Dedication marks inaugural day of classes of MCG/UGA Medical Partnership

Forty aspiring physicians began their education in Athens August 9 as part of the inaugural class of the Medical College of Georgia/University of Georgia Medical Partnership.

“This was a pretty clear decision for me when you look at the per capita number of doctors (in Georgia),” said Governor Sonny Perdue, who gave the keynote address at a dedication ceremony to mark the historic partnership. “The fact is that we were importing medical talent not only from around the nation, but from around the world, to serve our citizens in Georgia. And while we love that people like to come to our state, we felt like we needed to grow more of our own.”

The inaugural class of the four-year medical education program consists of 40 MCG students who will study basic science and clinical skills in a program that mirrors the curriculum of the Augusta campus. Like other speakers at the dedication ceremony, University System of Georgia Chancellor Errol B. Davis Jr. praised Perdue and the General Assembly for supporting the expansion of public medical education in Georgia.

“It’s important to note that they did this in the midst of this economic downturn,” Davis said. “Their commitment expanding medical education and providing more doctors for the people of the state has not wavered.”

MCG President Dr. Ricardo Azziz and UGA President Michael F. Adams both emphasized how the partnership leverages the strengths of the state’s only public medical school and its largest and most comprehensive research university.

“Only through collaboration will we succeed in addressing the growing health needs of our state, our nation, and our world,” Azziz said. “Only through collaboration will we generate the cutting edge discoveries that will transform the way we care for our people.”

“It has taken a lot of people coming together to make this possible,” Adams said. “The development of a health sciences campus and the admission of the first class of medical students have been among the most important developments, I believe, in my time here at the university.”

MCG/UGA Medical Partnership student Justin Brooten of Atlanta addressed the audience at the dedication ceremony on behalf of students and noted that members of the inaugural class have studied in numerous fields, including biology, languages, economics and psychology, and have wide-ranging medical interests as well. “One word which characterizes our shared pursuit,” he said, “is passion – a passion to learn, a passion to care, and a passion to contribute.”

He added that the partnership will increase opportunities for students to engage in interdisciplinary studies and that the smaller class sizes in Athens will facilitate student/faculty interaction.

The partnership is part of an overall plan to increase the MCG School of Medicine's class size from 190 to 300 students by 2020 to help meet the need for physicians in a state that ranks in the top 10 in both population and population growth, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“There are counties in Georgia that don’t have any physicians at all, and those shortages need to be addressed,” said Dr. Douglas Miller, dean of the MCG School of Medicine and MCG senior vice president for health affairs. “A public university and a partnership such as this is ideally positioned to lead a response to health care disparities.”

The students will be educated in the Interim Medical Partnership Building, a historic building that was originally constructed in 1857 as the Athens Cotton and Wool Factory and has since been renovated to provide a state-of-the-art learning environment. In 2012, the partnership is scheduled to move to a 58-acre campus in Athens currently occupied by the Navy Supply Corps School. The new campus will be known as the UGA Health Sciences Campus and will house the UGA College of Public Health and other health-related programs.

“UGA will become a much stronger research university with the inclusion of medical education,” said UGA Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Jere Morehead, “and today’s dedication of the Interim Medical Partnership Building is a precursor of greater things that will come in improving health care for the people of Georgia.”

The first graduates of the partnership will graduate in 2014 and can begin practicing, depending on the chosen specialty, in 2017 after completion of postgraduate education. By 2020, the partnership is expected to educate 60 students per year in Athens, for a total of 240 students for the four-year program. In addition to helping educate more physicians, the MCG/UGA Medical Partnership opens up new possibilities for collaborative research into diseases that disproportionately affect Georgians, such as diabetes, obesity and stroke.

“We have been given the opportunity to influence the health of the state of Georgia,” Campus Dean Dr. Barbara Schuster said. “May we have the strength and presence of mind to seize this unique opportunity.”

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Registration begins Aug. 11 for UGA's 'Vet School for a Day'

Registration opens Aug. 11 for the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine’s sixth annual Vet School for a Day.The program will be held Sept. 29.It brings high school students from throughout Georgia to the university’s Athens campus to learn more about careers in veterinary medicine.

The program is held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and includes a tour of the teaching hospital, a panel discussion by faculty veterinarians in a variety of specialties, and the opportunity for the high school students to meet veterinary student leaders. Students also will learn about the high standards for admission to the college, and what they need to study to be prepared for veterinary school.

“Through this program, we hope to encourage students interested in science to pursue one of the variety of careers available in veterinary medicine, especially in underserved areas such as food animal medicine,” said Paige Carmichael, associate dean for academic affairs.

All students must be accompanied by an adult chaperone (parent, counselor or teacher).Students attend for free, but to help offset the cost for food there is a $15 per person fee for each chaperone; the fee is payable on the day of the event.School guidance counselors will be notified by email once registration opens.

“Vet School for a Day” is sponsored by the David Forehand Foundation, created in memory of alumnus Dr. David Forehand (DVM, class of 1976).More information about the event can be found at http://www.vet.uga.edu/academic/events/vs4ad.php.

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5 Georgia Technical Colleges Form Bioscience Training Partnership

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Five Georgia state technical colleges have formed a partnership to recruit and train workers for the state’s bioscience industry. Supported by Athens, Atlanta, Augusta, Gwinnett, and Valdosta Technical Colleges, the Georgia Bioscience Technology Institute (GBTI) will leverage existing community and industry partnerships to develop a statewide collaborative training network -- sharing curricula, resources and best practices to develop this skilled workforce.

“By aligning these institutions, workforce development and industry, we have laid the foundation for supplying the bioscience industry in Georgia with the workforce it needs, both today and in the future”

GBTI targets three regions of the state with high potential for training dislocated workers for the bioscience industry: the Innovation Crescent (a 13 county region from Atlanta to Athens), the Bioscience Circle of South Georgia (an 11 county region surrounding Valdosta) and the Augusta Bioscience Hub (five counties surrounding the Augusta area). This expansion leverages existing bioscience workforce investments by Georgia’s Work Ready Regions, a program of the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development, and a $1.9M federal grant in 2007 to Athens and Gwinnett Technical Colleges, which launched the GBTI.

“By aligning these institutions, workforce development and industry, we have laid the foundation for supplying the bioscience industry in Georgia with the workforce it needs, both today and in the future,” said Georgia Bio President Charles Craig. “This partnership demonstrates Georgia’s strengths in working collaboratively and in working smarter in today’s economic climate to efficiently and effectively bring new training programs online.”

“Georgia Work Ready Regions were created to link education and workforce development to the state's economic development and ensure our state delivers a pipeline of skilled workers ready to take on today’s work and tomorrow’s innovations,” said Debra Lyons, Director, Governor’s Office of Workforce Development. “By linking together bioscience regions, the GBTI partners will drive growth and ensure Georgia offers a competitive advantage.”

To fund this expansion, the GBTI institutions have submitted a collaborative proposal to the U.S. Department of Labor with the backing of community partners, including 26 bioscience employers, six Regional Workforce Boards, the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and Georgia Bio.

This grant would enable three of the college partners (Atlanta, Augusta and Valdosta Technical Colleges) to initiate bioscience certificate and associate degree programs to meet their region’s bioscience workforce needs while increasing capacity of the existing bioscience programs at Gwinnett and Athens Technical Colleges. If funded, GBTI will begin expanded operations July 1, 2010.

Georgia Bioscience Technology Institute was initiated as a collaborative effort between the Biotechnology Program at Athens Technical College and the Bioscience Program at Gwinnett Technical College to prepare workers for the exciting Life Science industry. For more information, visit www.gabioscience.org.

Georgia Work Ready was launched in August 2006 by Governor Sonny Perdue and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to improve the job training and marketability of Georgia's workforce and drive future economic growth for the state. By identifying both the needs of business and the available skills of Georgia's workforce, the state can more effectively generate the right talent for the right jobs. For more information, visit www.gaworkready.org.

Georgia Bio represents nearly 300 pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device companies, universities, research institutes, government groups and other business organizations involved in the development of products that improve the health and quality of life people worldwide. For more information, visit www.gabio.org.

The Atlanta Regional Commission is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency for the 10-county area (including Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties) and the City of Atlanta, dedicated to unifying the region's collective resources to prepare the metropolitan area for a prosperous future. For more information, visit www.atlantaregional.com.

Council for Adult and Experiential Learning The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning is a national non-profit organization which creates and manages effective learning strategies through partnerships with employers, higher education, the public sector, and labor. For more information, visit www.cael.org.

