Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr. Inaugural Address
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Georgia State Capitol
Thank you. To the Honorable Governor Sonny Perdue, Chairman Vigil, members of the General Assembly, other elected officials, members of the Board of Regents, illustrious former Regents, University System presidents and other higher education leaders, faculty, staff, student leaders, students and guests -- I thank you for your presence and your support.
To my wife, Elaine and my family, thank you for your support and your love these many years. And let me particularly thank those of you who have traveled great distances to be here today. And to my mother -- a native of LaGrange, Georgia returning home after a 50 year hiatus -- thank you for instilling in me the curiosity and drive that has served to guide me throughout my career. I’d ask that my mother and my wife please stand -- thank you for everything.
Finally, let me thank the Board of Regents for the opportunity to come back to Georgia. I thank you for taking a risk, in more ways than the obvious, with my selection as Chancellor!
Today is a day of celebration. While we may celebrate my arrival, above all we celebrate the power and the value of education to society. Our society has become enamored with interpreting symbols, and there are many here today. Holding this event in the House Chamber symbolizes the connection between the state and higher education. As the Governor mentioned, Georgia’s elected leadership created this system 75 years ago and has nurtured it and valued it ever since.
Another powerful symbol of the value of education is in the choice of our three speakers: David Ratcliffe, Bernice Butler and Givonte Latimore. What we see in these three motivated individuals is the power of education’s continuity.
From generation to generation, the power of education to transform lives is unchanged and unbroken. This is the ultimate value of education -- when individuals from all walks of life, and from every possible background and circumstance, receive a sense of hope, a sense of purpose and a new direction from it. The value of education also can be found in the thousands of our graduates who play key roles in our communities, in the workplace and in government. So we gather here today to celebrate the power and the value of education.
And we gather also to remind ourselves of the great responsibility we share to maintain and strengthen Georgia’s higher education system for Bernice Butler, Givonte Latimore and all that will follow -- including my granddaughter.
Today, I want to focus briefly on two areas where I see great opportunities for us -- and for Georgia’s students -- the academy and access to it. Both involve meeting significant challenges -- both hold the promise of enriching our lives.
First, we salute a tradition of academic excellence in the University System of Georgia. We respect the work of our predecessors. But we have the responsibility -- as they had the responsibility to those who preceded them -- not to merely tout our accomplishments. We have the responsibility to build upon them and to strengthen the academy to meet the demands and needs of the present and the future.
This means many things. It means looking at how we build targeted academic programs for our growing state in order to enhance our global competitiveness. It means broadening and deepening our connections to other education sectors to ensure more students at every level understand and embrace the value of education. It means working to ensure greater numbers of Georgians are prepared to enroll and succeed in postsecondary education. It means looking internally to strengthen our programs that help students progress through college and earn a degree.
The heart of our enterprise and our primary mission is teaching our students. That mission must remain strong in order for the academy to remain relevant and responsive to the needs of our students and the state.
Last week, in a meeting with Georgia high school students, physician and author Ferroll Sams noted that education is not about preparing for a career. Rather, Sams said the purpose of education is to “open the door to passion.” We must help open that door for our students.
My goal as chancellor is to create the kind of environment in which our students prepare not only for a profession or a career, but also to assume leadership roles in society. We must awaken the passion of our students for living in the world and contributing their all to the betterment of their communities, this state, and the nation. This University System must be the incubator for local, state and national leadership on every level.
Our second challenge is enlarging and broadening access to our System. As we build a system of educational excellence, we cannot lose sight that we also must ensure broad access to public higher education. Excellence without access is a wasteful use of scarce resources. Yet, access without excellence is a fraud perpetuated upon our students. The two -- academic excellence and broad access -- must go hand-in-hand.
As chancellor, I will focus the attention and resources of the University System on access -- particularly for students who may lack the financial resources to enroll in college. Recent reports note that across the nation, access continues to be an obstacle over which far too many would-be students stumble. The HOPE scholarship has been a great benefit for Georgia’s students. We are grateful for the vision that created HOPE and we are grateful for the commitment that sustains it. Current and past Boards have worked to keep tuition at our colleges affordable. This past April, we went one step further with our new “guaranteed tuition program.” All of these steps help expand access.
But there are still those for whom college poses financial hurdles. We must continue to look for and find ways of increasing the financial options that enable more Georgians to attend college. It is not in society’s best interest to lose so many potential students -- we need these individuals to help build our society. As chancellor, I am committed to raising awareness and securing new sources of support.
As a small, but symbolic, first step, in order to stimulate catalytic giving, our family foundation will transfer $100,000 to the University System of Georgia Foundation to establish a college financial aid seed fund, in honor of my mother, Mrs. Eleanor Davis. It is our hope and our goal that this fund will grow to become a significant new tool in our efforts to broaden access to the University System of Georgia.
But this will require others to build upon this seed fund if we are going to meet the need in ways that are substantive and not just symbolic. So I also issue a call and a challenge to those who have reaped the benefits of education … to invest in our future …by investing in the future of others.
Strengthening quality and ensuring access both are huge tasks. But they are tasks at which we can, must, and will excel. Part of our success must come from our ability to develop leadership skills at every level of this organization -- from classroom leaders to site-based leaders to institutional and system leaders. We will use the power of leadership to transform our University System and to truly harness all of our resources around system-wide needs and goals. We will use the power of leadership to reach new levels of excellence across the System and to broaden access for all Georgians to public higher education.
It comes back to my opening comment -- that today we celebrate both the power of leadership and the value of education. The two are linked. And the University System of Georgia is that link.
We have a great responsibility -- and a noble mission -- to open the door to passion for our students. We must awaken and then instill in them a lifelong passion for learning, for reasoned inquiry, for exploration, for service, and for leadership. That is the calling to which each of us answers in the service of education. David Ratcliffe, Bernice Butler, Givonte Latimore -- these individuals represent our life work. Hundreds of thousands more also represent the transformative power of higher education.
It is an awesome responsibility that we have. I accept it -- gladly and with a sense of purpose and direction. Yet, it is a responsibility I cannot bear alone. I must be joined by a Board with a sense of focus and purpose -- and I know I will. I must be assisted by a skillful and motivated group of 35 presidents with an ability to lead complex and challenging organizations -- and I know I will.
No man is an island and no one accomplishes anything alone in today’s complex society. If I do succeed, it will because we all succeed. But I will do my part. I will pledge to each of you assembled today -- and to our now almost 260,000 students and almost 40,000 faculty and staff, that I will devote my time, my limited skills and my passion to creating a new level of excellence for the 35 colleges and universities within our System. And I know my colleagues will join me in that quest. And in turn, we will all create a better place for our students and a new level of prosperity for the people of this great state.
Thank you.