Robert Witt (American academic)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dr. 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 the past eight years as president of the University of Texas at Arlington.
Dr. 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 at a business school ranked by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top seven schools of business in the world.
In 1995, Dr. 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 and making UTA the fastest growing university in Texas today
- 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.
Dr. 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.
In 2005, Dr. Witt was divorced by his wife.
