Chancellor's Report, October 10, 2007
Chancellor Erroll B. Davis, Jr.
Board of Regents Meeting
Before I give my report, let me echo the comments made earlier by the Chairman. We do appreciate all of the hard work expended and good results achieved by President Beheruz N. Sethna and his team in the staging of this meeting. I would like to particularly thank the Assistant Vice President for University Communications and Marketing for the University of West Georgia, Lisa Ledbetter. AS the often highlighted "single point of accountability," she did a wonderful job. This has been a very interesting and productive meeting, thanks in part to the excellent arrangements here at UWG. Please join me in thanking them for their hard work. I am compelled to also express my appreciation for the "Davis Corner" dedication on Monday. I always hate it when people come to podiums and discuss inside jokes, so for those of you who are not aware, Dr. Sethna has a special corner on the grounds here to commemorate my first visit to the campus, which included a spectacular misstep - and subsequent belly flop - I made into some newly laid pine straw. Consistent with my commitment to discipline, the straw paid dearly for this transgression - it was, in fact, paved over. We had a dedication of that paving the other evening, much to my shock, chagrin, and surprise, but certainly, my appreciation. My only regret is that my mother was not here to share that special moment with me. Seriously, on behalf of the Regents and the staff, we do appreciate the hospitality that we have received here at UWG.
This morning we held our initial meetings of the six Strategic Planning Oversight Committees. I hope these were meaningful to you in understanding the tasks we have set for ourselves. And I further appreciate your participation in this process. I, certainly, appreciate and value the obvious level of engagement I saw as I moved around to a number of the rooms this morning. You also received this morning a new publication - our Strategic Plan brochure. This new publication also provides readers with an "annual report" that indicates how we have laid the groundwork for the generation of that plan. In addition, it highlights the six goals of the new plan. In coming years, this document will serve as an important accountability tool for our progress toward achieving the goals that you have set for yourselves. It will be updated yearly and serve as an important record or measurement of our performance. In fact, you could refer to it as our "say-do" index as we go forward. Though you have heard me say this before, it bears repeating. The theme of this plan is "building capacity" - in every facet of the System's mission. The plan further supports our goal of educating more Georgians to higher levels than in the past. To put our growth in perspective - we have spent two days here at this campus of about 10,000 students - we are growing by the size of this campus every two years. That is our present growth rate and a lot of challenges are attendant with that type of growth. As we delve into the details of the plan implementation, it becomes even more important to make sure that we do get it right and that we do build the capacity in all needed areas in order to be successful going forward.
Goal four of the strategic plan calls for us to strengthen the University System's partnerships with the state's other education agencies. I have briefed you previously on the work of the Alliance of Education Agency Heads ("AEAH"), of which I am a member. A number of System staff are also involved in the Alliance's work. As you may recall from the media a few weeks ago, there was a story on the change in the high school graduation requirements here in the state. One of the goals of AEAH, in fact, was to the increase high school graduation rate as well as the numbers of graduates prepared to go on to some form of postsecondary education. You should be aware that this change in the high school graduation requirement was not done in a vacuum. The University System was a strong partner in the development of these new course requirements for high school graduation. As a result of the changes adopted by the State Board of Education, beginning with the ninth grade class in fall 2008, all graduates from Georgia's public high schools will be much better prepared for college and for the lifelong learning challenges they will most certainly face. Preparation of students entering into our institutions has been a cause for concern at a number of campuses. We are hopeful that, with this move, we will begin to address that issue. Yesterday, the Academic Affairs Committee heard a presentation from the Associate Vice Chancellor for P-16 Initiatives, Jan Kettlewell, on these newly approved course requirements and on the corresponding changes being proposed in the University System admission policy, so that these two sets of requirements are fully aligned.
Achieve, a national organization that is leading high school and college alignment, just completed a "quality review" of Georgia's new high school graduation requirements. The report said: "Georgia is one of the nation's leaders in setting rigorous standards for all students. The state's postsecondary and business outreach is commendable." This is a good national measure, but it also shows how vital and interconnected the work of the Alliance is and how important it will continue to be - and the wisdom of our choosing a course of cooperation with all of our education partners in this state.
I also want to update you on activity in our Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Initiative ("STEM") that you heard about at an earlier meeting during a presentation from President Carl V. Patton of Georgia State University and Dr. Kettellwell. STEM is an important component of our activity in strategic plan goal four as well as our work with the AEAH. It, as well, directly addresses one of the key areas of focus in the new high school curriculum - to increase the rigor of courses required in math and science. We recently asked for proposals from our institutions to meet our overall production targets for STEM. You were shown those targets before. We want to increase the number of teachers and students in this area and so we asked the campuses to come forward with ideas. I am pleased to report that we have received proposals from 27 of our 35 institutions. On October 5, we announced budget allocations for the selected proposals so that the institutions can begin, in this fiscal year, this vital work. In addition, our P-16 department has established a partnership with a national project - Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement ("MESA"). This effort is primarily focused at our access institutions and will provide them with programs that result in increased numbers of students from minority groups entering and preparing to transfer to baccalaureate degree programs in STEM fields. We are making procedural progress in these areas. We will hopefully report in the next few years on more substantive progress on the outcomes.
