No pay, no responsibilities, no support staff. On the other hand it's impossible to be sacked, lavish meals in your honour are guaranteed, and the chancellorship of the University of Oxford remains if not the most powerful post in British academia - the vice-chancellor's job at Cambridge is probably that - then almost certainly the grandest.
And if none of that appealed to the people's choice, William Jefferson Clinton (University College, 1968-1970), his supporters were hoping that the fact that it involved an election may just swing it. A poll of 1,000 students in the university newspaper, Cherwell, published yesterday, made him the frontrunner by miles, with 48% of votes. He has public backing from Alan Ryan, the Americophile warden of New College. His daughter Chelsea is studying there. And the man in the King's Arms, Oxford's equivalent of the Clapham omnibus, was effusive.
"Everyone's very excited about the idea of Clinton," explained Andrew Zadel, 24, a Canadian MPhil student at St Anthony's college. 'We would make great gains in fundraising and he's very popular here - every time he comes to see his daughter, people talk about where he's gone.'
But last night such hopes seemed in vain. In a statement to the Guardian, Mr Clinton's office in New York appears to have all but ruled the former president out of the running. "He is very busy with the work of his foundation and this is not something he's considering," said his spokeswoman, Tammy Sun.
At some point soon, over two days during term time, one of which will be a Saturday but is otherwise identified, the university's convocation - graduates and senior staff of the university - will vote for a successor to Lord Jenkins, the latest in a line which includes Harold Macmillan, Oliver Cromwell, William Laud, Gilbert Sheldon and Robert Grosseteste, all the way back to at least Geoffrey de Lucy, some time before 1216.
In a move which might have amused Lord Jenkins, whose gargantuan report for the Blair government urging the introduction of proportional representation was rejected by the prime minister, the university council will consider changing the current first-past-the-post voting system which saw him win in 1987 with a minority of votes.
Even if Mr Clinton doesn't become the first American to hold the post, there are plenty of traditions ready to be broken. The chancellorship has never been held by a woman; and no non-Oxonian has been chancellor since the Duke of Wellington departed in 1852. But in Mr Clinton's assumed absence, academics and students look to less glamorous fare.
"Not everyone was aware that Lord Jenkins was an effective lobbyer behind the scenes," said William Straw, president of the Oxford University Student Union. "There's room for new ideas and initiatives, and there's no reason a new chancellor couldn't use the job to seriously pursue issues like student hardship and increasing the number of state school students."
Names in the frame include Baroness Williams, Somerville alumnus, fellow "Gang of Four" member with Lord Jenkins, professor at Harvard, but at 72 almost certainly too old. Perhaps the same problem affects 69-year-old Lord Heseltine (Pembroke).
Maybe someone in the university will be adventurous and try for Rupert Murdoch (Worcester college), or Tim Berners-Lee (Queen's college), who unlike Mr Clinton's vice-president really did invent the world wide web but lacks the public personality. Tony Blair (St John's) won't go for it, even though Lord Jenkins's predecessor, Macmillan, was elected while also prime minister. It was Macmillan's selection, in fact, which effectively divested the chancellorship of any of the last remnants of executive power.
Other names being bandied around include the former Irish president Mary Robinson, though she has no connection with the university. Lord Bingham, the law lord, is visitor at his old college Balliol and would be well-received - "vastly distinguished, humane, broadly apolitical, and very personable", said Dr Ryan last night. Susan Greenfield, professor of pharmacology, is touted by some, though not others. "She would be chancellor for something like 50 years given the life expectancy tables for highly intelligent and active non-drinkers," one college head said gloomily.
If there is an early favourite this side of the pond, it is probably Chris Patten (also Balliol) young enough, probably senior enough and - as a former governor of Hong Kong and EU commissioner - an old hand at ceremony and heavy meals. Yesterday Mr Patten seemed the favourite."I'm politically to the left, but he's the only one I could remotely see doing it", one fellow admitted.
But thus far the only candidate ready to put their name up, the Guardian can reveal, is yet another Balliol man, Howard Marks, the convicted drug dealer. Unlike Mr Clinton, he did inhale at Oxford - in fact he got busted for it. "I am giving a lecture there next Wednesday to the Law Society there. I go back there quite a lot actually," Mr Marks said. "If they offered it to me I'd certainly take it. I think Clinton's got the edge on me. But you don't want an American running the joint." His distinctive pitch to the university electors, he said, would be to "bring more of the town into the gown".
Go to the next item in Oxford's Carry on Chancellor romp.
Click for related items: A Tough Act to Follow by Donald Macleod, 7/1; Position Vacant by Rodrigo Davies, 8/1; Clinton the Wrong Man for Oxford by Catherine Bennett, 9/1; Students back Clinton by Rodrigo Davies, 16/1; Open to First Woman? by Rodrigo Davies, 17/1; How to become Chancellor by Will Woodward, 17/1; Chancellorship election rules (plus links for nomination forms etc.) OU Gazette, 23/1; Oxford race wide open The Times Higher (Education Supplement), 31/1.