University President David Glassman announced his intentions to retire in June 2023 pending a one-year contract offer from the Board of Trustees.

His current contract ends on May 31, 2022.

Glassman has served in his role as president since 2015, when he came in amid a state budget impasse that impacted the enrollment and finances of the university.

“Given my age, and that I’ve been in the higher education now, this will be my 42nd year, there comes a time (when I should be) turning attention to different opportunities, or attention to my family. It seems like a good time, you know, taking the university through budgetary impasse, and then setting the course for regrowing enrollment and solidifying academic excellence of our campus, and then now, going through COVID and helping to navigate the university through that,” Glassman said. “I think it’s probably the right time for me.”

After navigating the university through two crises, first a financial crisis and then a global pandemic, Glassman said the two had similarities and differences.

“The budgetary impasse was disappointing, because in my mind, in my view, it should never have happened. It was a political issue. And to have gone for two years without a budget was just an extremely difficult, unnecessary and crippling action, relative to our campus. And we have come back from that and we’re as strong as we are, but that, shouldn’t have ever happened,” Glassman said. “The pandemic has been equally challenging, but nobody caused it for any other reasons outside of the natural environment. And so, although it was unprecedented, and it certainly has not happened before in my lifetime, these are the challenges that we have to rise together and do what’s necessary to help ourselves and our university move forward and we’ve done an excellent job through it. And so I’m really proud of what we did in both the budgetary impasse, and the pandemic, both were very, very difficult. But the budgetary impasse, that just should never have occurred.”

Glassman said he believes there is a good chance he could be offered an extension on his contract but does not believe any changes would be made to the contract.

He said he informed the Board of his intention to retire after making the decision a week and a half ago.

“It’s kind of been a difficult decision because I said I was probably going to retire after my two-year extension,” Glassman said. “And they were hoping that I would stay… (but) when I notified them, the responses that I got were very complimentary and pleasing so that’s why I think that that they will (offer the extension).”

Glassman stated in his address that he is currently planning to retire from the presidency and return to the faculty and a professor of anthropology.

In Glassman’s current contract, he is granted tenure as a full professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, but is not expected to teach courses, conduct research or perform other tasks typically expected of full professors while he serves as president.

Corryn Brock can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].