Daniel M. Fogel, president of the University of Vermont, today assumed the board chairmanship of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities during the public research university association’s 122nd Annual Meeting. Fogel assumes the leadership role from Lee T. Todd, Jr., president of the University of Kentucky. The nation’s oldest higher education association, APLU comprises 188 universities and 27 university systems, including 76 land-grant institutions. Its members enroll more than 4.7 million students, award nearly one-million degrees annually, and conduct nearly two-thirds of all academic research, totaling more than $34 billion annually.
Fogel became the 25th President of the University of Vermont in July 2002. Within the year, the university had developed a new strategic plan implementing an invest-and-grow strategy that called for increases in undergraduate and graduate enrollments, significant new facilities, and expansion of the research enterprise to strengthen the academic and financial foundations of the University. In recent years, UVM has begun a university-wide Honors College; constructed two award wining “green buildings,” including an 800-bed University Heights Residential Learning Complex and the Dudley H. Davis Student Center; and completed the $250 million Campaign for the University of Vermont.
Prior to joining UVM, Fogel was executive vice chancellor and provost at Louisiana State University, where he spent twenty-six years, rising steadily through the academic and administrative ranks. A scholar and teacher in English and American literature and in creative writing (poetry), he is the founding editor of the Henry James Review, and is an authority on Henry James, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf. He earned a B.A. degree magna cum laude in English in 1969, an M.F.A. in creative writing in 1974, and a Ph.D. in English in 1976, from Cornell University.
Todd has served as the president of the University of Kentucky since July 2001. A former UK engineering professor, Todd is a successful businessman who launched two worldwide technology companies, both based in Kentucky; and a public advocate for research, technology, and an entrepreneurial economy in the Commonwealth. He also is president of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Executive Committee and represents the SEC on the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Committee.