DAYTON, Ohio — The president of Central State University has been appointed to mediate talks that could end cross-town busing in the city school district, the only system in Ohio still under a desegregation order.

        John Garland, who is credited with helping resolve financial and enrollment problems at Central State, was appointed by U.S. District Judge Walter Rice to be the mediator among the district, the state and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

        “It's an excellent choice,” Ricky Boyd, president of the school board, said Friday.

        “John knows education. He can be nothing but a benefit for the process.”

        Messages left for Jessie Gooding, president of the Dayton NAACP chapter, were not returned.

        Mr. Boyd said the key is to keep negotiations alive.

        After talks stalled two weeks ago, Judge Rice set an April 15 court hearing to consider the school district's request that he lift the order issued in the 1970s to integrate schools.

        But Judge Rice hopes Mr. Garland can broker an agreement before the hearing.

        “He is an attorney, and most of what we attorneys do is negotiate and mediate disputes. I know he's done a number of mediations,” Judge Rice said.

        Mr. Garland, 57, said he has handled hundreds of settlements as an attorney.

        He spent Friday in Columbus attending a mediation workshop conducted by the Ohio State Bar Association.

        In February, the school district and the state asked Judge Rice to lift the desegregation order, arguing a dual system that once relegated blacks to separate schools inferior to white schools has been eliminated. The school district is 73 percent black.

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