Vol. 37, No. 6, Summer 2000
Vol. 37, No. 6, Summer 2000
[ Contents ]
An executive summary of the comprehensive study being conducted of the University System of Georgia's performance was presented to the Board of Regents at their August meeting.
Conducted in voluntary collaboration with the Governor's office, the Benchmarking and Management Review is enabling the University System to link its own goals and objectives with those of Gov. Roy Barnes. The Governor is revising the "State Strategic Plan" to emphasize results and accountability as educational priorities, and also is engaged in auditing state agencies' business practices to identify potential efficiencies.
The three-pronged University System project, described in terms of Scopes I, II and III, is an ambitious undertaking - perhaps unparalleled in higher education circles. According to the executive summary submitted to the Board of Regents, the initiative "may well establish a model for developing indicators and measuring performance, for both other state agencies and other public higher education systems."
The Pappas Consulting Group served as the primary consultant for the University System of Georgia project. The firm's president, Alceste T. Pappas, Ph.D., is the project leader/director. James H. Roth, partner-in-charge of Arthur Andersen LLP's Higher Education Practice is the project co-leader/director. J. Kent Caruthers, Ed.D. senior partner of MGT of America, Inc., directs the benchmarking components of the review.
Scope I of the study, already completed, involved collecting data from identified national peer institutions to assess comparable performance on strategic performance indicators. Scope II, also completed, involved reviewing key functions at the Board of Regents central office and of four USG institutions representing the different sectors of colleges and universities. Scope III, scheduled for fall completion, will develop methods for defining, collecting and analyzing data for accountability purposes.
"The good news," stated Pappas, "is the initial findings reflect the University System and its campuses are professionally managed, and the institutions perform well on a number of key indicators. However, we also have identified areas for improvement."
"Once we receive the team's final report, we will have a rich source of self-improvement data," said Chancellor Stephen R. Portch. "The Board of Regents is committed to spending the year ahead responding to what we've learned. In fact, this will be a key focus of the board's new chairman."
"The good news is the initial findings reflect the University System and its campuses are professionally managed." -- Alceste T. Papp, president, Pappas Consulting Group
According to the consultants, the objectives of the study are to: continue to increase the System's and institutional effectiveness and efficiency; to develop baselines for future System and institutional performance; and establish a sustainable process to support the Governor's and Regents long-term accountability agenda.
In the benchmarking section of the report, the external consultants noted that the University System performs well in several key areas. These include:
The reported that that "each of the 34 institutions have notable achievements over the past five years that reflect System priorities."
The report also identified several opportunities for improved performance within the University System, noting that "USG institutions generally perform below norms on:
The report outlined several next steps that can be taken by System officials to improve performance outputs. These include implementing recommendations that address graduation rates; student, alumni and employer satisfaction; measurement of graduates' achievements; and administrative expenditures.
The management review component of the study assessed purchasing cycles, budget, facilities design and construction, warehouse operations, materials requisitioning and business service practices at the Regents central office and representative campuses.
Potential operational efficiencies were identified totaling more than $5 million, which could be redirected to non-funded and under-funded System and institutional needs. The largest portion of these "cost avoidances," however, would require policy changes by state officials. The greatest dollar amount of these efficiencies were identified in the facilities design and construction arena, and involved "turn-over" processes. ¶
[ Contents ]
In memoriamRegent Thomas F. Allgood and his wife, Thelma (better known simply as "T"), were killed Aug. 4 when the small private plane they were using to get to their vacation home in Maine crashed on takeoff in Augusta. Gov. Roy Barnes, three former Georgia governors and an estimated 1,100 mourners - including Allgood's fellow Regents, Chancellor Stephen R. Portch, and a number of Regents Central Office administrators - paid their respects at the Allgoods' Aug. 9 funeral services. See story, below. |
|
The Board of Regents will pursue an "extremely vigorous" legal appeal regarding the right of the University of Georgia (UGA) to use race as an admissions criterion. The appeal arises from a United States District Court July 24 ruling in a lawsuit filed against UGA and the regents.
