Mar 6
2024
Controversy around incoming Buff State president
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Editor’s note: Story has been updated to reflect new information and to correct the name of a faculty group.
Some faculty at the University of Houston-Victoria are raising ethical concerns about their provost, Chance Glenn, selected to head Buffalo State University later this year.
The concerns are over potential conflicts involving Glenn’s university position and his work with a private research corporation he founded, according to a March 2 article in Victoria Advocate.
“We’re calling for an interim provost by the end of March,” Jeff Blodgett, a marketing professor at the Texas university, told Investigative Post. “We’re supposed to be above the fray.”
Glenn didn’t respond to requests for comment from Investigative Post, but was quoted in Victoria Advocate saying that some Houston-Victoria faculty are leading a “crusade” against him.
Complaints against Chance Glenn, who’s set to become Buffalo State’s 10th president in July, are coming from a small group of faculty with “personal gripes,” UHV President Robert Glenn, no relation, said Friday.
The president praised Glenn’s tenure at UHV, and said it would be “inappropriate and unjust” if Glenn’s appointment as Buffalo State University president were to be jeopardized by a disgruntled few on the Texas campus.
“He’s a good man, a good scholar, a good provost,” President Glenn said.
At the center of the controversy is Glenn’s use of university research space, time and equipment for his private research, Blodgett said. However, UHV’s president gave written permission for Glenn to use university space for the private research, documents the university released show.
The University of Houston has reviewed the situation. Compliance issues regarding Glenn “have been resolved. There is nothing pending,” according to a university communications official.
State University of New York is also reviewing the matter. “SUNY maintains high ethical standards for all its employees, and we are reviewing the article,” said SUNY Chief Communications Officer Lane Filler.
President Glenn, who initially declined comment when contacted by Investigative Post, on Friday said news reports inaccurately linked a faculty vote recently taken on the provost position to complaints from disgruntled faculty.
The resolution voted upon asks the president to appoint as soon as possible a new provost, who would work with the current provost “to get him up to speed” before provost Glenn leaves for Buffalo, the president said.
“While the resolution indicates the faculty expect high ethical standards, there is no direct or indirect statement related to the provost’s ethics,” the president wrote in an email. “Rather it is a direct request to me to appoint an interim provost.”
But Blodgett, an outspoken critic of provost Glenn, said ethical concerns were talked about in the discussion leading up to the vote.
“They are splitting hairs,” Blodgett said. “You don’t have to list in a resolution everything you are concerned about.”
President Glenn also said the vote was taken by the faculty council — not the faculty senate, as was originally reported.
In addition, the president questioned Blodgett’s credibility, saying he’s “looking to do harm” against the provost, who removed Blodgett as interim dean of the business school.
“He was appointed interim dean for a period of time,” President Glenn said. “During that time, we received a very large number of complaints, so we made a decision to let him go back to faculty. Dr. Blodgett took offense.”
Blodgett said his faculty status is irrelevant to concerns about the provost.
“I was interim dean. He and I butted heads,” Blodgett said, referring to provost Glenn. “Even if that’s true. It doesn’t matter. The facts are the facts.”
The meeting when the resolution was taken up was attended by around a third of the university’s 130 faculty and resulted in a unanimous vote by acclamation, according to two attendees, including Blodgett. However, President Glenn, who was not in attendance, contended the vote was not unanimous since all faculty members did not attend the session, and some there may not have voted.
In addition to serving as provost, Glenn, who has a doctorate in engineering, owns Morningbird Media Corp. in Victoria, Texas. The corporation has been the recipient of several grants dating back to 2016, according to the corporation’s website.
That funding – including programs from NASA – totals more than $1 million.
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In the fall of 2023, Morningbird Media Corp. was awarded $272,800 by the U.S. National Science Foundation to study future electric propulsion of space flight.
Federal funding for the project is estimated to expire on Aug. 31, according to details of the award listed by the National Science Foundation.
In addition to questions about Glenn’s use of university space, there were also questions over who was the primary investigator on his project. While Glenn was initially listed as primary investigator, his daughter was later given that role, according to a National Science Foundation document.
“Even though he’s leaving in a couple of months, it is important that we stand up for our values and express our values,” Blodgett said. “Otherwise, history repeats itself.”
The issue is raising concerns for some Buffalo State faculty.
The provost, referring to criticism as “a ‘crusade’ against him suggests to me he doesn’t have the qualities we need, which are to listen, accept other people’s ideas, and be self-reflective and responsive to criticism,” said Buffalo State associate professor Jason Knight.
Glenn has served as provost and vice-president of academic affairs at the University of Houston-Victoria since 2019. An engineering professor, he previously had faculty and leadership positions at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Alabama A&M University, Buffalo State said when Glenn’s appointment was announced.