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UGA once again breaks record with enrollment of 34,885

Spurred by growth in several colleges and schools, the University of Georgia has its largest student body in history this fall with an enrollment of 34,885. The fall semester enrollment is up 705 students (two percent) above last fall when the enrollment topped 34,000 for the first time, with several newer colleges, schools and programs recording enrollment growth of 12 percent or more.

The Faculty of Engineering saw the biggest enrollment increase this fall with a 192.3 percent growth from 39 students in 2008 to 114 students this year. This increase is due in part to the first time acceptance of freshmen into the engineering program.

The College of Public Health saw a 50.8 percent enrollment increase with the addition of 157 students.

The Odum School of Ecology and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources also saw significant growth with enrollment increases of 27 percent and 22 percent respectively.

The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences saw a 12.7 percent growth with the addition of 189 students over last year’s enrollment of 1,483.

Total enrollment includes 33,826 students on UGA’s main campus in Athens, up two percent from last year, and 953 students at the university’s extended campuses in Gwinnett County, Tifton, Griffin and Buckhead in Atlanta—a one percent increase from last fall. An additional 106 students are enrolled in independent study.

On the main campus in Athens, undergraduate enrollment totals 25,913, up by 712 over last year, and graduate enrollment decreased by 15 students to a total of 6,309. Enrollment in the professional schools of law, pharmacy and veterinary medicine increased by 51 students to a total of 1,604.

“The demand for enrollment at UGA continues to grow given the quality of our educational programs. I am particularly pleased to see growth in many of our new and existing programs,” said Arnett C. Mace, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost. “I commend the deans, faculty and staff of these units for the recruitment of these outstanding students to their programs and to UGA.”

Of the total 34,885 enrollment, 8,132 students had never attended UGA before including 4,332 first-time freshmen who enrolled this fall. Combined with 320 first-time freshmen who enrolled this summer, the total count of first-time freshmen for summer and fall is 4,652.

Of the first-time freshmen who enrolled this fall, 363 had earned enough academic credit through joint-enrollment or advanced placement programs to be classified as sophomores, and 10 had enough credit to be classified as juniors.

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UGA to host young students at Duke TIP Scholar Weekend Sept. 19-20

As many as 100 of the brightest middle and high school students in Georgia and nearby states will get their first taste of college courses during a Scholar Weekend Sept. 19-20 hosted by the University of Georgia College of Education’s Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development in partnership with Duke University and the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

The UGA Scholar Weekend, directed by UGA’s Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, is part of the Duke Talent Identification Program to identify academically talented children and provide resources to nurture and challenge each child’s abilities.

TIP scholars are identified through standardized test scores and invited to take the SAT or ACT in the 7th grade as part of the program. Those scoring exceptionally well are then invited to attend TIP’s Scholar Weekends where they are exposed to interesting and challenging topics not typically covered in middle or high school curricula.

This is the first of three Scholar Weekends planned this fall at UGA, which is one of only eight locations in the nation selected to be hosts. The second Scholar Weekend is scheduled for Oct. 17-18, and the third program will be held Dec. 5-6. Other sites include the University of South Carolina, Appalachian State University, New College in Sarasota, Fla., the University of Houston, the University of Kansas, Texas Christian University and Duke University’s main campus.

“The opportunities this program creates for UGA and its faculty are incredible,” said Elizabeth Connell, coordinator of educational programs in the Torrance Center. “Not only are exceptional students from around the state and surrounding states visiting our campus, they are learning from talented UGA faculty and graduate students, and experiencing the vast resources available through the university. It’s an excellent opportunity for recruitment of some of the best and brightest students to UGA’s programs.”

At TIP Scholar Weekends, students are introduced to the collegiate experience by participating in two days of intense study in one of the provided courses taught by UGA professors and Athens area school teachers. The overall goal is to enhance student skills, enrich the learning experience and foster an interest in college as well as specific collegiate majors.

The courses available for the Sept. 19 Scholar Weekend include “Introductory Robotics,” “Architecture: From Playhouses to Mansions,” “A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words: Creative Writing and Photography,” “To Climb the Great Wall: Fun with Mandarin Chinese,” “CSI: Plant Pathology,” “Biofuels: The Next Step?,” “Rube Goldberg Challenge,” “Psychology, Human Experience and the U.S. Military,” and “The Physics of the Nintendo Wii.”

Tuition for the Scholar Weekend on Sept. 19-20 is $395 for day students and $425 for overnight students. Some financial aid is available. Registration ends Sept. 1.

For more information on these programs and a printable registration sheet, see the Torrance Center’s Web site at www.coe.uga.edu/torrance/ or call 706/542-5104.

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More than 6,300 new undergraduates to be enrolled at UGA this fall

The University of Georgia expects to enroll more than 6,300 new undergraduate students this fall, including just over 4,700 new freshmen and 1,600 new transfer students.Approximately 680 of the new students began their studies during the summer and almost 5,700 will begin classes this August.

This is a growth of about 75 new students over last fall.Another 1,000 new undergraduates (200 of them freshmen) are expected to enroll in January for the spring term, bringing the overall total to more than 7,300—an increase of about 300 over the new undergraduates enrolled during the 2008-09 academic year.

Although final statistics will not be available until mid-October, the admissions office has compiled data based on the students who enrolled over the summer or who attended or registered for orientation for fall semester as of the end of July.

The entering freshmen are expected to have a strong grade point average of 3.83 (the mid 50 percentile range is 3.68-4.0) compared to 3.80 last year. The SAT average has risen from 1253 to 1263 (mid 50 percentile of 1160-1360) for the Critical Reading and Math combined, while scores on the new Writing section rose from 609 to 613. For those students who took the ACT, the mean score this year was 28, with a mid 50 percentile range of 26-30.

The 520 students expected to enroll in UGA’s nationally recognized Honors Program have a GPA of 4.09 (with a mid 50 percentile range of 3.96-4.14) and SAT average of 1463 (mid 50 percentile range of 1430-1490 on the Critical Reading and Math components). The ACT average is 32 (mid 50 percent range of 31-33).

Twenty-two percent of the entering freshmen self-identified as other than Caucasian. The number of African-American freshmen is expected to be 362 (7.6 percent). A total of 144 Hispanic students (3 percent of the class) are expected to enroll.

The class is diverse in other factors: 190 of the incoming freshmen represent 58 different countries and almost 7 percent come from homes where English is not the native language. The students come from more than 400 Georgia high schools in 136 counties. Just under 13 percent of the new class is from out of state, although more than 48 percent have social security numbers initially issued in other states, indicating continued in-migration to Georgia from other parts of the country.

“An interesting statistic this year is that 6 percent of the new freshmen are the first generation in their families to attend college,” said Nancy McDuff, associate vice president of admissions and enrollment management.

The number of applications received for this year’s freshman class—more than 17,900—is the highest recorded at UGA for a new class, following several years of record applications. Since 2003, applications for UGA’s freshman class have increased by more than 50 percent.

The rigor of students’ high school curriculum continues to be a key factor in admissions decisions, with some 95 percent enrolled in College Board Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes while in high school.

Five percent of the incoming freshmen (243) were first or second in their graduating class and 54 percent were in the top 10 percent of their class. More than 1,400 (31 percent) of the students completed high school with a 4.0 GPA. Several students had perfect scores on the SAT or ACT, and 102 had perfect scores on at least one of the components of the SAT. Nearly 10 percent of the students started college while still in high school.

While many of the incoming students have not yet decided on a major, the most popular intended majors (listed alphabetically) are art, biology, business, chemistry, international affairs, pharmacy, political science and psychology, following a similar pattern to previous years.

Although legacy is not a factor in admissions decisions, some 30 percent of the students have parents or siblings who attended UGA.

The new incoming transfer students have an earned college GPA of 3.4 on work completed prior to enrolling.They are almost evenly divided between males and females and 19 percent are non-Caucasian.About 92 percent are Georgia residents.

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MCG and UGA move ahead with August 2010 opening of Athens campus

The Medical College of Georgia and the University of Georgia have received confirmation from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting body for the country's medical schools, that their resource development is on track to matriculate 40 medical students at the Athens campus in August 2010.

A letter from the LCME reaffirmed MCG School of Medicine’s accreditation through the 2015-16 cycle when the LCME is scheduled to make its next accreditation visit. The letter also confirmed that resources for the MCG/UGA Medical Partnership are adequate in some areas and, as expected, requested updates in others as progress continues, school officials say.

Areas of LCME interest include sustained financial support for the expansion as well as faculty recruitment, facilities planning and academic advisement for students. School officials will provide the LCME with another update in August 2009.