University System officials made the announcement in conjunction with a similar statement by UGA President Michael F. Adams on August 15. Since this announcement, the Georgia Attorney General's Office has filed for an expedited appeal to the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit (Johnson/Bogrow vs. Board of Regents) challenged UGA's use of race-based admissions' criteria. Although the first 85-90 percent of students were admitted to UGA solely on academic consideration, plaintiffs objected to the process for the relatively small remaining pool of candidates, in which race was one of 12 factors considered. The University of Georgia's admissions process was patterned after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the 1978 landmark case, Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke.
The U.S. District Court recently held that Bakke was not "controlling precedent" and that UGA's use of race for admissions purposes was unconstitutional.
"The debate on the use of affirmative action in promoting diversity on the nation's college campuses for educational purposes has reached the critical point where a clear-cut decision must be reached," said Chancellor Stephen R. Portch. "The System and other universities throughout the nation face continuing litigation on this issue. We are willing to assume a leadership role if it will help resolve this issue definitively. It is in the interest of the state, the nation and the academic community."
Board of Regents Chairman Glenn S. White said the regents consider the issues raised in the case important enough to support the appeal process. "We respectfully disagree with the district court's ruling," White stated. "We are prepared to take any and all steps necessary to resolve this matter. We are truly committed to ensuring all Georgians have full access to educational opportunity; we can do no less."
Chancellor Portch noted that while the appeals process is being pursued, UGA has decided that it will not continue its use of race as a factor in the admissions process.
Chairman White emphasized the board's firm stance on this issue. "While this case is on appeal, the board's Organization and Law Committee, chaired by Regent Juanita Powell Baranco, will seek - with UGA - bold and innovative ways to provide access to all qualified Georgians." ¶
[ Contents ]
|
| Gov. Roy Barnes (on left) congratulates Hugh A. Carter, Jr. on his appointment to the Board of Regents. |
Gov. Roy Barnes has appointed Hugh A. Carter Jr., a cousin of former President Jimmy Carter, to the Board of Regents. Carter succeeds former Regent J. Tom Coleman Jr. of Savannah, who resigned this summer after being named commissioner of the state Department of Transportation.
Carter, an Atlanta resident, is chairman and president of Darby Printing Company, a book manufacturing and publishing company. He is the son of Jimmy Carter's first cousin, Hugh Alton Carter Sr., a former state senator who died last year at age 78.
Hugh Carter Jr. was vice president of the John H. Harland Company, an Atlanta-based check printing firm, when he left to join the White House senior staff during his cousin's administration. He served four years as special assistant to the president for administration. His duties included managing all administrative and military support to the president, serving as liaison between President Carter and former Presidents Ford and Nixon, representing the president both nationally and internationally, speaking nationally on behalf of the Carter Administration, and coordinating several White House task force initiatives.
Carter, who received a bachelor of industrial engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, recently retired as chairman of the Alumni Advisory Board of Georgia Tech's School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Tech Foundation, a former trustee of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association, and the former chairman of the board of directors of the Georgia Tech School of Management.
The new regent served as an attaché for the U.S. Virgin Islands Olympic Committee during the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games. He has lectured for the Brookings Institute and is a past member of the President's Commission on Executive Exchange, the President's Management Improvement Council and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts' Executive Steering Committee on the Arts.
Carter also holds a master of business administration degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is a past member of the Wharton Graduate Executive Advisory Board. ¶
[ Contents ]
The Regents took a proactive approach to highlighting the role of technology in the System by proposing an amendment to the Board's bylaws that would allow the creation of a new standing Board Committee on Information and Instructional Technology. The amendment will be voted on during the Sept. board meeting.
The committee - an outgrowth of the Board's adoption of a System-wide Technology Master Plan - would be chaired by Regent Martin W. NeSmith. Regent Kenneth W. Cannestra, the Board's immediate past chair, would serve as the committee's vice chair. Regents Juanita Powell Baranco and James D. Yancey would round out the membership of the group.
"The formation of this committee is additional proof that the Regents are highly interested in and committed to the role of technology in higher education," said Dr. Daniel S. Papp, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs with the System.
