Supporters said Peter McPherson would be a strong candidate for any number of government positions, including a cabinet spot
MSU president sets sights on D.C.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
By Judy Putnam
Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Outgoing Michigan State University President Peter McPherson is headed to Washington, D.C., next month.
McPherson, 64, said Wednesday that he and his wife, Joanne, are moving to an apartment in Arlington, Va., where he will volunteer for projects to end hunger and broaden study-abroad opportunities for American students.
McPherson, hired at MSU in 1993, said he will also work as a $143,650-a-year consultant for the university, trying to win a $1 billion federal nuclear research facility called the Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) for the East Lansing campus and moving a portion of the College of Human Medicine to Grand Rapids.
MSU Provost Lou Anna K. Simon takes over the presidency Jan. 1.
"I have a number of activities that I'm engaged in, including continuing to focus on RIA. Dr. Simon will be the point person working on the medical school. I will be assisting her,'' McPherson said.
McPherson's five-year consulting contract allows him to take a single leave of absence of unspecified length to pursue other work or projects.
As president he earned $306,000 in salary, deferred compensation and life insurance coverage.
McPherson, a former deputy secretary of Treasury under President Reagan and a special assistant to President Ford, wouldn't respond to speculation that President Bush might appoint him to a post in his administration.
He spent six months in Iraq in 2003 as financial coordinator for the U.S. Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, creating a new currency and establishing a central bank after the U.S. invasion.
"It really has been my pattern now, and over the years, to never speculate about Washington appointments,'' he said.
U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, who has dealt with McPherson on federal higher education spending, said Bush will need people with McPherson's abilities in his second term.
"Peter McPherson has been a great university president, but his whole background in banking and finance, and then the great job he did over in Iraq, certainly makes him qualified to be considered for secretary of Treasury or director of the World Bank," Kildee said.
Supporters said he would be a strong candidate for any number of government positions, including a cabinet spot.
"I'm not privy to the Bush administration, but it wouldn't surprise me if his name was being kicked around. He's got great credentials,'' said longtime friend, C. Peter Magrath, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.
One of McPherson's sisters, Jenett Patrick, a retired teacher and real estate agent from Saranac, agreed.
"You've got to remember how Republican this family is, and all the things he's done would make me think he'd be very qualified,'' she said.
In addition, she said, his time in Iraq was dangerous and the 120-degree temperatures made it physically exhausting. She said he lost 36 pounds during his six-month stint.
"If you spent that much time in Iraq at his age, you'd need a reward,'' Patrick said.
McPherson starts Monday chairing the federal Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program Commission, aimed at expanding study abroad for students.
"This is exciting,'' McPherson said. "I'm really committed to see the country have a huge growth of students studying abroad.''
MSU sends 2,200 students to foreign study programs, the largest such program in the country.
McPherson said he will work out of the Washington offices of the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa, which he helped establish in 2000. Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas, serves on the group's executive committee, along with four African presidents. The offices are adjacent to MSU's Washington office a few blocks from the Capitol.
He also will chair a group called Harvest Plus, which is working to breed crops with more nutrients for poor countries.
"A lot of these voluntary functions have a real connection to the university,'' he said.
Terry Denbow, university spokesman, said the only thing McPherson won't do is retire.
"The word 'retire' is an oxymoron in any biography of Peter McPherson,'' he said.
%%bodyend%% Reporter Sarah Kellogg contributed to this report.
Reporter Sarah Kellogg contributed to this report.
