Daniel Mark Fogel
took office in July 2002 as the 25th President of the University of Vermont,
also assuming a tenured appointment as Professor of English. Just seven months
after Fogel’s arrival on campus, his administration marked a major milestone
with the release and public discussion of the president’s 10-year vision
for the University. The invest-and-grow strategy detailed in the vision called
for increases in undergraduate and graduate enrollments, significant new facilities,
and expansion of the research enterprise among the initiatives to strengthen
the academic and financial foundations of the University.
After creating a strategic financial plan to under gird the University’s heightened level of aspiration, the Fogel administration, Board of Trustees, and UVM community put the vision into action. In 2006, three years into implementation of the plan, signs of transformation and progress are evident throughout the University. The new University-wide Honors College, key to attracting the nation’s very best students to UVM, welcomed its first class in 2004 and moved into the newly constructed University Heights Student Residential Learning Complex in 2006. Construction is moving swiftly toward the 2007 opening of the $64 million Dudley H. Davis Center, a new student union/campus commons that President Fogel stated would “reweave the fabric of community” in his original vision for UVM’s future. 2007 will also bring a successful conclusion to The Campaign for the University of Vermont, a $250 million effort that will significantly increase funding for scholarships and endowed faculty positions. Federal appropriations to the University and grants and contracts in support of faculty research have also grown significantly during the Fogel era.
Increasing undergraduate enrollment is a key component of the long-term strategy for the University of Vermont under the Fogel administration. Since embarking on the plan, enrollment numbers have annually met or exceeded targets while also increasing the quality and diversity of the pools of applicants and those who ultimately enroll at the University. Applications received in spring 2006 from students hoping to join UVM’s Class of 2010 set new records across the board with a 37 percent increase in overall undergraduate applications; a 63 percent increase in applications from prospective students who are African American, Asian American, Latino, or Native American; and a 19 percent increase in applications from Vermont students.
President Fogel’s years at the University of Vermont have also been marked by a reaffirmation of UVM’s connection to the state and the Burlington community. An October 2004 Burlington Free Press editorial praised the administration’s progress on this front: “More important than any list of accomplishments is the overall feeling . . . that good things are happening on the hill. Fogel calls it a ‘buzz,’ and he’s right. Reaching for a high bar on academics, civic-mindedness, diversity and overall quality is inspiring.” Fogel has been a strong voice for the role of the University as a key economic engine for the state, and Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas supported this mission with his 2006 proposal for a new state-funded scholarship designed to keep the state’s best and brightest students in Vermont.
Beyond Vermont, Fogel has been a key voice on higher education issues over the past four years. He has been interviewed for media outlets such as National Public Radio and the PBS NewsHour and has published commentaries in publications that include the Washington Post and Presidency Magazine.
Before coming to the University of Vermont, 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. At LSU, Fogel led an extensive strategic planning effort that entailed identification of priority programs and allocations to those programs of some $20 million between 1999 and 2001. He also spearheaded a diversity initiative that increased the number of African-American graduate students from 126 to 314; LSU currently leads the nation in production of African-American Ph.D.s in chemistry and in English language and literature.
Fogel has had an active career as a scholar and teacher in English and American literature and in creative writing (poetry). The founding editor of the Henry James Review, he has produced four authored and three edited books, has published dozens of articles and reviews, 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, all from Cornell University. Since joining the UVM faculty, President Fogel has continued to teach through guest lectures, co-teaching classes, and leading Continuing Education short courses.
Daniel Mark Fogel is married to the painter Rachel Kahn (as a couple, they are the Kahn-Fogels). They have two children: Nicholas Alden Kahn-Fogel, who is teaching law at the University of Zambia, and Rosemary Kahn-Fogel Luttrell, who is working on her graduate studies at the University of Georgia.
Last modified March 21 2007 08:00 PM