The LCME’s letter follows a limited site visit to Athens and Augusta in April and the accrediting body’s June 2-4 meeting in Washington, D.C

“This confirmation by the LCME is the result we have been working so diligently these past months to obtain, and it is a testament to all involved that just 18 months after the Board of Regents approved a plan to expand medical education in Georgia, we have received this positive news,” says University System of Georgia Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. “This strategic plan to increase the number of physicians in Georgia is of critical importance to our state and its citizens. We could not be at this point if not for the critical and strong support we have received from Governor Sonny Perdue and the members of the General Assembly. This support, expressed through funding in both Fiscal Year 2009 and Fiscal Year 2010, has been and continues to be essential, and we are appreciative of this support.”

“We are pleased with the report and look forward to updating the LCME about the continued progress of this exciting initiative that will have a lasting impact on the health of Georgians,” says Dr. Dan Rahn, MCG president and senior vice chancellor for health and medical programs for the University System of Georgia. “Countless hours, talent and support—particularly from Governor Perdue and our legislators—have gotten us to this point, but the work has just begun. Now we move forward with recruiting more students and educating more physicians for Georgia.”

“This action affirms the work currently underway to build the faculty, prepare the facilities, and shape the academic program for future medical students,” says UGA President Michael F. Adams. “We will be providing appropriate updates to the LCME as we move forward in our preparations. The MCG/UGA Medical Partnership builds on the strengths of two great Georgia institutions to address the critical need for more physicians in our state, and it positions both institutions to better do the kind of research that should lead to a healthier and more prosperous Georgia. We greatly appreciate the support of the Governor and Legislature which led us to this point.”

Later this month, the MCG School of Medicine will begin accepting applications for the first class of 40 students at the MCG/UGA Medical Partnership for the 2010 fall semester. The additional students will boost the medical school's class size to 230 students. UGA’s renovation of the Interim Medical Partnership Building, which sits on the banks of the North Oconee River in Athens, is scheduled to be completed this month.

The Athens campus, slated to grow to 60 students per class, is part of an overall plan to increase the MCG School of Medicine’s class size from 190 to 300 students by 2020 to help meet Georgia’s need for physicians. Georgia ranks ninth in the nation in both population and population growth, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and 44th in the number of physicians per capita, according to the American Medical Association.

The statewide plan also includes increasing the medical school class size in Augusta to 240, growth that will require larger facilities as the school’s home base. Simultaneous growth also is occurring at two clinical campuses for third- and fourth-year students: the Southwest Georgia Clinical Campus based at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany and the Southeast Georgia Clinical Campus based at St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System in Savannah.

Dr. Barbara Schuster, dean for the MCG/UGA Medical Partnership, said about 30 new faculty members are being recruited and about a dozen have been hired to date for the Athens campus. The majority of the initial hires will have a primary appointment at MCG and an adjunct appointment at UGA; faculty members with a primary appointment at UGA will have an adjunct appointment at MCG. Existing faculty at both institutions will help with teaching as well, Dr. Schuster says. Educators will be fine tuning the curriculum for the Athens campus during the next year.

The MCG School of Medicine Admissions Committee has increased from 18 to 25 members in the past two years to accommodate a larger class size and include representation from Athens, Savannah and Albany, says Dr. Geoffrey Young, associate dean for admissions. School officials anticipate applicant numbers will increase as well; applicants to the MCG School of Medicine have already increased steadily during the last few years, from 1,612 for the 180 slots available in fall 2004, to 2,102 for 190 slots in fall 2008.

Interviewed applicants will be asked their preference for the Augusta or Athens campus. Once applicants are accepted, a subcommittee of the Admissions Committee will make campus assignments with an eye toward a heterogeneous student body at both campuses, Dr. Young says.

The Medical College of Georgia is the state’s health sciences university and includes the Schools of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Studies, Medicine and Nursing. MCG is a unit of the University System of Georgia and an equal opportunity institution. http://www.mcg.edu/

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Special education expert, consultant highlight CSSE Summer Institute June 8-9

University of Illinois special education professor Lisa Monda-Amaya and educational consultant Ron Walker will be the keynote speakers at the first Communication Sciences and Special Education Summer Institute June 8-9 at the University of Georgia.

Nearly 200 early interventionists, speech-language pathologists and special educators from around the state are expected to focus on topics such as intervention and treatment skills, working with children and families of diverse backgrounds and collaboration.

“By connecting research and practice, this inaugural event will provide cutting edge information pertinent to an interdisciplinary audience of professionals interested in individuals (ages birth through school-age) with developmental disabilities and special needs,” said Laura Clark, project coordinator for UGA’s SPECTRUM (Special Education Training and Mentoring on the Web) program.

The conference’s break-out sessions include topics such as Strengthening Partnerships: Effective Collaboration and Co-teaching; Stimulating Language in Bilingual Infants and Toddlers; The New Wave: What Special Educators Need to Know about the Law; and Teaching the Many, While Disciplining the Few.

Monda-Amaya, an expert in strategies to keep students with disabilities in the general classroom, has coordinated teacher preparation programs in the department of special education for nearly 18 of her 20 years at the University of Illinois and has published her research in journals such as Exceptional Children and Special Education.

She has been heavily involved in teacher preparation and certification activities at the state level and has worked to influence policy decisions in Illinois. She has served as an officer on the National Board of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children for four years and in the Illinois Teacher Education Division for 14 years.

Walker is president of Walker Educational Consulting, Inc., which is the educational consultant for the National Professionals’ Consortium on Attention Deficit Disorders.

Walker’s career in education spans three decades and began in the classroom where he taught at both elementary and secondary levels. He was an administrator at Woodward Academy in Atlanta, where he directed a program for college-bound learning disabled students; he was a middle school principal; and he directed both day and boarding programs for the DePaul School in Louisville, Ky. Walker has spent the last 15 years working with more than 700 school districts in more than 30 states, giving workshops, providing school consultation and speaking at conferences.

The two-day conference, a special College of Education Centennial event hosted by the department of communication sciences and special education, will be held at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel.

Registration costs $275 and the deadline is June 1. For more information or to register, see www.georgiacenter.uga.edu/conferences/2009/Jun/08/csse_summer.phtml.

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UGA College of Education to host math, science academy for high school students

For three weeks this summer, about 60 Athens area high school students will have a unique opportunity to learn more about mathematics and science, and possible careers in those fields, during a Summer Academy hosted by the University of Georgia College of Education.

The free, three-week program involves sessions from 8:30 a.m. to noon from July 6-24, and is open for college-bound high school juniors and seniors in Athens and Northeast Georgia.

“Students will encounter topics that they would not usually find in high school, such as electron microscopy, veterinary science and the mathematics of body mechanics,” said Corey Buxton, an associate professor in the department of elementary and social studies education. “They will have access to tools, technologies and instructors usually reserved for university students. They will gain valuable career information that should expand their understanding of the range of available careers involving mathematics and science.”

As part of the final week, students will create project presentations of their work to share with younger children from Athens-Clarke County Recreation and Leisure summer programs and the Athens Boys and Girls Club, allowing them to experience the engagement and challenge of teaching.

The program, funded by a state Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Initiative grant is one of dozens of efforts by UGA to promote interest, enthusiasm and engagement in the fields of science and math.

Georgia faces a critical shortage of certified teachers in mathematics and science. In 2008, 14.3 percent of all Georgia math teachers were not fully certified, according to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. Another 18.6 percent of physical science teachers and 16.2 percent of life sciences teachers lacked full certification, the commission said.

“Middle school and high school math and science are projected to be critical need teaching areas for the foreseeable future,” said Buxton.

For college-bound high school students, a career in teaching science and math in public schools will soon become even more enticing. The state recently approved a pay boost for math and science teachers beginning in the 2010 school year.

The measure allows new secondary school teachers with proper math or science certification to start at the salary of a fifth year teacher. That’s an increase of about $4,561, to $37,985 a year, under the state salary schedule. The teacher’s salary would then continue to rise a step every year for five years. After that, the increase would be tied to student performance.

The new Georgia legislation focuses on high schools but would also reward elementary school teachers who increase their competency in math and science by handing them a $1,000 annual bonus if they earn an endorsement from the Professional Standards Commission.

The Summer Academy will be held mainly in Aderhold Hall on the UGA campus. However, field trips and project presentations off campus will be included. Those interested in participating should contact Joe Long at drlong@uga.edu to register for this free program.

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UGA to award degrees to about 4,850 at commencement ceremonies May 9

The University of Georgia will confer degrees on about 4,850 undergraduate and graduate students at spring commencement ceremonies May 9.

An estimated 3,700 undergraduates will be eligible to receive bachelor’s degrees at the undergraduate ceremony at 9:30 a.m. The ceremony will be held in Sanford Stadium unless weather conditions are deemed to be severe, in which case the ceremony will be held in Stegeman Coliseum in two sessions, beginning at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m.

