Ten years ago this month, Robert Glidden accepted the position of Ohio University's 19th President. Within weeks of acquiring the job, he outlined a series of goals he wanted to accomplish during his tenure.
The Board of Trustees, the presidential search committee and the OU campus all suggested goals to Glidden, such as technology improvements, changes in General Education requirements and increasing the number of minority students and faculty.
But the unpredictable budget has been a problem for some of those goals. At the start of his tenure, the economy and the university were just entering a boom period that peaked in the late 1990s. The last few years have been the beginning of a long period of difficult economic times
Glidden said.
I would have liked to give more money to expand the number of faculty increase salary raises and work on minority recruitment Glidden said.
The tumultuous economic times have led to an increase in tuition costs and a reduction of construction plans. Since the 1994-95 school year, tuition has doubled. Increases in the early part of Glidden's tenure were an additional $100 or less per quarter. The last three years have seen increases of more than $200 per quarter.
He has said he dislikes such steady tuition increases and is a stalwart supporter of higher education funding. The leadership he has provided in the state is recognized all over Ohio
said Provost Stephen Kopp.
Several administrators, including Glidden, agree that although progress has been made in the areas outlined ten years ago, there is always room for improvement.
With the initiatives that have been put into place over the last several years
this university is really poised to leap-frog other comparable universities and much of that can be attributed to Glidden
Kopp said.
Technology and development
In 1994, OU had no university-wide information network. One priority was increasing technology to the campus. Now every dorm room is equipped with a computer and Internet access, each student has a university e-mail account and technology for student learning, such as Blackboard, has grown every year.
We've come light-years under his watch
said Thomas Hodson, E.W. Scripps School of Journalism director and a member of the search committee that chose Glidden. He upgraded the entire infrastructure.
Glidden said increasing technology through departments like the Center for Innovation in Technology Learning is a pet project of his.
The trustees also requested an increase in development for Southeast Ohio. Some programs such as construction on East State Street have encountered opposition, Hodson said, but plans for economic development have made great strides
We need to extend the university to the community
Glidden said. Everything from economic development to community service
and I think we've done fairly well in that regard
although we can never do enough.
Minority enrollment and faculty
One area in which Glidden said he did not succeed is recruiting minority students and faculty members. Promoting diversity is one of the goals for the next president, listed in the job description.
There has been a lot of discourse about diversity on campus and conversations about it and committees established
said Vibert Cambridge, chair of the African-American studies department. These talks have spawned reports and studies.
A few years ago a faculty survey evaluated the importance of African-American studies at OU and found that the majority of participants felt continued support was important.
'We have set in place a number of supports, studies and mechanisms and one hopes that the next administration would operationalize the thinking of this administration. So much has been put into place, Cambridge said.
