Indiana University of Pennsylvania's next president is a journalist-turned-academic who most recently served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Youngstown State University.

Tony Atwater

Tony Atwater, 52, was named yesterday by the board of governors of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

He will be paid $215,000 a year and start Feb. 1.

"Dr. Atwater will bring to IUP a broad range of experiences in academic leadership,'' said board of governors Chairman Charles A. Gomulka. "He has had a distinguished academic career and is a proven administrator. He is an excellent choice to lead Indiana University of Pennsylvania into the future.''

Atwater said he wants to engage "the campus community to rally around coherent vision for its future, establishing the enrollment base and developing new partnerships for advancing economic development in the region.

"Engagement is the president having an ongoing positive and productive rapport'' with staff, students, faculty, the system's board and others, he said.

Atwater replaces Derek J. Hodgson, who abruptly resigned in January after five months in office. He continued to draw a salary through June under a severance package. His pay totaled about $100,100.

Diane Reinhard, a former Clarion University of Pennsylvania president, came out of retirement and has been interim president for 11 months.

Hodgson's short tenure doesn't give Atwater pause. Instead, he sees it as an opportunity to provide stability.

He said IUP needs strong and stable leadership.

Atwater hails from Nashville, Tenn., although he counts Virginia as a second home. He grew up as a military brat in the Air Force and had lived on three continents by the age of 15.

He earned a bachelor's degree in mass media arts with a minor in journalism from Hampton University in Hampton, Va. He has a master's degree in education from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a doctorate in mass media research from Michigan State University.

He worked at radio and television stations in Virginia, including serving as a news director, reporter and assignment editor.

At Virginia Tech, he helped train cooperative extension agents in how to present themselves on television.

"It dawned on me one day that this was teaching journalism and communication. That led me to consider the prospect of professorship,'' he said.

While IUP is his first presidency, he has held a number of academic and administrative jobs in higher education.

His education career began as an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University and later assistant director of The Honors College at Michigan State.

He then became chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Media at Rutgers University and later special assistant to the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Connecticut.

His next stop was as associate vice president for academic affairs and professor of community at the University of Toledo and then dean of the College of Professional Studies and Education at Northern Kentucky University before moving to Youngstown State.

IUP has nearly 14,000 students and is the largest of the 14 universities in the State System.