The officers of the Board of Regents shall be the Chair, Vice Chair, Chancellor, Secretary to the Board, and Treasurer. The Board of Regents may establish or abolish such offices and positions as may be necessary to carry out the functions of the Board.
The Board of Regents shall elect the Chancellor annually (BoR Minutes, April 2007). The Chancellor shall be given an annual letter of agreement. In case of any vacancy in the chancellorship, the Board shall name an Acting Chancellor who shall serve until the office of the Chancellor shall be filled.
1.2.1 System and Board Responsibilities
The Chancellor shall be the chief executive officer of the USG as well as the chief executive officer of the Board of Regents and, as such, shall perform those duties that are prescribed by the Board (BoR Minutes, February 2007).
The Chancellor shall be responsible to the Board for the prompt and effective execution of all resolutions, policies, rules, and regulations adopted by the Board for the order and operation of the entire USG and for the government of any and all of its institutions. The Chancellor’s discretionary powers shall be broad enough to enable him/her to discharge these responsibilities. The Chancellor is authorized to delegate or re-delegate all approvals and actions as designated by The Policy Manual (BoR Minutes, July 2007).
The Chancellor shall be the regular channel through which policies of the Board of Regents shall be announced. The heads of USG institutions shall not make any announcements of the Board’s policies until so authorized by the Chancellor.
The Chancellor may limit the matriculates to the educational facilities at the USG institutions.
The Chancellor shall recommend the appointment of administrative officers to the extent that officers are required to be approved. The Board shall promptly accept or reject the recommendations of the administrative officers (BoR Minutes, April 2007).
1.2.2 Membership and Committee Responsibilities
The Chancellor shall attend and shall participate in, without the privilege of voting, all of the meetings of the Board and its Committees except as otherwise determined by the Board, and shall be an ex-officio member of all Committees without the authority to vote. The Chancellor shall make recommendations to the Board for the appointment of institution presidents and senior level employees of the Office of the Board of Regents to the extent that officers are required to be approved.
The Chancellor shall be a member of all faculties and other USG academic bodies. He/she shall decide all questions of jurisdiction, not otherwise specifically defined, of the several councils, faculties, and officers. The Chancellor shall have the right to call meetings of any council, faculty, or committee at any time (BoR Minutes, 1986-87, p. 263).
The Chancellor shall have the power to veto any act of any council, faculty, or committee of any USG institution but, in doing so, shall transmit promptly to the proper officer a written statement of the reason for such veto. A copy of each veto statement shall be transmitted to the Board of Regents (BoR Minutes, April 2007).
1.2.3 Report and Document Responsibilities
The Chancellor shall prepare and submit to the Board of Regents such annual and special reports concerning the USG as the Board may require. The Chancellor, and/or the Chancellor’s designee, shall be the medium through which all matters shall be presented to the Board, and to the Committees of the Board, including reports, recommendations, and suggestions from institutions, their faculty members, employees, and students (BoR Minutes, February 2007; April 2007).
The Chancellor may, on his/her own initiative, make such reports to the Board as will, in his/her opinion, be helpful to the members in the discharge of their duties.
The Chancellor, and/or the Chancellor’s designee, is authorized and empowered, in the name of and on behalf of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, to take or cause to be taken any and all such other and further action as, in the judgment of such officials, may be necessary, proper, convenient, or required in connection with the execution and delivery of such instruments documents or writings in order to carry out the intent of authority delegated herein.
1.2.4 Fiscal Responsibilities
The Chancellor shall be responsible for the preparation for the Board of a suggested allocation of state appropriations to the USG institutions. This suggested allocation shall be accompanied by a statement of the basis upon which it is to be determined. The suggested allocation shall be transmitted to the Board by the Committee on Finance and Business Operations with such modifications as the Committee may deem necessary.
Budgets of the USG member institutions shall be submitted by heads of the institutions to the Chancellor. When the Chancellor has approved the budgets, the Chancellor shall submit all of the USG budgets to the Board for final approval.
The Chancellor, and/or the Chancellor’s designee, is authorized to execute all documents concerning federal aid to the USG, including, but not limited to, applications, acknowledgments of grants, and other necessary documents, in the conduct of affairs on behalf of the Regents of the University System of Georgia in connection with the United States Government (BoR Minutes, 1966-67, pp. 414-415; February 2007; April 2007).
The Chancellor is further authorized to settle any claim or dispute against the Board or its employees for an amount not to exceed $300,000 of Board of Regents’ funding (BoR Minutes, May 2006).
The Chancellor and the Chancellor’s designee are authorized and empowered to execute, accept, and deliver for, on behalf of, and in the name of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and under its Seal, and without prior approval by the Board, the following documents:
- Any and all rental agreements, supplemental agreements, and subrental agreements in which the Board of Regents is named as the tenant of the property rented and where the total rent to be paid by the Board does not exceed the sum of $5,000 per month.
- Any and all contracts, agreements, deeds, licenses, or other instruments related to the purchase or gift of real property (other than property acquired by condemnation) at a purchase price not to exceed the average of three separate appraisals made by independent and licensed real estate appraisers and where the purchase price (or gift value) of the real property does not exceed the sum of $100,000. (BoR Minutes, April 2007).
The Chancellor, and/or the Chancellor’s designee, is authorized to act without prior approval of the Board as the contracting officers for and on behalf of the Board of Regents, with authority to act for the Board in the execution of:
- Construction contracts;
- Change orders to construction contracts;
- Contracts for professional services;
- Selection of architects and engineers and execution of architectural/engineering contracts for the preparation of plans for new buildings or engineering projects,
- Major remodeling;
- Allocation of rehabilitation funds; and,
- Other USG projects, except routine maintenance.
