BY REON CARTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ATLANTIC CITY -- Is she a University of Cincinnati student or isn't she?
That continued to be the question about Miss Ohio, Cheya Watkins, as contestants rehearsed here for the national broadcast of the 1999 Miss America pageant.
Miss Watkins, who is under investigation by pageant officials for supposedly lying about her academic record, stuck by her story that she was a student as recently as this spring at UC's Raymond Walters College. She also said she has transcripts as proof.
However, according to the Raymond Walters registrar's office, Miss Watkins has taken just one course, Human Sexuality. That was in the summer of 1995. In 1996, she registered for a freshman English course but later withdrew and in 1997, she paid a registration fee but never selected courses.
During Saturday rehearsals, which were closed to the media but could be viewed on monitors, Miss Watkins was consistently introduced as a UC student.
Leonard Horn, the Miss America pageant CEO, said Friday that the investigation would move cautiously in recognition of "how serious a disqualification . . . would be for this young woman." Miss Watkins' state prizes included $13,500 to be used for education. She also received $3,800 for winning the southeastern preliminary. She may have to forfeit that money and her Miss Ohio title if she is disqualified, said Mr. Horn.
When asked how the discrepancies in her record could slip by unnoticed, he said: "We have volunteers out there who are doing the very best that they can, but no one has the ability to sit down and verify every single thing some young lady tells them on a sheet of paper or a contract which is signed, or whatever . . ."
"We have to take their word for it most of the time, unless there is a reason to suspect that it's not so."
Although Miss Watkins lives in Evendale, she competed in the Miss Ohio pageant as Miss Southeastern Ohio, not Miss Cincinnati. She was in three other state preliminary pageants (including the Miss Cincinnati pageant, in which she was first runner-up) before winning the southeastern title in Mansfield.
While many former Miss Americas have been touched by controversy, no contestant has been booted from the pageant in Atlantic City. Only one Miss America has been dethroned: Vanessa Williams, Miss America 1984, was forced to resign when nude pictures of her were published in Penthouse magazine.
