Rao will fill a position vacated by William Sederburg, former president of Ferris State University. Sederburg is the new president at Utah Valley State College.

Rao will serve the remainder of the term, which ends Dec. 31.

“President Rao is a champion for higher education and will help provide an avenue for families in Michigan to invest in their children’s future,” said Liz Boyd, Granholm’s press secretary. “Certainly he’s an excellent candidate to represent four-year public colleges and universities in Michigan.”

The MET is a state government plan that allows families to pay today’s tuition rates for tomorrow’s educaton.

The MET focuses on protecting families from increasing tuition costs by investing fixed amounts of money, which will create a growing reserve guaranteeing a designated amount in the future.

State policy requires one member of the board to be a president at a four-year public college or university, said Robin McMillan, MET executive director.

“It’s a pleasure to have him on the board and we feel he’ll do a great job for us, because it is an important position,” she said. “I look very much forward to working with him and I think he'll bring a lot of knowledge and experience to the board.”

Rao agreed to serve the volunteer position after being asked by Granholm, said Mike Silverthorn, Public Relations and Marketing executive director of news services.

“President Rao is honored to have been asked to serve by Gov. Granholm and he’s looking forward to contributing to the board,” Silverthorn said.

Rao’s is a volunteer position, but an appropriate position, Silverthorn said, because he will represent the interest of four-year public colleges and universities on this board.

“When I gauge his areas of expertise, this is something he’s very much interested in, so it’s something he’s really looking forward to doing,” Silverthorn said.

McMillan said Rao will meet four times a year with the other eight board members. The board will provide oversight and direction to the MET program.

“We don’t take up that much of his time,” she said. “We basically meet four times a year, and our longest meeting is the one we just had, which lasted two hours and 15 minutes.”

McMillan said duties of the board include setting enrollment periods, contract prices, advising investment strategies and advising the overall operations of MET.

McMillan said she considers herself the 10th member of the board. It is her duty to implement policies decided by the board, she said.

Rao was nominated for the position by Mike Boulus, executive director of the Presidents Council State Universities of Michigan.

“Basically it was a choice that I made,” Boulus said. “Knowing what they were looking for, I submitted President Rao’s name to the governor’s appointment secretary.”

Boulus said his experience as executive director of the Presidents Council for nine months has allowed him to work with Rao on various projects.

“I think very much of him and I think he’ll do a very responsible job of representing us and our needs and the students needs,” he said. “I have a great deal of respect for your president.”

Boulus said the MET program is similar to the Michigan Education Savings Program — a flat amount is paid, guaranteeing a designated tuition in the future.

“They play a pretty important role in the whole issue of college savings, it’s a wonderful program,” he said. “You pay today's rates for a guaranteed tomorrow's.”

Boulus said it is the board’s job to make financial decisions on how much a family will have to pay to guarantee a future.