Drew Glover, instructional design and blackboard user support specialist in the Scholarly Technology and Resources (STaR) office, is the president-elect of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Staff Senate.

Glover will serve in an advisory capacity to Staff Senate President Richard Harper during the 2017-18 academic year, before becoming president during the 2018-19 year.

“I’m nervous because it’s a big responsibility, but I am excited because there are things I want to accomplish in my time as president,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to see other leaders accomplish their goals and see the Staff Senate change and grow.”

As president, Glover would like to further open the lines of communication between staff members and staff senators.

“The big thing I would like to see as president is more interaction between the staff senators and the staff,” he said. “I would like to see people communicate more with the people they represent. It gives the staff members more chances to know what is going on at campus and to ask questions.”

He was first elected to the Staff Senate in 2013, previously serving as secretary and on the Blood Drive, Public Outreach, and Staff Development committees. He has been active with the Helping Hands project, through which staff members donate food baskets to UA Little Rock employees and families during the holiday season.

In addition to the Staff Senate, Glover volunteers as a writing instructor with the university’s re-entry program, which is sponsored by the Arkansas Department of Corrections. Glover is one of many UA Little Rock faculty members who teach courses to local prison inmates to prepare them for their return to society.

“The course that I teach is writing, and I try to get them to do some writing that can be applied to the real world,” he said.

Participating inmates write letters of apology to the people they wronged and letters to reconnect with family and friends.

“It almost becomes a class where writing is therapy,” Glover said. “A lot of times people tuck away things that upset them. I feel like that’s especially true in prison, because you can’t show every emotion. They discover things that they have forgotten about or chosen to ignore.”

In 2010, Glover graduated from UA Little Rock with two bachelor’s degrees in history and professional and technical writing. He also earned a master’s degree in professional and technical writing in 2013.

Glover, who is a composition instructor in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, and his wife, Bendy, a fourth-grade teacher at Forest Park Elementary School, live in Little Rock.