Poshard named president of SIU

~ The former U.S. representative said he couldn't think of a better job opportunity.

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Glenn Poshard, a former congressman and one-time Democratic candidate for governor, has been selected as the new president of the 35,000-student Southern Illinois University system, SIU's board of trustees announced Friday.

After the public announcement at the university's flagship Carbondale campus, Poshard said he couldn't think of a better job opportunity.

"This is what I want to do," said Poshard, who assumes the post on Jan. 1 and will make a $292,000 annual salary. "I'm here, and I want to spend the rest of my career here."

In an e-mail to faculty and staff at SIU's Edwardsville campus, Roger Tedrick, chairman of the board of trustees, called Poshard "a uniquely qualified individual who not only knows where SIU has been, but where it would like to go."

Poshard, who has had a four-decade relationship with SIU, succeeds James E. Walker, who announced in June that he would retire next year after six years as chief executive of the university system, which has an annual budget of roughly $665 million.

Walker is on medical leave, fighting prostate cancer. Duane Stucky, the school's vice president for financial and administrative affairs, has served as interim president in Walker's absence.

Poshard, the only person who had publicly announced he was seeking the position, launched his quest for it in June when he resigned as chairman of the university's board of trustees.

"It's rewarding to see the university turn to one of its own and recognize his particular talents and passion for the university," said Ed Buerger, executive director of the SIU Alumni Association.

Poshard, who served five terms in Congress and was a member of the state legislature before that, got a bachelor's degree in secondary education from the school in 1970, a master's degree in educational administration in 1974 and a doctorate in administration of higher education a decade later.

After losing the gubernatorial race to Republican George Ryan in 1998, Poshard served four years as vice chancellor at the Carbondale campus before stepping down from that post last year.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich had named Poshard to the board of trustees in January 2004, then reappointed the White County native now living near Carbondale to a second term that was to expire in 2011.

Poshard said a Thursday news conference meant to introduce him as the new president was canceled because he was briefly hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat. The condition should not interfere with his job as SIU president, he said.

Besides its main campus in Carbondale and sister campus in Edwardsville near St. Louis, the SIU system has a medical school in Springfield and a dental school in Alton. SIU also operates off-campus degree programs in various areas of Illinois and 33 military bases in 18 states.

The Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses have more than $124 million in combined assets.