The Heidelberg University Board of Trustees has announced that, in accordance with terms of President Robert H. Huntington’s 2018-2023 employment agreement, his contract has been extended an additional year.
Board Chair Kathleen Tirbovich Geier made the announcement in anticipation of the Board’s fall meeting in October. Huntington was given a rolling contract designed to automatically turn into another five-year contract at the end of the first year and every year thereafter. As a result, his new contract has been extended to June 2024. Geier said she looks forward to many more such extensions.
“Over the past nine years, the Board has been pleased to experience Rob’s leadership, bold vision and strong decision-making in guiding Heidelberg on our shared path toward education excellence, student success and graduation,” Geier said. “As Heidelberg continues to evolve to meet the needs of our students and the challenges facing higher education today, we need a steady hand at the helm and that is what Heidelberg has in Rob Huntington.”
Under Huntington’s leadership, Heidelberg has invested about $28 million to complete 13 new construction and major renovation projects that have dramatically improved the student and guest experience on campus. Additionally, the University has made great strides in raising over $64 million in its Academic Comprehensive Campaign for Excellence (ACCE), a multi-level, multi-year initiative that is transforming the academic offerings and educational experiences that provide distinctive opportunities and advantages for Heidelberg’s students.
More recently, Huntington has overseen the development and implementation of a number of new programs – the PlusOneAdvantage® Free MBA, the co-curricular HYPE Career Ready® Program, and the Four-Year Graduation Guarantee to guide all students toward career and life skills and graduation.
As part of the Academic Strategic Initiatives for Improvement Plan (ASIIP), Huntington has supported the leadership of Academic Affairs and the Faculty in the reorganization of Heidelberg’s academic departments into four schools with an appointed dean for each school, the creation of several new majors and minors with more on the horizon, and the hiring of 13 new Faculty members who started this fall.
Geier noted that all stakeholders have had a role in Heidelberg’s success and progress over the past several years, and she credits stability at the highest level of leadership. “It takes a commitment to collaboration among the Board, senior leadership and the entire Heidelberg community to help Heidelberg rise. Stability at the presidential level allows us to achieve our goals and build engaging personal relationships that lead to lives of purpose with distinction for all of our graduates. We are all very optimistic about the future,” she said.
“I still feel very lucky to be at Heidelberg University and look ahead enthusiastically to our long, hard march forward and upward together for our students,” Huntington commented.
Huntington began as Heidelberg’s 14th president in July 2009. In their tenth year as residents of Tiffin and Seneca County, he and his family have established roots in the community they now call home. He is a past chair of the Board of Trustees of the Tiffin-Seneca Economic Partnership (formerly Seneca Industrial and Economic Development Corp.) and its Executive Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Tiffin Community Foundation and a member of the Tiffin Rotary. In higher education, Huntington serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC) and as an Executive Committee Trustee for the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Ohio. (AICUO). Nationally, Huntington serves on the NCAA Division III Presidents Council and as a member of the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee, while also representing the Ohio Athletic Conference on the NCAA Division III Presidents Advisory Group.
Founded in 1850, Heidelberg offers 31 majors, 32 minors and ten pre-professional programs, awarding the bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, bachelor of music degrees, as well as master’s degrees in education, counseling, business administration and music education.