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N.C. A&T is intent on finding a replacement for departing Chancellor Stanley Battle by June 30.

Members of the search committee say they are confident that can be accomplished -- and that there will be no need for an interim leader.

I commend them for their optimism, but humbly suggest that they might consider a Plan B, just in case.

Consider the plight of Delaware State University, a historically black land-grant school, like A&T, that recently culled its list of candidates for president to three finalists, hosted those finalists for a round of interviews -- and proceeded to choose none of them.

After an eight-month search, the trustees simply felt the finalists were not the right fit for the school. "I don't think we attracted what we were looking for in the first search, and that is some cause for concern because it is an indication that DSU hasn't exactly decided what kind of institution it wants to be," Steve Newton, a history professor, told The News Journal of Dover.

So the school will reopen the search, even as student and faculty morale continues to waver under an acting president, trustee board member Claibourne Smith.

The school also faces major budget challenges, funding fights with the state legislature and a dwindling endowment. The search committee will meet later this month and start over, with a new recruiting plan and a new crop of candidates.

This does not happen often.

"Frankly, I've never heard of it happening before," Bruce Slater, managing editor of the online newsletter, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, said last week.

But the process could provide a cautionary tale for A&T.

The search for a new president at Delaware State has taken eight months ... thus far.

A&T has given itself four months.

Delaware State and A&T both were founded in 1891 as segregated, state-supported institutions for "colored" students. They both compete in the same athletic league, the MEAC.

But A&T is a much bigger school. Delaware State enrolls 3,756 students, while A&T's fall 2008 enrollment totaled 10,388.

The circumstances of the previous leaders' departures also are starkly different. We may never know the specifics of Battle's sudden resignation, which he announced on Feb. 24, and which takes effect on June 30.

At Delaware State, President James Sessoms left after five years to become president of the University of the District of Columbia.

Few in Dover seemed to mourn his departure.

Sessoms brought more research money and postgraduate programs to the school.

But he also was a polarizing figure on the campus, described as out of sync with faculty, as well as "unapproachable and difficult."

Meanwhile, the top job at A&T has attracted at least 18 applicants, and ought to be a magnet for strong candidates.

The school has strong engineering, business, technology and agricultural programs. Its journalism department was the second one in the state, behind UNC-Chapel Hill's, to win accreditation.

But A&T faces some formidable challenges, including a shortfall in the state budget that is forcing deep cuts for all of North Carolina's public universities.

Then there is the palpable rift between those who love A&T for what it has been and those who love it for what it can be.

The new leader will consume much of his or her energy reconciling those warring passions between tradition and change, which don't have to be mutually exclusive.

What this all means is that the A&T search committee should move with all due urgency.

"In these times, you can't have a ship without a captain," said Slater of the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. "You really need to get somebody who can get their hands on the situation."

Yet the search committee sacrifice shouldn't quality for speed.

In a classic dilemma, A&T must hurry up and wait. The search committee has to be very fast and very careful.

While Lloyd Hackley served effectively as interim chancellor between James Renick and Battle, now would not be an ideal time for another interim leader. That would ensure the school's fourth leader since 1999, with yet another soon to follow.

Delaware State faces that rock and hard place right now, say faculty and trustees. The university is "drifting," history professor Sam Hoff told The News Journal, "and that is probably a natural consequence in some ways of an interim president."

A&T can't afford to drift.

This is a critical time in the university's history. Given the turnover and turmoil it has seen at the top in recent years, it has got to get this right.