Severe weather is defined as rain accompanied by high winds, thunder and lightning. If rain is falling but conditions are not considered severe, candidates will be given a poncho to wear during the ceremony. There will not be a student processional and candidates will go directly to their school’s or college’s designated seating section on the field.

A decision to move to Stegeman Coliseum will be made by 6:30 a.m. and will be posted on the UGA home page, http://www.uga.edu/, by 7 a.m. Local radio stations will be notified of the move but may not be able to broadcast the information because their weekend operations are computerized.

About 1,155 candidates for master’s, doctoral and specialist in education degrees will be eligible to participate in the ceremony for graduate students at 2:30 p.m. in Stegeman Coliseum.

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah will speak at the undergraduate ceremony. Kingston, who received an economics degree from UGA in 1978, is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and has been a strong ally for UGA in obtaining grants and appropriations from federal agencies for research in agriculture and science and for construction of major facilities.

Mary Virginia Terry of Jacksonville, Fla., will receive the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the ceremony. Terry and her late husband, Herman, have been major supporters of UGA for 55 years and are namesakes of the Terry College of Business. Mrs. Terry is an emeritus trustee of the Arch Foundation of the University of Georgia.

The student speaker for the undergraduate ceremony will be Mary Catherine McLean of Moultrie, who will receive a degree in history. A HOPE Scholar and Dean’s List student, McLean has studied at Oxford University in England and was on the Student Government Association executive board. She was president of Phi Alpha Theta history honor society and was a Leadership UGA Fellow.

Twenty-five seniors who have maintained perfect 4.0 grade point averages will be recognized as First Honor Graduates.

The undergraduate ceremony will be broadcast in the Tate Student Center Theatre and on televisions in the student center. It will also be broadcast on Charter cable channel 15 and will be streamed live on the internet from the UGA home page.

The speaker for the ceremony for graduate students will be Stan Collender, a partner at Qorvis Communications. Collender has a 30-year background in financial and public affairs communications and is an expert on federal fiscal and monetary policies. He writes a column on fiscal matters for the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call and is founder of “Capital Gains and Games,” a popular financial and political blog.

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UGA to host conference on state/federal roles in education policy May 1

Nearly 100 state policymakers, school administrators and University of Georgia faculty will gather to hear about and discuss how the nation’s new Congress and administration may re-shape the federal role in education policy at a Friday, May 1 conference hosted by the UGA College of Education.

The conference, titled, Changing Horses or Paddling Harder? Reconsidering the State/Federal Relationship in Education Policy, will feature faculty and student research that critically examinesthe programs and policiesof the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (currently the No Child Left Behind Act).

UGA Regents Professor Jeremy Kilpatrick, one of the nation’s most renowned scholars in mathematics education and keynote speaker at the conference, will deliver a luncheon address titled, “Education Policy in Transition: The White Papers Project of the National Academies.”

Over the past year, Kilpatrick has co-chaired a committee on mathematics and science education for the National Academies’ “Education Policy White Papers Project,” an initiative to help policymakers in the new administration and Congress better understand key education issues and help them create more effective policies by providing them with independent, research-based information.

Kimberly Robinson, an associate professor at Emory University Law School, will open the conference with an address titled, “A New Theory of Education Federalism: How Collaborative Federalism Would Reinvent the Federal Role in Ensuring Equal Educational Opportunity.”

Robinson teaches education law and policy, and civil procedure and has extensive litigation experience from her work for the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education and Hogan & Hartson, L.L.P., in Washington, D.C.

Elizabeth DeBray-Pelot, an associate professor and associate director of UGA’s Georgia Education Policy and Evaluation Center, will follow with an address titled, “Reflections on Congress, the New Administration, and the Institutional Environment.”

The conference also will include three panels of UGA education faculty and students which will provide multiple perspectives on a range of topics including the impact of No Child Left Behind, federal legislation and the needs of subgroups, and policy design and resource allocation.

The conference, which will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Rooms K-L at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education, is sponsored by EPEC in conjunction with the Georgia Assessment Center, the Learning and Performance Support Laboratory and the Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education, all based in the UGA College of Education.

It is the second statewide spring conference on education policy hosted by EPEC. The center also hosted its first State of the State of Education Conference last fall.

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UGA graduate programs continue to rank among the best in the nation

University of Georgia graduate programs remained among the best in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 edition of America’s Best Graduate Schools. The College of Education ranked 30th and the School of Law tied for 35th.

“UGA’s graduate and professional programs continue to be recognized as among the best in America, and we can all be proud of that,” said UGA President Michael F. Adams. “Strong graduate programs are important to the advancement of this university and are engines of economic growth for the state of Georgia.”

Maureen Grasso, dean of the UGA Graduate School, agreed. “These rankings reflect the high caliber of work our students and faculty engage in as well as our commitment to excellent graduate education,” she said. “Although we will not rest on our laurels, we are, nevertheless, proud of these acknowledgements of the quality of our graduate programs and we will continue to promote innovative research and prepare future leaders.”

The College of Education, which had more students enrolled in graduate teaching programs in 2008 than any public university in the nation, ranked 22nd among public universities and third among public universities in the South.

“The University of Georgia College of Education is one of the top education schools in the country. Our faculty rank high in research productivity and our graduate students excel in their fields,” said Arthur Horne, dean of the College of Education. “Our continued ranking among the finest public education colleges in the nation is a reflection of the hard work and talent of our faculty and students.”

Three of the College of Education’s six ranked specialty programs improved their top 10 status. Vocational/technical ranked first (up from third); counseling/personnel tied for third (up from sixth); and higher education administration ranked sixth (up from seventh). Secondary education remained constant at fourth as did curriculum/instruction at eighth. Elementary education dropped from third to fourth.

In addition to ranking 35th overall, the School of Law ranked among the top 14 public universities and among the top five public universities in the Southeast.

“National rankings continue to be just one indicator of the academic success of an educational institution, and we are pleased that the School of Law continues to be among what is considered the ‘top tier’ of law schools in the country,” said Rebecca H. White, dean of the School of Law. “Our goal of providing the finest legal education possible is also evidenced by the success of our graduates. For example, counting the October 2009 term, we will have had our graduates serve as judicial clerks at the U.S. Supreme Court for four out of the last five years. These elite positions are very, very competitive and their selection places the law school among the very top law schools in the nation.”

The Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ psychology program is tied for 50th.

The School of Public and International Affairs’ master of public administration degree program continues to share the fourth place ranking with Princeton University. SPIA also continues to have two highly ranked specialty programs. Both the specialization in public finance and budgeting as well as the specialization in public management and administration continue to be ranked second in the nation.

Other programs with current rankings include: clinical psychology tied for 33rd (2008); master of fine arts tied for 37th (2008); ecology/evolutionary biology ranked 10th (2008); and biological sciences ranked at 58th (2007).

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UGA sets spring semester enrollment record with 32,968 students

The University of Georgia has set a new spring semester enrollment record with a total of 32,968 students attending classes in Athens and at the university’s four extended campuses.

The total is 2.5 percent above last spring’s enrollment of 32,177, and exceeds by 458 the previous spring record of 32,510 students, set in 2007.

The total includes 32,044 students attending classes at UGA’s main campus in Athens and 924 students at the extended campuses in Gwinnett County, Griffin, Tifton and Buckhead in Atlanta.

Enrollment on the main campus in Athens–up by 751 students over last spring–includes 24,337 undergraduates, 6,042 graduate students and 1,543 students in the professional schools of law, pharmacy and veterinary medicine. Another 122 students are enrolled in independent study.

Enrollment at the extended campuses increased by 4.5 percent from last spring. Gwinnett has the largest with 472 students, all but three of whom are studying for graduate degrees. UGA offers only graduate courses at Gwinnett after phasing out undergraduate courses when Georgia Gwinnett College opened in 2006. The three undergraduates still are coded for enrollment purposes as enrolled at Gwinnett but are attending classes in Athens.

The Griffin campus has 74 undergraduates and 52 graduate students, and the Tifton campus has 44 undergraduates and 14 graduate students. Griffin’s enrollment is up 48.2 percent from last spring and Tifton’s enrollment increased by 16 percent.

A total of 268 students is enrolled at the Buckhead campus, which is mainly for working professionals and enrolls only students studying for master’s degrees in business administration. This is the first spring semester enrollment report in which Buckhead students are counted separately; in previous reports they were counted as enrolled either in Athens or at the Gwinnett campus.

For all four campuses combined, undergraduate enrollment totals 24,458, a 2.8 percent increase from last spring. Total graduate enrollment (6,845) and professional school enrollment (1,543) are both up 1.2 percent from last year.

