Glen Bleske

BIG SHOES TO FILL Glen Bleske is taking over from Katie Milo, who chaired the Journalism Department for 11 years and shaped it to her vision.
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No. Bleske is one of those distinguishedly disheveled mentors whose interest and background lie in the literary arts.

Silver-haired and goateed, Bleske appears much younger than his 55 years.I've learned from talking with a few of his former students that he's got a reputation you'd imagine every college professor tries to foster--hard but fair, a tough exterior with a genuine concern to see his pupils succeed.

After 10 years teaching journalism at CSU, Bleske was named last month to chair the Department of Journalism, replacing Katie Milo at the end of this semester.
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Milo, who chaired the department for 11 years, comes more from the public-relations end of communications, Bleske from the ink-stained-reporter side.
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"With the size of our department, chair is a half-time administrative position," Bleske said, meaning he will continue to teach half-time.

"It's a big chair to fill," Bleske said during a recent interview in the Naked Lounge coffee house.
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Bleske said he will proceed with caution.

"The first year I'll just look around," he said."When I went into my first year of management at a newspaper job, I thought I was going to change everything.I learned after three months that I was probably the least-popular person in the newsroom, except with my boss.Bosses are like that.They'll say, 'Yeah, go do that for a while, go bump your head against the wall.' "

Born in Detroit, the oldest of four brothers, Bleske initially attended the University of Michigan.

"I didn't know what I wanted to do," he said, "so I traveled and ended up in Florida, where a friend had been in the Navy."

That friend was about to get out of the service.So Bleske took up residence in St. Augustine and transferred to the University of Florida, which he'd heard had a great journalism school.

There he met his wife of 22 years, Karen, who is now a freelance editor and formerly was editorial director for Moon Publications, the popular travel book publisher that moved to the Bay Area close to 10 years ago.They have no children.

"My students sometimes ask why I don't have children," Bleske said."I joke that I have 100 new children every semester."

Bleske graduated from UF with a bachelor's in journalism in 1981.Ten years later, after working for a number of papers, Bleske got his master's in mass communication from UF.From there he went to the University of North Carolina and in 1994 received his Ph.D. in mass communication research.That same year he came to Chico State, where he was hired into the Journalism Department.

His interest in journalism comes from deep roots.

"My whole life I'd always read two or three newspapers," Bleske explained, sitting at a little table in the back room of the Naked Lounge.
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After a few years, with an itch to write editorials, Bleske stayed within the Gannett family and transferred to a paper in Indiana, where he started as an assistant news editor before finally getting a chance to write editorials.

"I liked writing and doing the research for [editorials]," Bleske said."Although after doing it for a while, I decided I really liked reporting."

From there it was back to Florida and a job with the Daytona Beach News Journal, where he was an environmental writer who also wrote an occasional column called "Saw Grass and Sea Oats."

He left the News Journal to get his master's degree.

"I always thought I wanted to teach, and my wife's father was a college professor, so she was very supportive."

He came to interview for the job at Chico after earning his Ph.D., in part because of the weather.
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Bleske said he is ready to take on his new role and responsibilities.