Let me take a few minutes to highlight some other important activities occurring within the System. One of these is the State Charitable Contributions Campaign. Last year, I challenged the System Office and our institutions to dramatically increase the level of employee giving to the program, and the response was excellent. The System office increased its giving by 600 percent. We just launched the program for the coming year with the theme: "Help Turn Lives Around - Give From The Heart." This year, we have raised the bar and are shooting for 100 percent employee participation at the System office. It is an ambitious goal, but I believe we should set ambitious goals. As we talk about creating a leadership culture within the University System, we need to be mindful that one of the benchmarks of leadership is the extent to which we give to help others. The concept of leadership at every level and on every aspect of our performance is a theme we are constantly trying to reinforce. This year we structured our campaign a little differently to have our leaders meet first. They were asked the question, "How can you ask others to give if you are not giving yourself?" We have had really a fantastic start to the campaign and I look forward to sharing the results with you later. I also wanted to thank those of you who responded to my very low key solicitation request of you, and if any of you have misplaced the letter or need a pledge form, just let me know and I will supply one for you.
Continuing on the subject of leadership, I spoke two weeks ago to the new Leadership Georgia class. As you may know, Regent Tarbutton has been a driving force in the Leadership Georgia program, and I, certainly, appreciated the opportunity to meet with this outstanding group of young leaders. It was a great experience. These are the leaders of tomorrow in our state and I am very pleased to note that our own Assistant Vice Chancellor for Fiscal Affairs, Usha Ramachandran, has been selected for the next class.
Also related to leadership in the University System, on September 10, 2007, we named Dr. Susan Herbst as executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer. Susan currently serves as the acting president of the University at Albany, State University of New York. She will assume her new role at the University System Office on November 1, 2007. She did, however, attend the presidents' meeting on October 4. I am very pleased that we were able to attract Dr. Herbst, and in fact, someone of her stature, to the University System. She is a scholar, an academic, yet also has extensive administrative leadership experience within a large system primarily from the campus level. Susan will bring an important academic perspective to the System Office in a role that clearly requires such a perspective. Let me also thank Dr. Dorothy Leland, president of Georgia College & State University, for her chairing of the search committee that identified Dr. Herbst. I look forward to introducing Dr. Herbst at our November board meeting. I believe she is clearly the right individual to help us strengthen the System's national presence.
Speaking of national presence - this time of year marks another annual academic ritual with national attention - college rankings. As you may know, I am not a huge fan of this ranking process. My main objection is that such rankings tend to reinforce a tendency in higher education to stand around and pat ourselves on the back, and they do not really measure the impact that we have or the value that we bring to the communities where we are very privileged to live and work. But, the reality is that one simply cannot ignore them - although more and more colleges and universities are trying to do so. So, with a nod to this annual ritual, let me briefly note that our institutions continue to be recognized positively in a number of these national surveys. The Washington Monthly has a ranking of the nation's best community colleges - and while we do not label our two-year access institutions as such, they recognized Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College ("ABAC") in their top ten in this country. The best known of the rankings, of course, is that produced by U.S. News & World Report. Georgia continues to be one of the few states with two schools in the top 20 list of public universities. Georgia Institute of Technology ("GIT") and the University of Georgia ("UGA") continue to be represented in this list - GIT at seventh, its highest ranking ever, and UGA at number 20 - in a three-way tie with Rutgers University and the University of Pittsburgh. Both schools also are recognized annually for a number of colleges and degree programs.
This year both Georgia State University and Georgia Southern University are in the report's "fourth tier" of top universities. I also find it significant that we are seeing other System institutions appearing more and more in the U.S. News rankings. In the category of "Best Universities - Master's" for the southern region we see Georgia College & State University and North Georgia College & State University. Under "Best Comprehensive Universities - Bachelor's" by region are Clayton State University, Dalton State College, and Macon State College. Georgia Southwestern State University, Kennesaw State University, Southern Polytechnic State University, University of West Georgia, Valdosta State University, Albany State University, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Augusta State University, Columbus State University, Fort Valley State University, and Savannah State University all are cited in the current rankings. As we work to create more distinctive institutions with greater student curb appeal, these rankings will indeed help support our efforts to direct more students to these institutions as a first choice. As such, these rankings can serve, albeit in a non-statistical manner, as a performance metric to gauge how well we are doing to carve out distinctive educational niches for some of our comprehensive universities. Having said all of that, however, - I still don't like them.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my report. Before I move on to introduce the next presentation, let me stop to entertain any questions. If there are none, then I will conclude with an introduction to the next presentation on today's agenda.
There were no questions.