According to Papp, the committee will consider a number of technology issues, both academic and administrative. There also will be significant interaction with other Regents' committees, such as Education, Research & Extension and Finance & Business Operations.
"Technology is a significant expenditure for the System, and it's important that the Board of Regents focus its attention on the technological infrastructure we use to deliver higher education to the Georgia's citizens," said Randall Thursby, vice chancellor for information and instructional technology and the System's chief information officer.
The System's Technology Master Plan, developed with the assistance of Arthur Andersen LLP, is a continuation of the Regents' 1998-99 strategic planning focus on instructional technology.
The technology master plan identifies the services best provided by the System, the appropriate technical architecture at the System level and the appropriate organizational structure for the Regents' Office of Informational and Instructional Technology. The plan also provides master planning templates that USG institutions will use to create customized plans reflecting the unique technology needs of the individual campuses. ¶
[ Contents ]
Chancellor Stephen R. Portch recently named the System's long-time governmental affairs representative, Thomas E. Daniel, as interim senior vice chancellor of human and external resources.
Daniel had served as vice chancellor for external affairs for the Regents since 1988. He began his tenure with the nation's fourth largest system of higher education in 1982, as special assistant to the chancellor. He joined the BOR after having worked for Georgia Gov. George Busbee.
Daniel is a product of the University System, having earned a B.A. in political science from the University of Georgia. He entered politics directly out of college, launching his career as a member of the George Busbee for Governor campaign staff. He went on to serve as Busbee's administrative assistant from 1975 to 1978 and later managed his re-election campaign. Daniel's effectiveness in those posts earned him his next assignment as campaign coordinator for Joe Frank Harris' successful gubernatorial bid in 1981-82.
Currently, as the chief liaison to the Georgia General Assembly, Daniel leads and oversees the communication of the System's messages to the legislature and other key constituencies.
"Tom Daniel's dedicated service, knowledge of the issues, political activity and communication skills are the University System's legislative arsenal," said Portch, who also calls Daniel the "institutional memory" of the Board of Regents.
Daniel fills the post being vacated by Michael Vollmer, who was appointed by Gov. Barnes to head the Office of Educational Accountability after serving briefly as interim vice chancellor of human and external resources. This post initially was vacated on June 1 by Dr. Arthur Dunning, now vice president for public service and outreach at UGA. ¶
Randall A. Thursby, interim vice chancellor for Information and Instructional Technology and chief information officer of the System since January, received the permanent appointment as vice chancellor, effective July 1.
"Mr. Thursby comes to this position after long and impressive performance in a variety of positions in the System, and we have every confidence that he will continue to serve the System and its institutions well in this permanent role," said Dr. Beheruz Sethna, interim senior vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at the time of Thursby's appointment.
Thursby, who is responsible for a staff of 135 and the administration of a budget of more than $35 million, earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Augusta College (now Augusta State University) in 1974. Shortly after that, he took a job at the college as director of computer services, a position he held until 1986. Thursby then worked at the University of Georgia during the late1980s, helping to create the organization that became the Regents' Office of Information Technology.
Over the ensuing years, Thursby progressed from director of administration and planning to assistant vice chancellor for information technology and associate vice chancellor for information technology/associate CIO.
During that time, Thursby has been instrumental in the establishment of PeachNet, USG's first strategic technology plan and a System-wide technology master plan. He also has overseen the technical implementation of major applications systems such as Banner and PeopleSoft. ¶
[ Contents ]
Lindsay A. Desrochers, senior vice chancellor for Capital Resources and treasurer of the Board of Regents, has announced her resignation from both positions, effective September 30, 2000.
Desrochers has accepted a position as vice chancellor for administration at the University of California, Merced, and takes up her new duties on November 1, 2000. The campus is a new creation of the University of California system of public higher education. Currently no campus exists, and Desrochers will be a key executive in the development, construction and opening of the new university, which is scheduled to begin offering classes in 2004.
