Alabama State Officials Contact Mike Espy About Presidency
MONTGOMERY, Ala.
Two officials of Alabama State University say they have contacted former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy in an effort to interest him in filling the vacancy for president.
Trustee Donald Watkins says he and state Rep. John Knight, an administrator at the university here, contacted Espy and invited him to apply in mid-September. They also met with Espy in Jackson, Miss., and had a “healthy dialogue” about him considering the post.
“He said, ‘Let me think about it and let me talk about it with my family,'” Watkins says.
Watkins says no contact has been made with Espy since that meeting and neither he nor Knight has sought other candidates.
Espy, who served in the Clinton administration, now practices law in Jackson.
Alabama State trustees voted 7-4 on Sept. 26 to offer the presidency to Nathan Essex, interim president of Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis, Tenn. Essex declined the Montgomery job, saying Alabama State needed a president quickly and he had timing issues that prevented him from accepting.
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