However, the authority so delegated shall not exceed the sum of $1,000,000 for any one contractual obligation. The actions taken under the authority of this paragraph shall be reported annually to the Committee on Real Estate and Facilities (BoR Minutes, 1991-92, pp. 319-320).
The Chancellor, and/or the Chancellor’s designee, is authorized to allocate to USG institutions, without prior approval of the Board, capital outlay appropriations – rehabilitation funds (cash or bonds) in amounts not to exceed $200,000 for any one project. The actions taken under the authority of this paragraph shall be reported annually to the Committee on Real Estate and Facilities (BoR Minutes, 1991-92, pp. 319-320).
The Chancellor, and/or the Chancellor’s designee, is authorized to delegate any or all of the above authority to act as contracting officers to individual USG institutions based upon an evaluation by the Chancellor or the Treasurer of the ability of an institution to properly administer the delegated authority. Such delegation of authority shall be administered in accordance with policies and procedures approved by the Chancellor, the Treasurer, or the Chancellor’s designee (BoR Minutes, 1991-92, pp. 319-320; October 2013).
The Secretary to the Board of Regents shall be elected by the Board of Regents upon the recommendation of the Chancellor, and shall not be a member thereof. The Secretary shall prepare the agenda for monthly Board meetings and shall assist in scheduling Board and committee meetings, and preparing and mailing meeting notices. The Secretary shall keep accurate record of the proceedings of the meetings of the Board and of committees and shall be responsible for maintaining the Bylaws and the Policy Manual of the Board; for distributing and indexing the minutes; for researching and retrieving Board actions; and, when requested, for scheduling Board members’ visits to University System of Georgia institutions.
The Secretary shall keep in safe custody the Seal of the Board and shall affix the Seal to those documents requiring it. When the Seal is affixed to a document, it shall be attested by the Secretary’s signature.
The Secretary and Assistant Secretaries to the Board and any designees of the Secretary shall be the agents for service of process for the Board of Regents and its members.
The Secretary shall perform such other duties and shall have such other powers as authorized by the Board.
The Treasurer shall be elected by the Board, upon the recommendation of the Chancellor; he/she shall not be a member thereof. The Treasurer shall be present at all meetings of the Board except as otherwise determined by the Board. He/she shall be placed under bond in an amount to be determined by the Board.
The Treasurer shall invest funds available for investments and shall maintain custody of securities, subject to the approval of the Board. He/she shall maintain financial supervision over trust funds of various institutions. The Treasurer shall see that all bank deposits of the USG and its institutions are adequately covered by insurance. He/she shall authorize a person or persons at each of the USG member institutions to sign checks drawn on banks where funds of the respective institutions are deposited, and shall empower the appointed person or persons to sign any documents that may be required by the banks in order to carry out this authorization. He/she shall see that fidelity bonds are secured for all persons in the USG for whom such bonds are necessary or advisable.
The Treasurer shall supply members of the Board with quarterly reports showing the financial status of the USG and of each member institution, and shall analyze all budgets and make copies of such analyses available to the Chancellor and members of the Committee on Finance and Business Operations. The Treasurer shall provide the Chancellor and members of the Committee on Finance and Business Operations with any information that will be helpful in preparing recommendations for the Board on the allocation of state funds. He/she shall assemble financial data that may be used as a basis for requests to the Governor and General Assembly for appropriations for the support of the USG and its institutions. The Treasurer shall see that USG institutions establish and maintain uniform and effective procedures of accounting, budgetary control, internal controls, inventory controls, and business practices and shall advise institutions on all problems of a fiscal or business nature. Accounting and reporting procedures of the Board of Regents shall be approved by the Chancellor and published by the Treasurer. The Treasurer shall assist each institution in preparing a manual of business procedures to be followed by that institution and shall assist the Vice Chancellor of Human Resources in developing policies governing terms and conditions of employment for classified personnel. Such policies shall include regulations regarding salaries and wages paid to various types of employees, job classification and merit plans, promotions, sick leaves, vacations, insurance, and retirement.
The Treasurer shall prepare and publish annual reports on the financial operations of the USG and its institutions. He/she shall be authorized to sign on behalf of the Board all documents necessary to convey, assign, transfer or sell investments for the various trust accounts for which the Board of Regents is the designated trustee. He/she shall perform such other duties and have such other powers as the Board may authorize or as may be assigned to him/her by the Chancellor.
The Treasurer is the USG chief financial officer and is authorized, with the approval of the Chancellor, to delegate to the chief business officer of any institution the authority to execute any and all documents that may be necessary, required, or desirable in order to provide proper fiscal management of funds given to the institution or the Board of Regents for the benefit of the institution concerned.
Institutional chief business officers are responsible for enforcing the fiscal policies and procedures established by the Board of Regents, the Chancellor and the Treasurer. Institutional chief business officers shall immediately report to the Treasurer any situation that reasonably could be expected to create a deficit at an institution in coordination with the President’s reporting of a deficit as required by the Policy Manual, Section 7.1.2.2 Deficits. Institutional chief business officers also must report to either the Treasurer or the USG chief audit officer any significant instances of non-compliance with Board Policy or business procedures that cannot be effectively remediated at the institution. To ensure accountability and effective fiscal management, the president of each institution shall consult with the Treasurer on significant personnel actions involving the institutional chief business officer to include appointment, qualifications for the position, and termination. The president shall determine the organizational and operating reporting relationships of the chief business officer at his or her institution (BoR minutes, October 2013).
1.2.5 Publicity Responsibilities
The Chancellor and his or her designee are authorized to give to the public and representatives of the press information pertaining to the Board of Regents and the University System of Georgia.