UH-Victoria names 3 finalists for president

Hopefuls include UH alumna, leaders at Texas, Ala. schools

The University of Houston Victoria named three presidential finalists Wednesday, narrowing a pool for the position that will be vacated by President Vic Morgan.

Linda Vaden-Goad, Javier Flores and Robert Glenn will be interviewed at one-hour forums on April 10, 13 and 20, respectively.

Vaden-Goad has served as Framingham State University’s provost and vice president for academic affairs since 2010. That university, which is in Massachusetts, and UH-Victoria each have roughly 5,000 students and are in suburban areas.

She led the University of Houston-Downtown’s psychology department in the 1990s and earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Houston.

Flores has been vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at Angelo State University in San Angelo since 2012. He has also worked at Howard College, a two-year institution also in San Angelo.

He is on the board of directors at Education Reach for Texans, which supports former foster care youths as they pursue a university or college degree.

Glenn leads Athens State University in Alabama. He has been a finalist for other higher education jobs in the past, including at Clarion University of Pennsylvania and Fairmont State University in West Virginia, according to local news coverage.

Athens State University, which also has several thousand students, is an upper-division institution, meaning that it does not enroll freshmen and sophomores. UH-Victoria made the transition to become a four-year university in Fall 2010.

Morgan began serving as interim president in 2014, and he took the full-time job in 2016. He is the fourth president, including interim presidents, to lead the university since UH Chancellor Renu Khator took the helm in 2008.

UH-Victoria’s search committee included faculty, one UH regent and local leaders.