WASHINGTON, 1 June — Former US President Bill Clinton is commanding huge fees on the lecture circuit, but is he scheduled for a fulltime engagement at the University of Arkansas?

Not quite. Former President Bill Clinton will indeed join the academic realm — but as the subject of a new class based entirely on his presidency, with all its bizarre and scandalous permutations.

“Of course, we will cover the scandal and the impeachment, and the politics of self-destruction during the 1990s,” says political science professor Margaret Scranton, who will teach the course.

“But the time of the tabloids has passed. It’s time for the scholars to take over and put it all into perspective, looking at the presidency, the person and the office itself. That’s what scholars do,” says Scranton.

Scranton, who is a Republican, intends to show both the man and his times — from his down-home roots to early campaigns for Arkansas governor, and on to the White House. The university’s course catalogue says the class will peruse the “diversity and talent factor of the Clinton Cabinets,” an examination of his policies, plus a whole section on “crisis management” of Whitewater, the Monica Lewinsky matter and other travails.

“We’ll conclude with the Clinton legacy, though we really don’t know what that legacy will be yet,” Scranton says.

Will the man from Hope, Arkansas himself attend?

“That’s one speaker we have for sure,” says Scranton. “Bill Clinton will lecture at one class, at least,” she said. “We’d also like to try for campaign managers like James Carville or Paul Begala, and former Cabinet members.”

Clinton’s opponents may give lectures to the class as well. Scranton thinks former Arkansas Republican congressman Asa Hutchinson is a strong possibility. She also has her eye on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) as a guest lecturer.

Scranton’s class is the first Clinton-based university course in Arkansas, but certainly not in the country. The University of Buffalo, for example, offered “Clinton: A Philosophical Exploration.”

Clinton is pleased about it all. “I hear through the grapevine that this has made him pretty happy,” Scranton says.