The University of Arizona has named former University of Florida Provost Joe Glover its next senior vice president of academic affairs and provost.
He will begin his new role leading Arizona’s academic enterprise on July 1.
Glover spent a record 15 years as provost at UF. In January 2023, shortly before incoming UF President Ben Sasse took office, Glover announced plans to step down in July.
Glover continued to serve the university as a senior advisor to Sasse, who named UF/IFAS head J. Scott Angle as the new provost.
“Joe is a special guy,” Sasse said in a UF press release. “The important work he spearheaded here at the University of Florida will have a lasting impact. We wish him the best at Arizona and are grateful that he’ll always be a Gator.”
UF credits Glover with helping “transform UF into an academic powerhouse” and guiding it through a period of significant growth. Milestones under Glover included UF’s rise to a top-five public institution, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings.
He also worked to enhance undergraduate experience and led the implementation of UF’s artificial intelligence-across-the-curriculum initiative.
Glover came to UF from the University of Rochester to take a job as an assistant professor of mathematics in 1983. According to a UF release, he served in several leadership positions over the next four decades, including chair of the mathematics department, associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, associate provost for academic affairs, and interim provost.
He became provost and senior vice president for academic affairs in 2008. As the second-ranking officer of the university under then-President Bernie Machen, Glover supervised UF’s academic activity, research, and the allocation of resources in academic areas.
Glover served as provost for all of Kent Fuchs’ presidency (2015-2023), during which UF rose from No. 17 to No. 5 in the rankings of top public universities.
The Fuchs/Glover administration also included a controversy that made national headlines, after UF prevented three professors from testifying in a voting rights case against the state. UF reversed its decision amid public pressure, but the professors sued the board of trustees, Fuchs and Glover to prevent similar use of the school’s conflict of interest policy.
UF credited Glover with contributing to several key programs, including the birth of UF Online, the PaCE admissions program, the Innovation Academy, and Moonshot research initiatives with the vice president for research.
“It has been my great privilege and honor to have been a member of UF’s faculty for 42 years,” Glover said in a statement. “If I have been able to help UF achieve some of its dreams during my 15 years as provost, it was due largely to the remarkably talented faculty, staff, and students at this university. When the time comes for retirement, I will look forward to returning to Gainesville to renew old acquaintances and make new friends.”