UGA’s enrollment is part of a 5.8 percent growth in spring semester enrollment for the University System of Georgia. A total of 272,910 students are enrolled in the system’s 35 colleges and universities. UGA has the largest enrollment, followed by Georgia State University (27,424), Georgia Perimeter College (23,315), Kennesaw State University (20,729) and Georgia Institute of Technology (18,025).

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Search committee named to fill provost post at UGA

University of Georgia President Michael F. Adams has appointed a search committee to help choose a successor to Arnett C. Mace Jr., who will retire as senior vice president for academic affairs and provost on Jan. 1, 2010.

William Gray Potter, university librarian and associate provost, will chair the 20-member committee composed of faculty, staff, administrators, students and alumni. The committee will work with a consultant firm to conduct a national search to find a successor to Mace, who announced his retirement in January.

“I am very grateful to Bill Potter for once again agreeing to chair the search committee for a new provost,” said Adams. “A list of top-flight university citizens encompassing a broad scope of university-wide interests has been put together, and I am confident that this group will help us secure a successor to Arnett Mace who is worthy of being provost at the University of Georgia.”

In addition to Potter, who also headed the search committees for Mace and his predecessor Karen Holbrook, other committee members are:

Donna Alvermann, Distinguished Research Professor of language and literacy education in the College of Education; J. Scott Angle, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences; Rodney Bennett, vice president for student affairs; Jeffrey Bennetzen, the Norman and Doris Giles/Georgia Research Alliance Professor of molecular genetics in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences; Hank Clay, president of the Graduate Student Association;

Dan Coenen, University Professor and Harmon W. Caldwell Chair in constitutional law in the School of Law; Libby Morris, director of the Institute of Higher Education; Norman Fletcher, a UGA graduate and former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court who serves as chair of the Arch Foundation; Lisa Fusillo, associate professor and head of the department of dance; Stuart Ivy, an information technology manager in the College of Veterinary Medicine and president of the Staff Council; Bruce Hollett, associate professor of large animal medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine and chair of the University Council Executive Committee;

Tricia Kalivoda, associate vice president for public service and outreach; Tom Landrum, senior vice president for external affairs; John Maltese, the Albert Berry Saye Professor and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of political science in the School of Public and International Affairs; Connor McCarthy, president of the Student Government Association;

Vasu Nair, the William H. Terry Sr. Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in the College of Pharmacy who also heads the department of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences and is director of the UGA Center for Drug Discovery; Annette Poulsen, the Augustus H. ABilly@ Sterne Professor and head of the department of banking and finance in the Terry College of Business; Barbara White, the university’s chief information officer and associate provost; and Steve Wrigley, vice president for government relations and director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government.

Adams said the committee will begin work in the next few weeks with a goal of having the new provost in place by Jan. 1.

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University of Georgia qualifies three teams for National Debate Tournament

The University of Georgia Debate Team has qualified three teams to the National Debate Tournament for the first time since 2003. The NDT will be held at the University of Texas at Austin later this month.

The NDT is a qualifying event for the 78 best two-person debate teams in the country. As part of the selection process, only six schools are allowed to bring three teams to the event, based on an evaluation of competitive records over the course of the season.

This year the schools that have qualified three teams are: University of California-Berkeley, Emory, Harvard, Northwestern, Wake Forest and the University of Georgia.

The three UGA teams are comprised of debaters Brittany Cambre and Adam Schmidt, Karen Harrison and Maggy Warden, and Mike Lacy and Tommy Beyer.

The team’s new coach, Casey Harrigan, is in his first year at UGA preparing the teams for both regional and national competitions. This also marks the 20th consecutive year that UGA has qualified at least one team for the National Debate Tournament. Harrigan is a faculty member in the department of speech communication in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

The trip to Austin will be funded through the support of the President’s Venture Fund.

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UGA Graduate School Offers Insight for Those Seeking Graduate Education

To quell anxieties frequently associated with pursuing graduate education, the University of Georgia Graduate School is offering its annual Preparing for Graduate School workshop on Wednesday, Feb. 25 from 5-7 p.m. in room 102 of the Miller Learning Center.

Although it is targeted primarily to UGA undergraduates, the workshop is open to the public and will cover topics ranging from navigating standardized test requirements to finding financial support for the often long-term commitment of graduate study. It will offer information specific to graduate and professional programs at UGA as well as general information about other regional and state institutions.

The first segment of the workshop will focus on graduate admissions, including a panel discussion with faculty members of graduate programs. The second segment will address financing and budgeting items and offer a question and answer session with a panel of current UGA graduate students.

According to Graduate School administrators, participants should leave the workshop knowledgeable of application and enrollment requirements as well as the commitments needed to complete an advanced degree.

Those interested in attending the free workshop should reserve a space at grecruit@uga.edu by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 24.

For more information on this or any other Graduate School programs, see www.grad.uga.edu.

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UGA to Host Competition to Inspire High School Students about Engineering

The University of Georgia will host eight teams of students from seven Georgia high schools for a Junior Engineering Technical Society competition on Thursday, Feb. 19. The theme of the national competition, to be held at Driftmier Engineering Center on the UGA campus, is Behind the Scenes at America’s Theme Parks.

An annual academic competition designed to give students in grades 9-12 the opportunity to discover real-world applications of math and science, the Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science program utilizes actual engineering scenarios to challenge students and demonstrate the possibilities of a career in engineering. The national competitions for 2009 will take place at more than 75 locations across the country between Feb. 2 and March 15. Thousands of students are hosted by colleges and universities every year to inspire critical thinking and teamwork while fostering enthusiasm for math and science during the one-day event.

“This competition can inspire students far beyond the classroom by helping them see the wonders math and science can bring to life such as roller coasters, monitoring equipment in hospitals, at play grounds and more,” said John Mativo, an associate professor in the College of Education’s department of workforce education, leadership and social foundations and one of the co-chairs for the event. “When students compete in TEAMS they learn the answer to that age-old question, ‘When will I ever use this?’ And the answer is as an engineer.”

“With this year’s JETS/TEAMS competition, we wanted to provide the students within the Northeast Georgia area the opportunity to evaluate their aptitude at solving some typical engineering problems encountered by designers of theme parks,” said Chi Thai, associate professor in the department of biological and agricultural engineering and a co-chair of the event. “The goal is for students to recognize ‘engineering’ aspects in their everyday life,” Thai said.

Both Mativo and Thai are members of the UGA Faculty of Engineering. Thai will hold a workshop on robotics for advisors during the afternoon test session.

For more information on the event and to register teams for the 2009 JETS/TEAMS competition at UGA, go to http://www.engr.uga.edu/people/thai/JETS-TEAMS.html

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2009 State of the University of Georgia Address

University of Georgia President Michael F. Adams presented the 2009 State of the University Address today. The full text of the address is below.

The State of the University Address
by Michael F. Adams, President
The University of Georgia

Thank you, Bruce, for that introduction and for your leadership on Council this year.

Good afternoon to each of you, and thank you for joining me as I am privileged to report annually to the faculty on the state of the university.

Who could have predicted the changes and challenges that 2008 would bring locally, nationally and internationally? An African-American and a woman in the Democratic presidential primary, competing for the opportunity to face the oldest presidential candidate in history in one of the most unusual elections ever in America. A man named Wakamatsu became a manager in major league baseball, while in Chicago “Da Bears” were coached by a man named Lovie and the White Sox managed by a Hispanic.

Couple all that with one of the oddest vice presidential picks in history, and “you betcha” it was a year of change.

The world is changing.

On a serious note, these events highlight the kind of world for which we are preparing our students.

This has been both a rewarding and challenging year for the University of Georgia. Great successes in some areas have been tempered somewhat by the difficulties in the state budget. The markets remain low with a high degree of volatility. The optimism generated by the success of the Archway to Excellence campaign has been offset by these uncertainties. Despite challenges, we are committed together, without hesitation, to our core missions of teaching, research and service. Indeed, many of you have gone the extra mile and carried heavier burdens, and I am indebted to you for that.

I particularly wish to recognize the faculty of this great university. Through these difficult times, despite the larger classes, despite the late hours, despite decreased office resources, and other obstacles that have positioned themselves before you, you have stepped up your efforts and labored to teach, to serve and to inquire into the nature of things. Your commitment to the academy and to this institution is what has sustained our progress, and for that I am truly grateful.

If you are a faculty member here today, I would like to ask you to stand so that we can express our gratitude to you.

As difficult as some of the circumstances we face may seem, we have faced obstacles here before. Listen now to these words from Tom Dyer’s excellent bicentennial history of the University of Georgia, written to describe the outlook for this place in its earliest days:

“Baldwin’s prophecy (that Georgians ‘may soon see under their fostering care a very respectable literary institution’) proved overly sanguine, for the enthusiasm that marked the early planning soon faded. Sixteen years dragged by before the charter’s design was implemented and the university opened its doors to students in 1801. In the hiatus, false starts, incessant haggling, a declining interest in higher education, and even hints of embezzlement plagued the efforts of those who sought to establish a seat of higher education for the state.”

