SUNY Oswego faculty member Lisa Glidden, a professor of political science and director of global and international studies, has earned the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Faculty Service.
Joining the university in 2007, her time at SUNY Oswego has included managing a demanding career while demonstrating exemplary service not just to the campus, but also to the larger community.
Glidden has been a very active member of the university’s Faculty Assembly, chairing this group integral to shared governance from 2016 to 2020. She also served as the co-chair of the Campus Concepts Committee, among many other responsibilities.
In this role, Glidden modeled the essence of shared governance, working collaboratively with administration, nominators said. She presented a paper with then-President Deborah F. Stanley, “The Campus Concept Committee: A Case Study in Shared Governance” at a SUNY Shared Governance conference, with the paper subsequently published in “Shared Governance in Higher Education: Vitality and Continuity in Times of Change,” the third volume in the Shared Governance series from SUNY Press.
History professor and Honors Program Director Gwen Kay, who is the current Faculty Assembly chair and a former president of the statewide University Faculty Senate, praised Glidden’s leadership in a time of rapid change, especially in 2020 when the COVID pandemic first broke.
“To the extent possible, the top-down decisions (Governor, Chancellor) meant conversation on campus before rapid implementation,” Kay wrote. “Here, Dr. Glidden’s campus service as chair, and SUNY service as convener, was helpful: she had access to information quickly and was able to represent faculty and staff as much as possible in the constantly changing guidance around COVID. She also shared information with campus much more quickly than many of her peers on other campuses, because of the relationship formed with President Stanley.”
New institute
One recent fruitful outcome of Glidden's work is the launch of the Great Lakes Institute on campus, for which she is the founding director. The Great Lakes Institute’s mission is to foster a greater awareness and understanding of the Great Lakes through continued research efforts, academic programming and coursework for students at all levels and public outreach. Her ability to connect with researchers at other campuses also is reflected by her chairing the OUTSTEPS regional research network.
She worked tirelessly to advance sustainability into SUNY Oswego’s curriculum and has been active in groups supporting green goals. Soon after her arrival at Oswego, she joined the Climate Academic Steering Committee and embraced its mission to get climate change and environmental issues into the curriculum. Her efforts were key toward the committee infusing all the environmental-related courses on campus to create a popular sustainability studies minor.
Glidden also is involved in many initiatives to strengthen the university’s interdisciplinary programs and new initiatives With an eye toward the world, she helped create SUNY Oswego’s Institute for Global Engagement, serving on its board, and constantly advances the university’s study abroad program by providing international experiences for students.
Community service
Nominators also noted her service to the community in meaningful ways. Paul Stewart, a psychology faculty member who directs the Oswego Renaissance Association, wrote that Glidden is “engaged in service both on and off campus – and in substantive ways.”
“In so many ways, Lisa embodies the true meaning of service: contributing to the people around her (both on campus and off) in ways that strengthen and build their capacity to achieve their goals,” Stewart noted. ”Lisa recognizes that the health of the campus and the community are connected. …. Far from sitting behind a computer screen and dealing with community issues as abstractions – she walks the very landscape she is cultivating.”
Glidden also has served on the Oswego City School District Board of Education, including as its chair. Her support of the school district included working with the Fitzhugh Park Elementary School Home and School Association and the Oswego Renaissance Association –- both of whom she is a member of –- to write a proposal that led to a $250,000 grant to rebuild Fitzhugh Park’s playground.
“While working with Dr. Glidden, she was always collaborative, considerate, child-centered, community-focused and would often share her professional experience and expertise as a professor for SUNY Oswego,” wrote former Superintendent Mathis Calvin III. “To add to this, she would frequently provide support to the Board of Education by linking theory to practice, and by providing research-based recommendations and/or strategies that would support the work of the Board and the district.“
Politics professor Lisa Glidden receives her Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service and congratulations from President Peter O. Nwosu at SUNY Oswego's Opening Breakfast on Aug. 20.