MU introduces interim president

ROLLA, Mo. -- The job of interim president of the University of Missouri system comes with few guarantees -- and that's fine with Gordon Lamb.

"The main thing is to make a good, smooth transition," said Lamb, introduced Friday as Elson Floyd's temporary successor. Floyd will remain in Columbia for the next month advising Lamb before he assumes the presidency of Washington State University.

Lamb, 72, said he has no interest in a permanent job at University Hall in Columbia.

"I'm not a candidate for the presidency," he said during a news conference at the system's Rolla campus.

Curators voted unanimously in a closed-door meeting Wednesday night to hire Lamb, who spent 14 months in 1999-2000 as interim chancellor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He will earn $382,000 annually -- the same amount Floyd receives.

Curator chairman Don Walsworth, who also heads the presidential search committee, hopes Lamb won't be around long enough to collect a full year's pay. But while curators are eager to hire Floyd's permanent replacement, they won't publicly identify a timetable for that process.

"This is a tremendously important job," Walsworth said. "The new president is going to have a profound impact on this university system for the next 20 to 25 years. We're not going to rush this."