Glenn Pfeiffer selected as new provost, strives to improve science programs, housing problems

Glenn Pfeiffer was selected as Chapman’s new provost. Photo by Bonnie Cash

He may still be settling into his new office, but Glenn Pfeiffer has been ready to begin his work as Chapman’s new provost for a while.

After newly appointed President Daniele Struppa asked Pfeiffer to take on the provost’s responsibilities for the fall semester during a lengthy provost search, Pfeiffer realized how much he enjoyed the job and decided to put himself up for consideration – but it took some convincing.

“I think as the interim provost, I was basically doing the job of provost while we were looking for someone to hold the position permanently, and was originally not intending to be a candidate, but was kind of persuaded to consider,” Pfeiffer said. “I threw my hat into the ring, and got the job.”

Pfeiffer’s responsibilities as provost are largely academic. He serves as a liaison between each school’s deans, faculties and staff. Pfeiffer is the chief adviser of all academic matters, so he often has the final say in terms of curriculum, staffing and academic organization.

His biggest goals are closely aligned with the university’s five-year plan, which includes strengthening science programs, a focus that became clear after the university broke ground on new Center for Science and Technology in April.

“One big initiative has to do with the president’s dream of having an engineering school on campus,” Pfeiffer said. “When he came here 10 years ago, that was one of the things that he really wanted to do. The faculty basically said, ‘We’re not strong enough yet in the sciences to support a good engineering program.’”

Pfeiffer said that the process of building and designing the curriculum for the engineering school will likely take about five to 10 years.

Pfeiffer is also going to be involved in making sure that on-campus residences are places that students will want to choose over off-campus apartments and houses.

“Right now, we have a limited capacity of residence halls,” Pfeiffer said. “It makes it easy because there are always going to be enough students who want to live in those dorms. As we build more and more of them, we want to make sure people want to live in them.”

The university’s goal is to eventually house at least 50 percent of students on campus. Currently, only 38 percent of students live in residence halls or university-sanctioned housing.

In December, Chapman purchased a $6.5 million parcel of land behind Panther Village from the city of Orange. Although nothing has been proposed to the Orange City Council, the university is planning to build additional student housing on the land.

The university is also in the process of getting proposals approved by the Orange Design Review Committee to build a 402-bed housing development at the site of the historic Villa Park Orchards Association Packinghouse.

Four finalists for the provost position visited the university in December after a previous search in October 2015 left the search committee unsatisfied. Struppa told The Panther in August that if the right person wasn’t found, the committee would continue the search.

Pfeiffer said that it took a bit of convincing from staff members before he became a part of the provost search, but what finally convinced him was his and Struppa’s shared vision of the university. However, Pfeiffer thinks the provost search was still important.

“The president made the decision,” Pfeiffer said. “I don’t think he had his mind made up until he interviewed all the candidates and thought about it.”

Pfeiffer began working at Chapman in 1995 as an associate professor. His time at Chapman has included serving on the faculty senate and positions such as the associate dean of the Argyros School of Business and Economics and vice chancellor of academic administration.

While Pfeiffer is proud of where the university is today, he tries to encourage his colleagues to focus on where the university will be headed in the future.

“Those are the kinds of things I get excited about, the new initiatives, and I also want to make sure we don’t lose sight of what we’re already doing and doing well,” Pfeiffer said. “I’m trying to encourage everyone to be forward-looking. It’s not enough to look at Chapman and say, ‘Where is Chapman right now?’ I want to have everyone thinking about where we’re going to be in five years.”