Joe Glover selected as next University of Arizona provost

Former University of Florida Provost Joe Glover has been named the next senior vice president of academic affairs and provost at the University of Arizona. 

Following 15 years as UF’s provost, Glover stepped down from the position in July. He continued to serve the university as a senior advisor to President Ben Sasse. He will begin his new role leading Arizona’s academic enterprise on July 1.  

“Joe is a special guy,” Sasse said. “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.”

Glover is credited with helping transform UF into an academic powerhouse and guiding it through a period of unprecedented growth, with notable milestones such as UF’s rise to a top-five institution, an enhanced undergraduate experience, and the implementation of the artificial intelligence-across-the-curriculum initiative, which Glover personally pioneered.

Glover first came to UF in 1983 from the University of Rochester to serve as an assistant professor of mathematics. Throughout the next four decades, he took on several department, college, and university leadership positions, 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, he supervised the allocation of resources in academic areas, improvements in and coordination of instructional activities, development and improvement of research activities, and evaluation of university academic activity.

During his tenure, Glover led or contributed to several innovative programs and achievements, including the birth of UF Online, significant faculty hiring plans, the PaCE admissions program, UF's reaccreditation, 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. “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.”