KU News Release

Former adviser to Sen. Bob Dole to visit KU to mentor students

LAWRENCE — Michael Glassner has been selected as the Visiting Dole Fellow for spring 2009 at the Dole Institute at the University of Kansas.

Glassner will be on campus April 13-15. He was senior adviser to former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., from 1985 to 2000 and director of vice presidential operations for the 2008 McCain/Palin campaign.

“Not only was Mike one of Sen. Dole’s most trusted advisors for years, but he has a wealth of additional political and international affairs experience,” said Bill Lacy, director of the Dole Institute of Politics. “From his work with the International Commission on Missing Persons to his recent direction of the vice presidential campaign for McCain/Palin, Mike is exactly the kind of person we look to host as a visiting Dole Fellow.”

The visiting fellowship program invites political professionals who are not able to make a semester-long commitment to mentor students at KU.

As a visiting fellow, Glassner will be a guest for the spring study group “Obama’s First 100 Days” at 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, at the Dole Institute. He also will interact with students during classroom visits and at Pizza and Politics from noon to 1:30 p.m. April 14 at the Adams Alumni Center. Glassner will lead another Pizza and Politics session at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, in 163 Regnier Hall at the Edwards Campus in Overland Park.

For more than two decades, Glassner worked closely with Dole, first as an intern and later as senior adviser to the Republican nominee for president in 1996. After Dole’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency, Glassner joined him at the Washington, D.C., law firm Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, where he consulted for international clients, including the International Commission on Missing Persons. Glassner also has worked as senior adviser to the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Recently, Glassner served as director of vice presidential operations for the 2008 McCain/Palin campaign. He resigned from his position as senior vice president of external affairs for IDT Corporation, a multinational telecommunications carrier.

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