Robert Glidden was president of Ohio University from 1994 until his retirement in 2004, and interim president of California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo from August 2010 to February 2011. He holds the title of President Emeritus of both institutions.
At Ohio University, a public research-extensive institution with 20,000 students in Athens, OH and 9,000 students on five regional campuses, Dr. Glidden led strategic planning efforts to engage the community and focus Ohio’s mission as one of America’s top research universities. He oversaw Ohio’s technological development and established its Office of Nationally Competitive Awards, resulting in more prestigious national scholarship awards for the University than any other institution in Ohio. He also led a successful $200M campaign to commemorate the University’s bicentennial.
While at Ohio University Dr. Glidden was a member of the Ohio Governor’s Science and Technology Council and chaired the Ohio Aerospace Institute. He chaired the Mid-American (Athletics) Conference and the Inter-University Council of Ohio, served on the Board of Directors for Ohio Campus Compact, and was a member of the Ohio Higher Education Funding Commission from its inception in 1996 through 2004. He served as chair of the American Council on Education’s Commission on Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness and on ACE’s Advisory Committee for the Center on Policy Analysis. He has facilitated a number of ACE presidential roundtables and he continues to work with the ACE Fellows program as a mentor and leadership coach.
Before his two presidencies, Dr. Glidden was at Florida State University as provost and vice president for academic affairs (1991-94), and as professor and dean of the School of Music (1979-91). He was on the faculties at Wright State and Indiana Universities and the University of Oklahoma, and, in the late 1970s was dean of music at Bowling Green State University. He served as executive director of the National Association of Schools of Music and National Association of Schools of Art in Washington (1972-75) and as President of Pi Kappa Lambda, the national honor society in music.
President Glidden has been a consultant or evaluator for more than 80 colleges and universities across the United States. He has been active in higher education accreditation in the U.S. and abroad throughout his career. He served a term as chair of the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation and was founding chair of the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). He served on CHEA’s board for eight years and now serves on the American Bar Association Accreditation Committee. He has twice conducted higher education quality assessments for the Republic of Ireland, most recently chairing a team of Europeans in the evaluation of the Dublin City University during Spring 2010, and he has delivered papers on various aspects of American higher education in both Europe and Asia.
A native of Iowa, he holds the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D degrees in music from the University of Iowa. He and his wife René live near Lexington, Virginia. They have three children and five grandchildren.
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