Jeffrey Sachs is perfectly happy to be an economics professor at Columbia University. But if a group of students had their way, he’d be the leader of the free world.

Led by Victoria Zyp (GRD ’08), a group of more than a dozen students began pushing Sachs as a non-mainstream candidate for president. Sachs has gained prominence for his research on poverty.

“He teaches about global poverty and the environment and is both a statesman and a scholar,” Zyp said. “That’s exactly what this country needs.”

Sachs served as director of the United Nations Millennium Project from 2002-06 and works as a special adviser to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Unfortunately for his most hard-core supporters, however, that’s as far as he wants to take his political career for now.

“Unfortunately, Sachs’s office sent us a message saying that he is flattered by the offer but will decline to run for president,” Zyp said.

The grassroots movement began on Facebook and around the blogosphere, Zyp said. The group has also been promoting itself through its Web site and is trying to start up groups on college campuses, having already launched “Sachs for President” organizations at Georgetown, Princeton and several other universities.

Although Sachs has opted to continue teaching his economics classes next fall, Zyp’s grassroots group does not plan to give up the fight. Their political action committee is still up and running, looking for candidates who promote the same values as Sachs.

“We will move toward working for other political campaigns or groups, and we hope we can find someone who will take courageous stands on issues,” she said.

Zyp said that even though Sachs will not run, she promoted the movement in part because she wanted to inform people about the work Sachs has been doing, and hopes to continue doing so.