And these:

“{B}y 1806 a variety of religious, political and personality difficulties threatened to tear the institution apart. No single cause stood at the base of the problems, but religious disputes assumed increasing importance.”

“So desperate had the financial situation become by 1806 that the trustees petitioned the legislature for permission to conduct a lottery ‘to raise $3,000 to purchase books for the use of the University.’

The accumulating problems convinced the legislature to order the trustees to account for the low state into which the university had fallen.”

Some things never change. Instead of a $3,000 shortfall, University Librarian Bill Potter tells me that today it’s more like $3 million.

In 1818 there was a legislative attempt to move the university to Milledgeville. In 1830, New College burned.

In 1841, the General Assembly, unhappy with what it perceived to be an elitist cast to the university (history does echo, doesn’t it?), voted to cut the year’s appropriation by half that year and in full the following year. Dyer writes:

“Soon after the unwelcome legislation, the Board of Trustees moved to reduce the size of the faculty by one third, with the dismissal of two faculty members. Although the board regretted the action, it saw no other course, thus lowering the faculty from six to four. With six faculty members, Georgia stood respectably among the better colleges in the country.

But with the reduction in force came a reduction in status and a lowering of prospects for future growth.”

In the spring and summer of 1861, 75 of the 123 enrolled students withdrew to fight in the Civil War. By early 1862, there were only 39 students on campus; three trustees would die in battle. In the fall of 1863, the board voted to suspend the operation of the university; it would not re-open until January 1866, with 78 students.

In the 1920s, concern grew over the prominence of athletics (I’m glad we don’t face that issue today), to the point that some wondered whether the city of Athens would have to expand the streets to accommodate gameday traffic. (Clearly an ancient concern that is not meaningful in 2009.)

In 1941, one of the most serious threats to the University of Georgia originated in the Governor’s office, when Governor Eugene Talmadge, angered over what he interpreted to be a pro-integration stance in the College of Education, “began a purge of the University System of Georgia.”

Talmadge bullied the Board of Regents into firing Dean Walter Cocking; when UGA Chancellor Caldwell threatened to resign in protest, the board voted to rehire Cocking.

An angry Talmadge then stacked the board with members who had agreed to fire Cocking. Emboldened, Talmadge sought the removal of other University System faculty for allegedly supporting racism and communism.

In December 1941, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools voted unanimously to strip the University System – not just UGA – of its accreditation in the fall of 1942. Accreditation became the central issue of the 1942 gubernatorial campaign, and Ellis Arnall won that race easily. The controversy resulted in the reformation of the Board of Regents, most significantly giving that board constitutional status. Accreditation was restored on September 1, 1942.

In the early 1960s the university was again the scene of racial strife, and only the late Ernest Vandiver’s willingness to change his mind after running on a segregationist platform kept UGA open for the admission of Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes. Governor Vandiver’s courageous action changed the direction of the University of Georgia toward greater inclusion forever.

You can be certain that throughout Georgia history the most pressing social issues have hit this campus before they hit the rest of the state. In many ways, UGA is a town hall where the state can vocalize its various opinions.

In more recent times, we have dealt with significant budget cuts in the early 1990s and during the 2002-2003 budget cycle, both of which resulted in multi-million-dollar programmatic cuts and layoffs.

I hope the point is clear – UGA has faced much significant challenge -- even threat -- that at the time seemed to portend doom. Yet every time, this great university came out of those challenges stronger, more focused and more committed to serving the state of Georgia.

Today we again face a significant challenge, yet I am fully confident that we will emerge from this as we always have – stronger, more focused and more committed to serving the people of Georgia.

The human tendency in times like these is to focus on the negative; we all fall prey to that temptation periodically. I have spent more time in the past year on options for reducing expenditures than I ever care to again.

And yet, the net result is that while we have contracted through attrition in several ways, we have to this point avoided layoffs.

The Herculean management efforts of many, but especially the fiduciary leadership of Arnett Mace, Tim Burgess, Ryan Nesbit and Chris Miller has allowed us to protect jobs. I would like for them to stand so that you may join me in thanking them publicly.

Among the documents that cross my desk every week are those that remind me of what we do well around here. I want to share some of those things with you today, in no particular order, but simply to demonstrate the depth of good work done by the people of this great university:

UGA is tied for 20th among public universities in the 2009 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” edition. UGA has been in the top 20 eight out of the past 10 years.

UGA was the only public university to have two students in the 2008 class of Rhodes Scholars. In addition, we had students receive Truman, Marshall and Goldwater scholarships. Only three other schools in the country had students win all of those honors – Columbia, Stanford and Yale. Late last year, we learned that a UGA student had received a Mitchell scholarship.

The Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases received the largest medical grant in UGA history -- $18.7 million from the Gates Foundation – to continue and expand research into treatments for schistosomiasis. That disease affects more than 200 million people in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.

Two UGA faculty were among the 68 recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Presented during a White House ceremony, the award recognizes young faculty who have made significant advances in their fields of study.

In four out of the past five years, a UGA law graduate has been selected to clerk in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Archway Project, which connects the resources of the university with communities in need, now serves seven communities: Moultrie/Colquitt County; Sandersville/Tennille /Washington County; Brunswick/Glynn County; Clayton County; Hart County; and Americus/Sumter County.

The Carl Vinson Institute of Government has signed a contract with the State Personnel Administration to conduct training for all state agencies.

The Institute also provides training and certification for county commissioners, city council members and judges, and more than 20,000 of them registered for those programs last year.

Under the auspices of the UGA Research Foundation, we purchased WNEG-TV and are in the process of converting space at the Grady College for studios and offices.

The UGA Alumni Association is the oldest such group in the South and the fourth oldest in the nation.

There are some 250,000 living alumni of the University of Georgia, and I have had the privilege of conferring almost one-third of those degrees.

Fulbright grants for international travel and study were awarded to six UGA students, five UGA faculty members and one staff member.

UGA is one of only two universities in the country to earn the Cleaning Industry Management Standard Certification with Honors. The certification applies to the management of the 28 buildings in the green corridor on North Campus.

Through the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, we own or manage with great care 23,928 acres around the state.

During the 2007-2008 academic year, more than 10,000 UGA students contributed nearly 300,000 hours of service to the community. For two years we have been recognized by the Corporation for National and Community Service for our programs to encourage and support student volunteerism.

UGA was included on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, which recognizes colleges and universities that support innovative and effective community service and service-learning programs.

According to the Institute of International Education, we are now fifth in the country in students having a long-term, residential study abroad experience.

Coincidentally, our Oxford program celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and Cortona celebrates its 40th. I continue to believe that international education changes lives.

UGA operates 77 weather stations around the state which monitor temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, solar radiation and soil moisture continuously. (We do everything but produce rain.)

Our Visitors Center recorded more than 55,000 contacts last year. Almost 19,000 people took a campus tour, with requests coming from 45 states and 13 countries.

Licensing revenues from research discoveries reached almost $24 million in fiscal year 2008, up almost 47 percent over the previous year and the seventh consecutive year of increased revenue.

We operate 157 Cooperative Extension Service offices around the state, putting the expertise of the University of Georgia within reach of everyone in the state. There are 163,000 students in Georgia enrolled in 4-H programs.

In a facility in Griffin are stored samples of more than 1,500 plant species from around the world, part of a USDA program to rebuild the world’s agricultural infrastructure in the event of a global catastrophe. UGA is one of four institutions in the nation where such samples are stored.

I could go on, but I will stop there. The point is that the University of Georgia, through its people, is continuing to do the good work that it has done for decades. More importantly, we will continue to do that good work in the coming years. The people of Georgia need us more today than they have in many years.

Indeed, 2010 marks the 225th anniversary of the signing of the UGA charter, and offers an opportunity both to recall the grand and glorious history of this place and, more importantly, to look to its future. I believe that in 2010, we will be a stronger university than we are today, and we will celebrate our past as we move briskly toward our future. To that end, I am appointing a university committee this year that will plan an anniversary celebration and symposium to be held during the spring semester of 2010.

Emeritus University professor and former vice president of instruction Dr. Tom Dyer, now retired, has accepted my request to chair that committee. Dr. Dyer authored a wonderful book on the history of the University of Georgia, and you have heard me reference passages from it today.

Dyer also helped the university with its bicentennial celebration in 1985. Among the many great things that happened during that celebration was the inauguration of the Holmes/Hunter Lecture.

