A Month-by-Month Chronology of Board Actions
It’s official: the University System of Georgia has 31 institutions – four fewer than one year ago.
The Board of Regents approved the four institutions created over the past year from the consolidation of eight and appointed presidents to provide leadership.
After adopting four separate resolutions authorizing the new consolidated institutions, the regents appointed Dr. Riccardo Azziz president of Georgia Regents University, Dr. John Black as interim president of Middle Georgia State College, Dr. Virginia Carson as president of South Georgia State College and Dr. Bonita Jacobs as president of the University of North Georgia.
Chancellor Hank Huckaby noted that in response to the regents’ approval, celebrations on the campuses would inaugurate the new institutions as faculty, staff and students begin a new chapter in the University System’s history.
A nine-member working group began the planning work needed to ultimately transfer control and operation of the Georgia State Archives from the Georgia Secretary of State to the Board of Regents. The transfer requires passage of legislation that Governor Nathan Deal will propose in the 2013 session of the General Assembly.
The group’s purpose is to identify and research the immediate issues related to the transfer and bring these before University System Chancellor Hank Huckaby. The group will focus on the transition issues; long-term planning will be addressed if the transfer is completed.
Board of Regents Chair “Dink” NeSmith and University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby have announced the name of the finalist for the University of Georgia presidency, Jere Morehead.
Morehead is currently the senior vice president for Academic Affairs and provost at UGA. He previously served as UGA’s vice president for Instruction, vice provost for Academic Affairs, director of the Honors Program, and acting executive director of Legal Affairs.
In his annual address on the state of the University System of Georgia, Chancellor Hank Huckaby turned the occasion into comments about the “State of the Student.”
Measuring the state of the student is a more precise means of determining the state of the University System, Huckaby said. By this measure, “The University System is on the right path to drive access, ensure progress and increase success for our students,” he said.
Huckaby outlined for the Board of Regents how the system is changing and must continue to change to meet the evolving needs of students in a new era of tight resources.
“We must prepare our students to find their way in a new world,” Huckaby said. “We help them best by providing the access they need, by removing barriers and providing them with education of value that equips them to compete and contribute.”
While thanking Gov. Nathan Deal and the General Assembly for their continued, strong support of public higher education during tough economic times, Huckaby also acknowledged the responsibility of the University System to think and act differently to achieve its mission of creating a more highly educated Georgia.
Huckaby said that the “new normal” requires that those leading the University System and its 31 institutions must “explore different alternatives to the ones followed since we were created in 1932.” He said, “We are not going to be successful simply waiting for change. We must and we are driving some fundamental changes to our structure and to how we deliver higher education.”
The full text of Huckaby’s remarks can be accessed at: http://www.usg.edu/chancellor/speeches/chancellors_state_of_the_student_address_2013
Jere Morehead, senior vice president for Academic Affairs and provost at the University of Georgia, was named as the 22nd president of UGA by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.
Jere Morehead will assume the UGA presidency from Dr. Michael Adams, who will retire on June 30 2013, after serving as president since 1997 and will assume his new post on July 1, 2013, according to Board of Regents Chair “Dink” NeSmith.
Athletics will receive closer scrutiny by the Board of Regents under a new policy adopted by the University System of Georgia’s governing body. The new Policy 4.5 addresses the establishment of intercollegiate athletics, the expansion of sports, changes in intercollegiate athletic competition levels and the funding of these programs on all 31 campuses. Under this new policy, the Board of Regents must give its approval in these broad areas of athletics before an institution can move forward.
Georgia Gwinnett College President Daniel J. Kaufman has been named as the new president of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. Kaufman, who has been president of GGC since the institution’s founding in 2005, will step down from this role on June 30, 2013.
Hank Huckaby, chancellor of the University System of Georgia, has named Mark F. Lytle as the USG’s new vice chancellor for economic development. Prior to his appointment, Lytle served as the division director for the Georgia Centers of Innovation, a statewide strategic industry business support program run by the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
Dr. Kyle Marrero, vice president for University Advancement at the University of West Florida, Pensacola, was named as the seventh president of the University of West Georgia by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Marrero will assume his new post on July 1, 2013, according to Board of Regents Chair “Dink” NeSmith.
