Chico Caldwell, the athletics director at Winston-Salem State since 2000, was fired yesterday by Chancellor Donald Reaves.

Caldwell, who was hired by former chancellor Harold Martin, had been instrumental in steering the Rams athletics program to NCAA Division I status. The program is in its third year of transition after having left Division II and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

When reached yesterday by phone and asked why he was fired, Caldwell said: "I don't know -- that's what I'm trying to find out."

Reaves, who was hired in February 2007, did not return a phone call to discuss his decision but said in a prepared statement that it was time for "new leadership."

"A stated goal in my short tenure as chancellor is to implement a talent strategy that has the right people in the right position at the right time," Reaves said in the statement. "The university, including its athletics program, is at a critical transition point where fresh ideas and approaches are needed, and in keeping with my commitment to the talent strategy, I believe that the athletics program and our student-athletes will benefit from new leadership."

Reaves named Tonia Walker, the associate director of athletics and senior women's administrator, as the interim AD. She has been at the school since August 2000, when she was hired as the volleyball coach and assistant AD after spending eight years as the director of public relations for the CIAA.

Walker, a two-sport athlete in college, received a bachelor's degree from Hampton in 1993 and a master's degree from Old Dominion in 1998. At WSSU, she has twice been named the CIAA senior women's administrator of the year.

Caldwell, 61, was just the fourth athletics director in school history. He was hired in the summer of 2000 after Anne Little was fired.

Little was the AD for three years. She followed Al Roseboro, who retired in the spring of 1997. Roseboro took over in 1990 to replace Big House Gaines, who until then had been the school's only AD. Gaines died in April 2005.

One of the biggest issues the athletics department faces is the transition to Division I.

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WSSU fires athletics director of 9 years