I can think of no other more suited to lead our celebratory efforts in this regard, and I am grateful to Dr. Dyer for graciously stepping forth to do so.

Perhaps the most important thing that was completed in 2008 was the Archway to Excellence campaign.

Frankly, I was a bit surprised when I reviewed previous State of the University speeches and realized how little I had said about the campaign or about the important role of fundraising in general.

What was the Archway to Excellence campaign? What did we do, and why did we do it? First, we did our research. We analyzed the development statistics, with particular attention to the endowment, which was the single greatest deficiency.

In 1997, when I arrived, UGA’s endowment was approximately $220 million. It reached $700 million before the downturn in the markets and will get there again, with another $200 million in income-producing properties.

How did we get there? First and foremost, through the loyalty and support of UGA’s friends and alumni, who have come to understand that private support is a necessity, not a luxury. Truly great universities have very high levels of private support, and our alumni and friends want the University of Georgia to be one of those truly great universities.

Second is the hard work and shoe leather of the vice presidents, deans and development staff, who cultivate prospects and link their interests to our needs. The simple fact is that fundraising is friendraising first. We have hundreds of thousands of friends out there, and we want to meet them all. And frankly we want all of them to give a little something to little old UGA.

Steve Wrigley, now vice president for government relations who also served as senior vice president for external affairs through much of the campaign, and Tom Landrum, who now holds that senior vice president’s post, have been often praised for their leadership.

But there are five other people who have played critical roles in this success, and I want to recognize them today. Robert Hawkins is associate vice president for development, with primary responsibility for directing the institution’s fundraising efforts.

Keith Oelke is executive director of both corporate and foundation relations and gift and estate planning. With $108 million, or 16.5 percent, of the campaign total coming from those two sources, it is easy to see what an important role Keith has played.

Greg Daniels is senior director of principal and major gifts. Any successful campaign is built on a foundation of large gifts, and Greg is responsible for cultivating those people with the capacity for multi-million-dollar gifts.

Tammy Gilland is senior director of constituent-based programs. She manages the relationship between the university’s fundraising efforts and those of the more than two dozen development officers for the schools, colleges and other units at UGA.

Finally, David Jones is the director of the Donor Research unit, and he also directs the Annual Fund, which raises critically important unrestricted funds for UGA as well as money designated for specific schools and colleges.

Please join me thanking them for their very good work on behalf of the University of Georgia.

The Archway to Excellence campaign set out with a goal of $500 million in support of the mission of this university. It closed on June 30, 2008 with $653.4 million in gifts and pledges. I am deeply grateful to the alumni, friends and supporters of this university for their tremendous support of the campaign and UGA.

More important than the total, though, is the fact that the people of Georgia now fully understand the role that private giving plays in building a top-quality flagship university for this state.

So what did the campaign do for UGA? More than 102,000 donors made gifts or pledges totaling $653.6 million. By category, those gifts were

$82.3 million for student scholarships, awards and other support
$54.7 million for endowed professorships, chairs and faculty support
$174.3 million for academic and research program support
$51.9 million to help build the new learning environment
$38 million to serve the state and nation with outreach programs
$84.9 million for general unrestricted support
$151.8 million for the Georgia Bulldog Club’s support of varsity athletic programs
And millions more for other projects and needs. This is a historic record for UGA.
Given those, what did the campaign not do? A campaign, no matter how successful, never solves all problems. Most gifts and pledges are restricted – the donor gives money to the institution for a specific purpose, program or project. Few of the funds go toward operating expenses. As I noted earlier, some of the gifts are planned or deferred – wills, estates, trusts or other vehicles that dedicate future revenue to the university.

Yet as the prior list demonstrated, virtually everybody on campus has benefited or will benefit from the campaign in some way.

This is certainly not the last campaign that UGA will undertake. But in the next few years, what you will see is a shift from overall university fundraising to a focus on school, college and unit fundraising.

The responsibility is now on the Franklin College and the Terry College and the Grady College and the School of Law and the College of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Social Work and all the colleges and schools to build the same sort of case for support among their constituencies that we built for the Archway campaign.

It is on the State Botanical Garden and the Athletic Association and the Performing Arts Center and other units to do the same.

The construction that will soon begin on the much-needed expansion of the Georgia Museum of Art is a good example of the kind of constituent-based fundraising that will be required for units to meet their own goals. That project will cost $20 million, and it is all private money.

The biggest challenge for us right now is that just when it appeared that we were beginning to recover from the $54 million in cuts we suffered in FY03-04, we are again facing substantial cuts in the FY09 budget that will clearly stretch into FY10 as well.

We have two choices. We can sit around and whine and wring our hands, bemoaning our fate and pointing fingers, or we can produce our way out of this by generating additional revenue and becoming more self-sustaining. It will not be easy, and yet it is not easy for the Governor and the Legislature, either. State tax receipts are down relative to budget expectations, and the predictions for a quick and full recovery are not good. The University System is 10.4 percent of the state’s $22 billion budget, and UGA’s portion of the state budget is about 2.35%. With some 38 percent of our budget coming directly from the state, we are not well insulated from a sustained downturn in the state’s economy.

This is not to criticize the state, which has been quite helpful to UGA. But we do need to understand the gravity of the situation and we need to say to the state that we will help.

The best course of action for the University of Georgia is to continue to generate more revenue on our own, reducing the need for state funding. To that end, there are five actions we must undertake.

First, we must be successful in the move to unit-based fundraising.

There are faculty in law, in ecology, in family and consumer sciences, in environment and design and in every school and college who deserve to be in endowed professorships and chairs. There are likewise students who deserve scholarships and fellowships. There are alumni and friends of every college and school with the capacity and desire to make those gifts.

There are programs in the Institute for Behavioral Research, in the Graduate School, at the Ag farms and across this campus that deserve outside support, and there are people with the capacity and the desire to support them.

The task at hand is to identify those people, build relationships with them and connect their resources to our needs as we did so successfully in the Archway campaign.

A dean, vice president or, yes, president at any college or university who is not spending at least one-third of his or her time on development is not going to be successful and, frankly, is holding the institution back. It is an essential part of the job.

This does not signal the end of the campaign but a refocusing of our efforts toward the birth of a new culture of development at the University of Georgia.

Second, we must generate more money on our own. We have had some successes in this area – after several relatively flat years, research grants are now on an upward trajectory. In 2008, UGA received $4.1 million from the Department of Agriculture to study the mysterious deaths of honeybee colonies; $9.2 million from the National Institutes of Health to look into the molecular underpinnings of the early steps that cells take in becoming specialized cell types; and a $9 million NIH grant to study barriers to effective addiction treatment, among many others.

I have no doubt that there is additional research currently underway at UGA that is deserving of such funding, if we are willing to do the work of seeking it and applying for it. In what is a very competitive grant environment, we simply have to do more and do better. Faculty must be more aggressive in pursuing grant funding.

The initiative with the Medical College of Georgia to train physicians in Athens will provide opportunities to boost proposals and grants for the College of Public Health, communications, business, law, biostatistics and other areas.

Third, we must raise tuition at least to the mid-range of Southern Regional Education Board flagships. Currently, we are at the bottom of that list. I never thought I would live to see the day where tuition at the University of Georgia, a top-20 public university, was $80 below Alabama, $300 below Tennessee, $2,700 below South Carolina and $1,500 below Kentucky.

I am willing to move tuition toward the middle of the SREB pack either through straight tuition or through a fee structure.

Tuition is an investment in the quality of the educational experience for every student at UGA. All the good intentions in the world are not going to pay faculty at an appropriate level.

In December, Smart Money magazine, a publication of the Wall Street Journal, published a story entitled, “Why the Ivies Aren’t Worth It.” The story looked at the return on investment by comparing what students paid in tuition and what they earned in their early and mid-careers. UGA placed fourth on that ranking, with a return almost twice that of Harvard. As I told the reporter, “We are such a bargain.”

In recent months, the Governor of Florida and that state’s higher education leadership have approved tuition increases that will float to the national norm. I don’t want to be behind Florida in anything.

Fourth, we must develop a realistic pricing structure for auxiliary units such as athletics, housing, student activities, food services, transportation and parking. I will recommend to the Cabinet that we assess a percentage of auxiliary revenues for the purpose of supporting the academic mission of the university.

The university provides central administrative and leadership support to the auxiliaries, and they all ultimately rise and fall on the strength of the academic program. (Nobody comes to UGA for our parking, after all.)

The captured dollars will go to funding the core instructional mission of the University of Georgia.

Fifth, and perhaps most importantly, we must produce more credit hours. In the past five years, credit hour production has remained flat, as has enrollment.

