Campo voted in as Regent's next president

VIRGINIA BEACH

Carlos Campo, Regent University's vice president for academic affairs, will succeed founder Pat Robertson as the school's next president in 2010.

Trustees voted unanimously Saturday for Campo, who had Robertson's endorsement. The selection was announced Monday.

"I don't think anyone would be presumptuous enough to fill Pat Robertson's shoes," Campo said. "I do know he's laid a foundation for a great institution."

Campo, hired for his current post in 2008, will take over as president in August. Robertson, 79, announced in the spring that he would retire next year as the school's president. He will have the title executive chairman of the board.

Robertson, who started the Christian Broadcasting Network, founded Regent in 1978.

The university has about 4,500 students in undergraduate and graduate programs, including some taught online. The main campus is in Virginia Beach, bordered by Interstate 264, Indian River Road and Centerville Turnpike.

In 2007, Robertson turned over daily management of CBN to his son, Gordon Robertson, who became chief executive officer.

Campo said he chatted with Gordon on Saturday.

"He said congratulations - and that no one knew how hard it was to follow Pat Robertson more than Gordon himself," Campo said.

Campo came to Regent from the College of Southern Nevada, where he was interim vice president of academic affairs. He previously served as the college's dean of arts and letters and director of academic partnerships.

Campo earned a doctorate in English from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and was an English professor and a college theater department chairman earlier in his career.

Campo said Monday that he didn't want Regent, which bills itself as "the nation's academic center for Christian thought and action," to be identified solely by its faith affiliation.

"From my perspective, we are a university," he said.

He said Regent's strategic plan envisions expanding the number of on-campus undergraduates to 2,500 within 10 years.

Past Regent presidents have included retired Army Lt. Gen. Paul G. Cerjan from 1997 to 2000; Terry Lindvall, a film scholar now at Virginia Wesleyan College, from 1993 to 1997; and David J. Gyertson, a college administrator and ex-CBN executive, from 1991 to 1993.

Robertson remains the host and public face of "The 700 Club," CBN's signature daily program that blends news and a talk-show format. CBN has headquarter s in Virginia Beach, adjacent to Regent's campus.

Robertson had heart surgery this summer to treat atrial fibrillation. He had a partial knee replacement in May 2007 and had a cancerous prostate gland removed by surgery in 2003.

Robertson resigned in 2001 as head of the Christian Coalition, the grass-roots religious lobby he founded. The group helped galvanize millions of evangelical Christians into political action in the 1990s.

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com