Senior vice president for government affairs Herb Asher set to retire

Logan Hickman
Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:35:08 +0000
Campus, News, gordon gee, Herb Asher, ohio state, osu, senior vice president for government affairs

Herb Asher, an OSU professor emeritus and senior vice president for government relations announced he is retiring.
Courtesy of OSU

Herb Asher, professor emeritus of political science, counselor to Ohio State’s president and senior vice president for government affairs, announced Friday that he plans to retire.

Asher’s retirement will be effective Jan. 30, according to a Friday OSU release.

OSU spokesman Chris Davey said Asher’s replacement will be announced “in the near future” when asked in a Friday morning email.

Despite his announcement, Asher said he will stay on campus for occasional teaching and will work on a book about OSU during former President E. Gordon Gee’s second term as president, the release said. It also noted that Asher will remain an adviser at the request of OSU President Michael Drake.

“In my brief time at Ohio State, Herb has demonstrated his institutional knowledge, political instincts and commitment to the mission of the university,” Drake said in the release. “His learned counsel has been a great asset for many years, and he will continue to be involved in the academic life of the university as a scholar, writer and professor emeritus of political science.”

Asher came to OSU in 1970. He has worked for eight permanent and interim OSU presidents “focusing both on internal campus issues and external government relations,” the release said.

Asher worked as a leader for OSU’s relationships with different levels of government in addition to serving as the founding director as what is now the John Glenn School of Public Affairs.

“I have been blessed to be at a superb university, to be in a political science department that is internationally distinguished, to have worked for so many outstanding university leaders and to have taught so many talented students,” he said in the release.

Asher made a base salary of $236,385 in 2013.

Gee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Asher’s retirement or plans to write a book about his second presidency at OSU.