COLUMBUS Ohio
Ohio State’s
acting president said the temporary nature of his job hasn’t stopped
well-meaning alumni from offering suggestions.
One of the first e-mails Joseph Alutto received after being
appointed interim president last month was from an alumnus suggesting he open
up campus parking to all comers.
“All I could think about was, ‘Boy, that would be one
mark that I could make on this place,'” Alutto said Tuesday with a laugh,
envisioning the controversy on the crowded campus, the nation’s largest.
Alutto, former dean of OSU’s Max
M. Fisher College
of Business, combines stellar academic credentials with powerhouse fundraising.
His background is the perfect description for the full-time job of president, a
position Alutto says he’s not seeking.
Alutto, who grew the business school’s endowment by more
than 600 percent, is also acting provost, the university’s top academic post
and the No. 2 job after president. That’s the position Alutto says he’s
interested in once trustees select a new chief of the university.
The search for the next president is going well, said Alex
Shumate, the Columbus lawyer
directing the university search committee. He would not comment further. Karen
Holbrook retired this summer after five years.
