Whether it is by plane, train or automobile, President Robert Glidden is constantly trekking around the world for Ohio University.
On average, Glidden will be on a business trip one or two days a week and sometimes more. All his voyages are strictly business- oriented as well - never for pleasure.
Many of my trips are business meetings
Glidden wrote in an e-mail. But most of my travel has to do with development and raising funds for the Bicentennial campaign.
The OU Foundation funds a university travel budget that makes all these trips possible. Glidden also serves in several organizations, such as the Board of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation in Washington, that help pay for his ventures.
Recently Glidden traveled to Miami, Fla., for an annual meeting of the American Council on Education. Following the meeting, he skipped over to Sarasota to volunteer at a winter workshop for the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. The day after Glidden returned from a week of meetings and workshops in Florida, he was off to Chillicothe for a Saturday morning of bicentennial events.
For his closer business trips, Glidden takes a Lexus GS300 received on allowance from the university foundation. When he goes on cross-country or international excursions, he often takes the newly purchased OU plane.
Because of the market right now we were able to get a very favorable deal on the new plane by trading in the older planes Glidden wrote.
According to Glidden, the two previous planes were more than 20 years old and down for service more than 20 percent of the time. Because both planes had major repair bills approaching, the university decided last fall to trade the planes in for a new plane with a 10-year warranty.
But Glidden isn't the only one who uses the plane for travel. Linda Stroh, director of airport operations said faculty and staff members also use the plane to go to meetings with others in their field.
When it comes to international travel Glidden has gone as far as Leipzig, Germany; Hong Kong; Japan and China. Glidden cites his trip to Thailand as his favorite of all his travels. While in Thailand, the OU president did business with Bangkok University and awarded an honorary degree to the King of Thailand.
But all of this traveling does not affect Glidden's ability to tend to business on campus. President Glidden always keeps a firm foot at OU, no matter how far he travels.
Because our president is extremely comfortable with different levels of communication
he is more in touch when he is away from campus than some folks are on campus
even in the midst of a busy schedule
said Crompton Burton, associate vice president of University Communications and Marketing.
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Blake Gillespie
