Robert Witt (American academic)

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Robert E. Witt is president of the University of Alabama, as of March 1, 2003. His experience includes 35 years in the University of Texas system, including 10 years as dean of the University of Texas at Austin business school and eight years as president of the University of Texas at Arlington. Witt received his bachelor's degree in economics in 1962 from Bates College, his M.B.A. from Dartmouth College and his Ph.D. from Penn State University.

Witt joined the business school faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in 1968, and rose through the ranks as chair and associate dean. He was named the Zale Corporation Centennial Professor in Business in 1983. Two years later he was named to the Mortimer Centennial Professorship in Business and that year became acting dean of business. In 1985, he was named dean, a position he would hold for nine years.

In 1995, Witt went to University of Texas at Arlington as interim president. He was named permanent president in 1996. His accomplishments at UT-Arlington included:

  • Turning around an enrollment decline
  • Partnering with the Chamber of Commerce to establish the Arlington Technology Incubator
  • Creating a nanotechnology research and teaching facility
  • Establishing the University's first alliance of African-American ministers and community leaders to assure the needs of minority students are addressed.

In 2003, Witt responded to criticism that his administration encouraged grade inflation on campus by shutting down access to the records of the Office of Institutional Research, which until that year had made grade distribution data freely available. The Alabama Scholars Organization, and its newspaper, the "Alabama Observer," had been instrumental in exposing the problem and recommending that the Witt administration adopt public accountability measures.

Witt responded by taking steps to censor independent faculty publications on the campus of the University of Alabama, including Alabama Academe, the newspaper of the Alabama chapter of the AAUP. The Alabama Observer, the publciation of the Alabama Scholars Association, was also banned, and strict rules adopted to ensure that criticism of the Witt administration would not reach the public.


At the University of Alabama, Witt has pursued the following goals, among others:

  • Increasing enrollment by approximately 40 percent to 28,000 by the year 2013[1]
  • Raising faculty and staff salaries[2]
  • Increasing financial aid to students[2]
  • Upgrading and expanding facilities[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ President Witt Addresses Faculty and Staff at Fall Meeting — October 25, 2006. University of Alabama (25 October 2006). Retrieved on 2007-08-15.
  2. ^ a b c President Witt Addresses Faculty and Staff at Spring Meeting — April 26, 2007. University of Alabama (26 April 2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-15.