The Nation - News from April 23, 1989

Howard University President James E. Cheek announced that he will retire after 20 years as leader of the nation’s most prominent black college, the Washington Post reported. Cheek, 56, who according to sources is being considered for the post of U.S. ambassador to Cameroon, said his resignation would be effective June 30. During the Cheek era, he and a small group of advisers directed a large-scale expansion of the Washington university, almost doubling its physical size and quadrupling the faculty. Yet some Howard students greeted his departure with enthusiasm. In March, students protested when, they said, Cheek placed Republican National Chairman Lee Atwater on the board of trustees without consulting them. Atwater resigned from the board.