Milton D. Glick, President

Dr. Milton “Milt” D. Glick was appointed the 15th president of the University of Nevada, Reno in May 2006 and assumed office on Aug. 1, 2006.

Since coming to the University of Nevada, Dr. Glick’s tenure has been marked by numerous campus milestones, with an increased emphasis on student success and creating what he has termed “a sticky campus” – a dynamic place where both the student body and the community feel engaged and excited. His efforts to enhance the educational experience at Nevada have included the opening of several major student-centered buildings, the recruitment of a record-breaking number of National Merit Scholars to the Reno campus, and major efforts to create a “culture of completion” on campus reflected through higher graduation rates, greater post-graduate success and the creation of a more culturally diverse campus. He has managed to make progress in the face of one of the most challenging economic periods in the nation’s history.

Under Dr. Glick’s leadership, the campus has seen the grand openings of a new student union, the Joe Crowley Student Union, in 2007, as well as a new facility, the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center (a mammoth 295,000-square-foot structure that is considered one of the nation’s most technologically advanced libraries and reflects the convergence of the book, the library and technology), in 2008. Another capital project, the Davidson Math and Science Center, which will be fully operational in 2010, will bring the campus much-needed undergraduate classroom and laboratory space. Future capital projects will emphasize the University of Nevada Medical School and the University’s Division of Health Sciences in an effort to increase the number of M.D.’s and nurses the University produces, as well as to improve the efficiency of health care delivery and to enhance health-related research for the state of Nevada’s rapidly growing population.

Through the recruitment of a record number of National Merit Scholars, Dr. Glick has shepherded the University through a period of unprecedented growth. Upon assuming the presidency, Dr. Glick issued a campus-wide challenge to recruit more National Merit Scholars. In two years, Nevada met the college sponsorship requirements of the National Merit Scholarship Program by enrolling a minimum of six National Merit finalists each year – a first in University history. Under Dr. Glick’s watch, Nevada has recruited more than 20 National Merit Scholars, as well as more than 90 Presidential Scholars, both records for Nevada’s oldest institution of higher learning.
Dr. Glick has set clear thresholds for measuring the University’s success in key areas, such as growing student enrollment, making scholarship monies more easily accessible for students through innovative programs such as Wolf Pack Advantage, and improving University retention and diversity rates. Dr. Glick’s increased emphasis in these areas is working, even in volatile economic times. For example, in fall 2008, overall enrollment continued to increase, to 16,867 students; the number of credit hours students took in fall 2008 increased two percent, a notable figure given the University’s recent encouragement of students to complete their degrees in a timely fashion, with four years as a goal; and finally, an increase to 23 percent of the number of new freshmen in fall 2008 who identified themselves as students of color.

Prior to becoming Nevada’s chief executive, Dr. Glick served 15 years as executive vice president and provost at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz. During his tenure at Arizona State – first as senior vice president and, later, as executive vice president and provost – Arizona State experienced a 20 percent improvement in its freshman retention rate, a 15 percent improvement in its graduation rate, and a doubling of the number of minorities enrolled. The Tempe campus became the largest in the United States in terms of enrollment, and the number of National Merit Scholars rose from about a dozen to more than 500. Funding for sponsored research tripled, and ASU recruited 10 faculty with prestigious national academy memberships, and one Nobel Laureate. Before Dr. Glick assumed his role at Arizona State, he spent three years as provost at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. He was interim president of Iowa State for the final eight months. His first senior administrative position was dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo., in the mid-1980s. As Missouri’s dean of the College of Arts and Science, Dr. Glick was responsible for many advances, including a writing-across-the-curriculum program that became a model for other universities. He attracted much attention by placing a networked computer in the office of every faculty member of the college – a revolutionary idea at the time.

A native of Rock Island, Ill., Dr. Glick was raised in the Quad Cities area along the Illinois-Iowa border. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Augustana College in Rock Island in 1959, he earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisc., in 1965. Following two years of postdoctoral studies at Cornell University, he joined the chemistry faculty at Wayne State University in Detroit. He remained at Wayne State for 17 years. During that time he became a leader of the faculty senate, and during his final five years served as chair of the chemistry department. In the initial phase of his academic career, Glick was a noted researcher in the field of X-ray crystallography. His work was funded for 15 consecutive years by National Science Foundation funding and he published 99 research articles during that time.  

Dr. Glick has earned a reputation as one of the most able, affable, tech-savvy and passionate administrators in public higher education. He has been a technology consultant and is a senior fellow of the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, which conducts research on the roles and implications of information technology in higher education. He describes himself as both a technophile and a “technoskeptic” – optimistic about the possibilities of technology but pessimistic about whether higher education will utilize technology effectively.