Robert Oden, Jr., PhD
Robert A. Oden Jr. retired on July 1 of 2010 from the Presidency of Carleton College, a position he had held since 2002. Mr. Oden's retirement coincided with the successful completion of Carleton's ambitious $300 million fund-raising campaign. Under his leadership, Carleton's faculty completed its first systematic curriculum review in 50 years, and Mr. Oden established a distinctive program to promote sustained dialogue between visiting scholars, students, and faculty members. He greatly strengthened the College's emphasis on global issues through a very substantial increase in international student enrollment, the introduction of Arabic language instruction, and the expansion of off-campus studies programs in the Middle East, Africa, and China. Mr. Oden taught the OCS program in Egypt in the Winter Term of 2008.
Mr. Oden led Carleton's successful construction of the world's first college owned and operated utility scale wind turbine. New facilities projects during Mr. Oden's time at Carleton include the Weitz Center for Creativity (a comprehensive arts center shaped to enhance interdisciplinary teaching and learning in the arts and beyond) and two residence halls designed to meet LEED gold standards. Mr. Oden was an ardent advocate of the conservation of Carleton's 880-acre Cowling Arboretum, and he taught each year a non-credit course on fly-fishing.
In recognition of the need to continue Carleton's tradition of meeting the demonstrated financial need of all admitted students, Mr. Oden worked tirelessly to increase the College's endowment, he created the College's first professional endowment management team and launched the Access Scholarship Program aimed to reduce or eliminate loans for low-income students.
Mr. Oden served previously as the president of Kenyon College (1995-2002) and the headmaster of the Hotchkiss School (1989-1995). He earned an AB degree in History and Literature from Harvard College in 1969, a second BA degree and a Master's degree in Religious Studies from Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar, and a Master of Theology degree and a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from Harvard University. He holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Kenyon.
From 1975 to 1989, Mr. Oden was a Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, where he received Dartmouth's first Distinguished Teaching Award. He is the author of five books and scores of scholarly articles on Ancient Near Eastern languages and religions, and a number of articles on fly-fishing. He is a Trustee of the American University in Cairo and the American Schools of Oriental Research. In the autumn of 2010, he served as the "President-in-Residence" for the Harvard Educational School's Program on Higher Education.
