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PRESIDENTIAL DEPARTURE: McPherson to leave 'U'

Campus leader held top job for more than 10 years

May 7, 2004
MSU President M. Peter McPherson, left, and MSU Board of Trustees Chairperson David Porteous laugh at a question that was posed during a press conference at Breslin Center on Friday. Earlier in the day at the university convocation ceremony, McPherson announced he will to leave his post as president on Jan. 1, 2005. —

MSU President M. Peter McPherson announced Friday that he plans to step down from his position at the university on Jan. 1, 2005, but wouldn't elaborate much on his future career plans.

His announcement came at the university's convocation ceremony after a speech from National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

"Honestly, I never though I'd be here 11 years," he said at a press conference after the ceremony. "Every decade or so, it's important to have new ideas."

McPherson, who has been president of MSU since Oct. 1, 1993, said he's interested in public service, specifically aiding third-world regions, such as countries in Africa.

"I don't ever want to retire," he said. "I'm just not the type to retire."

He said he had been tossing around the idea of leaving for about a year and wanted to give the MSU Board of Trustees ample time to find his replacement.

McPherson, MSU's 19th president, is the longest-serving MSU president since John Hannah, who served from 1941 until 1969.

During McPherson's tenure, ACT scores and grade-point averages for entering freshmen have reached an all-time high, and MSU's Office of Study Abroad has grown to include programs on all seven continents.

Under the leadership of both McPherson and Provost Lou Anna Simon, the university has expanded its building space and created many new colleges. Simon served as interim president when McPherson left MSU last year to serve as the financial coordinator for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq.

Simon said she wouldn't comment on whether she would be interested in the role permanently if it were extended to her.

"I'm really not going to speculate," she said. "I'll reassess my own circumstances in the upcoming months."

Two years ago, speculation surrounded then-Gov. John Engler as a possible successor to McPherson. When Democratic Trustee Robert Weiss was appointed to a Genesee County judgeship, Engler appointed Randall Pittman, a Republican, to take his place. The board shifted from a 4-4 split of Republicans and Democrats to being 5-3, in favor of Republicans.

The shift in power caused many to suggest Engler was setting the stage for a presidential bid.

Engler denied the rumors then, and on Friday, people close to him said he's not interested in the job.

"John Engler is not going to be president of Michigan State University," said longtime friend Richard McLellan, an attorney for Lansing law firm Dykema Gossett. "I've known him for many, many years and I know that like a lot of us, we could be a great fan of MSU and not want to be the president of MSU.

"I think John Engler is in that category."

McPherson said when he was in Iraq, he really began to think about leaving MSU to pursue other things.

"It was a very intense experience," he said. "I'll be 64 next fall. I have a lot of things I want to do yet."

And he has a lot of things he needs to finish at MSU before he leaves in 2005, he said. During Friday's board meeting, the MSU Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution stating that it was in favor of moving parts of MSU's College of Human Medicine to Grand Rapids.

McPherson also has been working on trying to bring the Rare Isotope Accelerator, or RIA, to MSU. The accelerator is a $1 billion U.S. Department of Energy nuclear science project.

"I am intensely committed to working through both the medical school issue and RIA," he said, adding that both will go on as planned, despite his recent announcement.

Howard Gobstein, MSU assistant vice president for governmental affairs in Washington, D.C., said McPherson's presence was vital to RIA.

"I don't think we'd be where we are with RIA if it weren't for, first, the technical excellence of the lab, but also President McPherson's skills in helping us to work through the Washington labyrinth," he said.

But McPherson's absence from MSU won't hurt the momentum of the project, he said.

"Although Peter has been an incredible leader, as we come to this next stage, we're going to come to a technical competition.

"I would suspect that the larger part of this is going to happen while Peter's still involved with Michigan State."

And while Gobstein said news of the departure announcement came suddenly, he's not surprised to see McPherson go.

"Peter has had an extraordinary run of leadership at Michigan State," he said. "I think, although all of us would have hoped he'd stayed and perhaps even retired as president of Michigan State, he's been there and he's really contributed a long time."

State Sen. Virg Bernero, D-Lansing, expressed outrage at McPherson's departure announcement, especially since it came only hours after the trustees voted to move the university's medical school.

Bernero has publicly opposed the plan to move the school and issued a statement and letter to David Porteous, chairman of the MSU Board of Trustees, asking the board to rescind its vote.

"I think the Board of Trustees was either duped or part of a conspiracy of silence," he said. "They know damn well (his departure) would have overshadowed (the medical school move)."

He said the vote might have been different if McPherson's impending departure had been made public before trustees met.

"If this vote holds, we're going to be in the middle of a major transition at the university and a presidential search," he said. "This was the president's baby, and now he's not going to be there to shepherd it, through."

McPherson's future plans remain a mystery, although he has suggested working in public service of some sort. Since his trip to Iraq, many have suggested McPherson might be a candidate for a post in the Bush administration or a job in the private sector of Washington, D.C.

In an interview with The State News in April, McPherson said he has not been offered a job by President Bush, although he receives occasional interest from various organizations in the nation's capital.

"He knows an awful lot of people here," Gobstein said about the possibility of McPherson working in Washington. "Your guess is as good as mine."

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