University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. said yesterday he supports the hiring of Chief McDonald Vick of North Carolina Central University as UK's police chief.

Todd said that all information about Vick should have been explained to him and the search committee, including the current federal lawsuit and that Vick had been exonerated in 1998 of allegations that he and his department had committed sexual harassment and sex discrimination.

"I still feel very good about Chief Vick being our police chief," Todd said. "From everything I know right now, I'm prepared to stand by our decision."

UK's search committee and a six-member interview team chosen from that committee were not told about the 1998 exoneration and the current case.

UK's search firm, Waters-Oldani of Austin, Texas, recommended that UK not consider the allegations in its hiring of Vick. This recommendation was conveyed to him in one sentence in an executive summary, Todd said.

"I would have liked to have had a briefing on that," Todd said. "That wasn't enough to trigger me. In any future search, when there are any allegations of this nature, it should be the responsibility of the search firm to brief the committee and me."

Todd said he will meet with the search committee this week -- it could be as soon as today -- to review the process, which he said he typically does.

Todd said he spoke with Vick during the weekend to encourage him not to change his mind about moving to UK. Vick said he still plans to come to UK, Todd said.

However, the UK president said North Carolina Central is making counter-offers to keep Vick, 50, at the Durham, N.C., school. He has been there 11 years.

"It's certainly my hope that we can clear the air at this point so that when he comes in, we have no questions," Todd said. Vick is scheduled to begin work at UK in mid-March.

Yesterday, the president of North Carolina Central's Student Government Association spoke of Vick in glowing terms, saying "he treats a lot of the students as if they were his children."

Renee Clark, a senior from Durham, said Vick was an "excellent police chief," that the "officers are excellent" and that he "has beefed up security."

Cressie H. Thigpen Jr., a Raleigh lawyer and chairman of North Carolina Central's Board of Trustees, said he had been on the board only three years and so far had limited contact with Vick.

In 1998 Vick was exonerated by an investigation and a report by the police chief of Meredith College, a women's school in Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina Central's chancellor hired Meredith's police chief to conduct the investigation.

Vick is a defendant in a U.S. District Court case in Greensboro, N.C., in which a former female North Carolina Central police officer accused him of sex discrimination. Vick had fired her for insubordination and leaving the scene of an accident involving a North Carolina Central police car.

In April, a federal judge ruled that the defendant, Deona Renna Hooper, could no longer make some claims and could not seek punitive damages. The judge said Hooper could continue with allegations that she was illegally wiretapped and had intentionally been caused emotional distress.

Ken Clevidence, UK's associate vice president for campus and auxiliary services, was liaison between the search firm and UK's search committee and administration. Clevidence has administrative authority over the UK police department.

Vick is head of a 49-member police department and runs a $2-million budget at North Carolina Central. UK's police department has 45 sworn officers, a 41-member security force at the UK Medical Center and a $4.8-million budget.

Vick's wife, Dr. Oveta McIntosh-Vick, is the chief of pediatrics at Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham and will move to Lexington with her husband, according to UK.

Vick was selected from a field of 80 applicants. He was picked after a yearlong search to replace former UK Police Chief Fred H. Otto III, who resigned in November 2004.

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