Her creative writing, which has been translated into English, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Rumanian, received the poetry prize from the Acadamie Francaise in Paris. Also among her many awards are three honorary degrees.

Also known for her innovative leadership, Runte has created several journals, including one for graduate students, and established international exchanges. In addition, she has founded new alumni and community programs, lectures, international conferences such as the North American consultation on postsecondary education, and a mentor program with world leaders. She also inaugurated such campus-community projects as arbor days and a peace garden.

Runte is past president of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, chair of the board of the Foundation for International Training and member of the International Advisory Board of EXPO 2000. In her community, she is a member of the executive council of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, past member of the board of Associated Medical Services and vice chair of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art board.

At the news conference, Runte said she looks forward to the role she will have in ensuring the continuing success of Old Dominion University. Asked why she decided to leave her current post to come to Old Dominion, Runte said she had accomplished the goals she had set out to meet and was ready for a change.