TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - Arizona State University has denied a published news report that ASU President Michael Crow is a candidate for the University of California presidency.
The Mercury News reported Thursday that Crow was a candidate to replace Janet Napolitano when she steps down this summer as president of the UC system.
The Bay Area newspaper attributed the information to unidentified Pacific-12 Conference sources and said one source called Crow “a leading candidate.”
ASU spokeswoman Katie Paque said Crow wasn’t a candidate for the California post and that he was “committed to ASU and Arizona,” Phoenix radio station KTAR reported. The Mercury News reported a similar denial from Paquet.
Crow has presided over massive growth of ASU since becoming president in 2002, the same year that Napolitano was elected governor of Arizona. She left Arizona in 2009 to become President Barack Obama’s first Homeland Security secretary.
Napolitano became UC president in 2013. She announced in September that she plans to step down from the UC presidency in August.
The Los Angeles Times reported in November that Crow, a native Californian, was often mentioned as a potential candidate for the UC presidency.
The UC Board of Regents is expected to name a president this spring, the Mercury News reported.
Crow previously held top posts at Columbia University.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.