The formula which determines the level of our funding has a two-year lag, meaning that this year’s funding is based on enrollment and credit-hour production during the 2006-07 academic year; enrollment and credit-hour production this year will fund the 2010-11 academic year. It is easy to see how the number of credits we generate can stagnate that revenue source for years at a time if we are not more intentional about teaching more.

The formula’s most serious flaw, however, is that it is exclusively quantity-driven, with no qualitative indicators. Call me biased, but I believe that a credit hour at the University of Georgia is one of the very best credit hours in the system, but the formula does not. There is no consideration of the value – and expense – of producing a credit hour at a research university. No consideration of retention, of graduation rates, of the success of our alumni. Until the formula recognizes quality, we, like most major public universities, have little choice but to examine revenue production and use in every phase of this endeavor. Instead of worrying about what is being done to our budget, we can work in this area to improve a revenue stream to the benefit of the entire university community.

The fact is that this one area, particularly with the new facility for graduate programs in Gwinnett and the undergraduate programs in Griffin and Tifton, may offer the greatest potential for enhancing the university’s bottom line. And lest these measures seem too stringent, remember that the only end of these means is to benefit students and faculty.

The University of Georgia has endured hard times before – closing the campus during war, integration, political threats to academic freedom, budget cuts – and every time, the people of this university have risen to the challenge, done what had to be done and lived to enjoy even greater success. I am confident that we will do so again. The choice for us, again, is clear – carp and moan and sit by while the quality we have built at this university declines, or produce ourselves through this challenge.

For me, it’s an easy choice. I will not allow us to wallow in self-pity.

I wish that the trajectory of this university were always upward, without interruption. I wish we never had to face the challenges we have faced this year. I wish that the hardships placed upon the faculty and staff, and particularly those at the lower end of the wage scale, were not as significant as they have been. But an institution that has been around for 224 years will face times like these periodically.

There can be no doubt that UGA is infinitely stronger today than it was 15 or 20 years ago. Indeed that strength, coupled with a palpable commitment to excellence by all of my colleagues and the efficient and innovative management of those I have already mentioned will allow us to weather this downturn as we have done before.

For the average student there was relatively little impact from the budget crisis in 2008. The imposition of a $100 temporary student fee does require our students to assist with the management of this situation as we have been asking faculty and staff to do at, frankly, a greater level.

In that regard, just this morning, Dr. Arnett Mace shared with his staff his intention to retire as Provost at the end of this calendar year -- something that he shared with me just a few weeks ago. You may not know that he first approached me two years ago expressing those very same intentions. However, I prevailed upon him to remain and provide leadership to our academic enterprise and help steward us through these financially challenging times. He selflessly agreed to serve longer than he had originally planned.

I will have more to say about his retirement from the Provost’s position at an appropriate time at the end of the year. But it behooves me to share with you today that Arnett’s contributions to the University of Georgia have made this a better place for everyone. I am neither exaggerating nor being melodramatic when I say that there are many people who would, quite frankly, not be employed today but for Dr. Mace’s extraordinary management leadership, particularly during these past two years. And there are literally thousands of students who would have experienced an education of lesser quality and value if not for Arnett’s efforts.

Even as he retires, I’ve asked him to continue to serve this institution on a part-time basis for another two years to help shepherd the medical initiative to its permanent location at the Navy School property and to help assist with a few key donors that provide promise for the University of Georgia going forward.

Arnett, we thank you for your stalwart dedication, commitment and service to this university community. I ask you to please stand, and I ask the audience to join me in expressing our gratitude to Provost Arnett C. Mace Jr.

We are here, first and foremost, to serve the students in good times and bad, and we will continue to do so to the best of our ability. We will continue to make progress in 2009.

We will finish the new Pharmacy Building. We will open the Tate Center Expansion. We will begin to expand the Georgia Museum of Art. We will open the expanded Student Health Center. We will begin the Special Collections Library.

We will teach more effectively, we will manage more prudently, we will research with a wider scope and we will not take one step back from serving the people of Georgia.

We will work with our friends in government and with our many alumni and supporters. We will not whine or criticize. But when recovery comes, as it surely will, we will hold our funding partners to the same level of cooperation that we have demonstrated to them.

We will not retreat. We will not accept a march toward mediocrity. This will be a better place in 2009 and beyond than it was when the 21st century began.

I am privileged to work with the quality of people who commit their talents to the University of Georgia, and it is an honor to continue to call you colleagues and friends.

Thank you.

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UGA’s Organic Program Graduates First Students

Kate Smith has had lots of dirt under her fingernails as a horticulture graduate from the University of Georgia. And some of that soil has been certified organic.

She and Kelly Broderick stepped across UGA’s graduation stage in December as the first students to complete UGA’s new certificate program in organic agriculture.

“It’s made me realize that having my hands in the dirt is something I need in life,” Smith said of the program. “It was an incredibly rewarding experience.”

Smith graduated with a bachelor’s degree in horticulture in December. She’s moving to Washington, D.C. this month to hunt for a job in agriculture policy.

Broderick, an ecology graduate, plans to get a master’s degree that focuses on sustainable agriculture. But right now she’d really “love to get a job on a farm working,” she said. Broderick eventually wants to go into education and develop a science curriculum based around agriculture.

Organic at UGA

Organic agriculture is farming with minimal chemical inputs. It emphasizes management practices that restore, maintain or enhance farmland. And before UGA’s program started a year and a half ago, the scientific study of organic agriculture was something missing from Georgia’s college curriculum. The program has grown to include 20 students, approved classes and an organic farm and greenhouses.

Smith said the program helped her “see through the romanticism of agriculture.” And that’s one of UGA horticulture professor Marc van Iersel’s goals in teaching organic agriculture.

“There are a lot of myths surrounding organic agriculture. I hope this program gives them a more science-based approach,” said van Iersel, who is based in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

One of his students is already testing his organic agriculture knowledge. Economics major James Hamilton is starting a two-acre organic farm in Cleveland, Ga. This year, he’ll set up a small CSA – community supported agriculture – and provide produce to paying subscribers.

“Hopefully what I’ll grow will be a lot of heirloom” plants, he said. “They taste better, and they’re more interesting to grow. I’m not so concerned with yields. I’m just seeing what will grow.”

UGA’s certificate program in organic agriculture has four required courses and six hours of electives. The certificate is similar to a minor for undergraduates, with faculty from various departments and colleges teaching in the program.

Van Iersel would like to see 25 to 30 students enroll in the program each year or a total of 50 students in the program. “If we consistently attract that many students, it would be time to start thinking about an organic major,” he said. He’d like to see the program springboard into both a minor and a major in organic agriculture.

Using the program

UGA students in the organic certificate program apply their knowledge in a variety of ways. “This program could benefit anybody who has an interest in growing of any kind,” said Dain Goedeke, a UGA landscape architecture major. He plans to apply the soils knowledge he gained in his future design projects. “I don’t think a lot of landscape architects do that.”

Horticulture major Jacob Adams’ master plan is to have “a micro farm with my family and an integrated restaurant and grocery store.”

But not all of van Iersel’s students are pursing careers in organic agriculture.

French graduate Rick Power took a job with a charitable organization. He took several organic classes but didn’t formally complete the certificate program. Now living in Massachusetts, Power works for Heifer International, a non-profit organization that’s goal is to help end world hunger and poverty through self-reliance and sustainability.

For more information on UGA’s organic certificate program, visit www.uga.edu/organic.

By Stephanie Schupska
University of Georgia

Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.


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UGA College of Environment and Design Receives Top Rankings in 2009

The University of Georgia College of Environment and Design's landscape architecture programs again received top national rankings. The bachelor's program was ranked first in the nation, and the master's program was ranked second in the 2009 edition of America's Best Architecture & Design Schools.

This continues a history of high ratings for the programs, which have both placed in the top five for the past five years - as long as landscape architecture programs have been nationally ranked. This is the second time that the bachelor's program has been ranked the best in the country.

Graduates of the College of Environment and Design also placed first in three of seven skill assessments considered in the ranking: sustainable design, security design and computer applications. CED graduates ranked second in two other assessments-analysis and planning and construction methods and materials.

Both the graduate and undergraduate programs offer Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification as part of the curriculum. Only 14 percent of the programs surveyed nationally can match that claim, putting the UGA programs on the cutting edge of sustainable design.

The America's Best Architecture & Design Schools rankings are the design industry equivalent of the U.S .News and World Report college rankings. To produce the rankings, trade publication DesignIntelligence asks employers which schools' recent graduates are best prepared to face the demands of the profession. This means that the high rankings will not only attract students to the college, but also serve as an endorsement for graduating students seeking employment.

UGA's College of Environment and Design is the only college in the United States dedicated specifically to landscape architecture and historic preservation, and features the largest landscape architecture faculty anywhere.

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