DATE: Friday, September 12, 1997            TAG: 9709120600

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   88 lines

REGENT UNDER NEW COMMAND VIETNAM VET SAYS UNIVERSITY IS READY FOR "THE NEXT LEVEL."

Retired Lt. Gen. Paul G. Cerjan, the new president of Regent University, a Vietnam combat veteran with the ``1st Cav'' and onetime West Point instructor, sounded kind of muffled when he answered the phone.

``Hold on,'' he said. ``I've still got a bite of doughnut in my mouth.''

On Nov. 1, Cerjan will take over Regent from a wisecracking film professor, Terry Lindvall. But for those who might think he's about to institute close-order drill exercises each morning on the lawn in Virginia Beach, Cerjan on Thursday urged everyone not to jump to conclusions.

``You have to get rid of the stereotype of military people coming in with an autocratic style of leadership,'' he said. ``Autocracy is not my style.

``I don't see any change in the way we do business. I find out what's going on by walking around. I don't sit behind a desk. I enjoy hearing from people.''

He balances out the doughnuts by running three to five miles a day, when ``I do my best thinking.''

Cerjan, 59, will be the fifth president of Regent since it was founded in 1979. (University officials say they don't count a couple of the earliest temporary leaders during its start-up.)

There are just 1,800 students now, but the sale of the Family Channel recently boosted the school's endowment to nearly $400 million, and it is clear Regent is on the threshold of a new chapter.

Cerjan has plenty of plans.

``Regent is ready to move to the next level,'' he said. ``We have a strong base that we can start from to expand the resident student population.

``But to accommodate that larger population, it's time to start a capital development plan. We need to move forward on a school of communications and fine arts building, and a chapel.''

Regent founder Pat Robertson has turned to a man whose military career included engineering, combat and administration: West Point graduate in 1960; two tours of duty in Vietnam with the famed 1st Cavalry Division as a combat engineer and company commander; head of the Army War College and then the National Defense University (including the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk); assistant division commander with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y.

For two years in the mid-1980s, Cerjan was responsible for laying the groundwork for the new, $1.3 billion Fort Drum.

``It was like building a city,'' Cerjan said. ``We had to put up 170 buildings and 4,000 sets of quarters, and put in everything from the sewage system to computers.''

As deputy commander in chief in Europe, Cerjan monitored the removal of America's tactical nuclear warheads without incident.

He retired from the Army in 1994 and went to work for a division of Lockheed Martin, the aerospace corporation.

Despite a career no less remarkable than Colin Powell's, Cerjan stayed away from politics.

``I got some feelers from that quarter, but that never really enticed me,'' he said. ``I also was thinking, at some point in time you've got to start smelling the roses, too. Of course, that was before this happened.''

He and his wife, Patricia, live in Alexandria, and Cerjan will commute to Virginia Beach weekly until next summer so that his youngest son can finish high school in Northern Virginia. They also have two grown sons.

Robertson met Cerjan several years ago, while Cerjan was president of the National Defense University.

``I had been following Pat Robertson for years,'' Cerjan said. ``I found his private demeanor to be as genuine and as warm as his public demeanor was.

``Being a military man, you get a sense of the integrity of a man and of his strength in God. I had a very positive, strong feeling about the man.''

Cerjan was raised a Roman Catholic in Rome, N.Y., but describes his faith now by saying, ``I am a staunch believer and committed to Jesus Christ and his principles. I feel I am able to work in any denominational environment.''

Cerjan, who joined Regent's board of trustees in April 1996, sees his new job as flowing directly from his work at the Army War College and the National Defense University.

``My work there was trying to prepare generations of young people for the future,'' Cerjan said. ``This is a natural continuation.

``You have to go to the vision of the university, which is to provide leadership, Christian leadership, to help transform society through truth and justice and those types of standards.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Lt. Gen. PAUL G. CERJAN

Military career: Cerjan graduated from West Point in 1960 and then

served two tours of duty in Vietnam with the famed 1st Cavalry

Division as a combat engineer and company commander.

Academic career: He headed first the Army War College and then

the National Defense University. KEYWORDS: REGENT UNIVERSITY PROFILE INTERVIEW BIOGRAPHY

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