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.

So far, Alutto has used the interim job as a soapbox for keeping Ohio State affordable and making sure it's a university that delivers once students get here.

"It's access to excellence. It's not access to mediocrity," Alutto told The Associated Press in an interview. "If we're reaching out to bright students and saying, 'Come to Ohio State,' we then have an obligation to create an absolutely world-class environment."

The business school endowment, which funds student scholarships, professors' salaries and various programs at the school, is about $141 million, up from just $18 million when Alutto became dean in 1991.

Alutto also oversaw a campaign that raised $45 million for the construction of five new business school buildings.