"This decision has been the most difficult professional choice I have had to make in my career," Desrochers said. "It has been one requiring a careful balancing of all elements of my life, including personal needs and career choices. My experience here in Georgia has been rich and rewarding. This is due to the extraordinarily strong team assembled in the University System, beginning with the regents, Chancellor Stephen Portch and the System staff. I have been privileged to participate in an unprecedented era of progress and growth in the System, thanks to the support of progressive governors and the General Assembly."
Desrochers has been with the System since August 1995, when she assumed her current position. In this post, she had responsibility for all fiscal, business and facilities planning and management for the System and its 34 institutions. Desrochers was one of Chancellor Portch's three-person executive team.
A number of key developments have occurred during Desrochers' tenure, including the development of a new planning process for campus facilities, the consolidation of master planning for campus physical environments with academic planning, and the redesign of the System's budget allocation process.
Desrochers played key roles in the staging of the 1996 Olympics and the Games' impact on a number of the System's campuses, as well as the creation of a new non-profit entity, MCG Health, Inc., to manage the hospitals and clinics at the Medical College of Georgia.
"Lindsay's record of accomplishment is astonishing," said Portch. "She is a consummate professional of the highest integrity and with the deepest loyalty to the regents' goals and the people in the System. She has left her mark on virtually everything we've accomplished together over the past five years."
Prior to joining the System, Desrochers served from 1991 to 1995 as vice president for finance and administration at Portland State University. She also has served in key budget and financial positions with the University of California, as well as a variety of consulting and teaching positions in higher education.
A native of California, Desrochers received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and earned both an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkley. ¶
[ Contents ]
South Georgia College has brought free health care to 12 medically under-served rural Georgia counties in the form of a mobile clinic run by nursing faculty and students.
The clinic is a 37-foot motor coach, appropriately named Nightingale, that ravels from cotton fields and sweet-potato-packing sheds to schools and factories far from interstate highways. Faculty and students in South Georgia College's associate-degree nursing program offer physical exams, diagnostic testing and health counseling. The program is funded under the Regents "Program Collaboration" special funding initiative.
"Teaching students to provide care for acutely ill clients in hospitals, sending them home with discharge instructions, is not enough," wrote SGC Nursing Chair Carol P. Hurst and Assistant Professor Linda B. Osban in a recent issue of the national journal Nursing and Health Care Perspectives. "Our efforts embrace cultural diversity, support service learning and prepare our students for collaboration in the practice setting. They also help define the communith health role of the registered nurse with an associated degree."
Nightingale's faculty/student staff sees migrant workers with pesticide poisoning, factory workers with respiratory and repetitive-stress ailments, women and children with anemia and vision problems, and elderly and disabled clients who might never receive medical care without the mobile clinic's services. ¶
Chancellor Stephen R. Portch recently appointed interim presidents for two of the System's two-year institutions.
Portch named Robert E. Watts, executive vice president for financial and administrative affairs with Georgia Perimeter College, as interim president of Floyd College. He also named Homer A. Day, director of college services at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, as that institution's interim president. Both appointments took effect August 1.
Floyd College in Rome serves approximately 5,000 academic students annually with campuses in Rome, Cartersville, and Acworth. Watts replaces Dr. H. Lynn Cundiff, who recently accepted the president's post at Salt Lake Community College, Utah.
Watts joined Georgia Perimeter (then known as DeKalb College) in 1986, and served for five years as director of Institutional Research and Planning. He was named executive vice president financial and administrative affairs in 1991.
ABAC, located in Tifton, serves approximately 2,600 academic students annually in south central Georgia. Day replaced Dr. Harold Loyd, who retired on July 31 after 11 years as president of ABAC. Day has served as director of college services and coordinator of Federal Programs since 1990. He first joined ABAC in 1972 as assistant director of financial aid, serving in that role until 1974.
Throughout his nearly 30-year career with the institution, Day has served as an assistant professor in the College's Social Science Division (1973-80), as director of Cooperative Education Programs (1974-78), and as director of the institution's Career Planning and Placement Center (1978-80). He also taught in the Tift County public schools.
Both men will serve as interim presidents until new presidents are named for their institutions at the conclusion of national searches. ¶
[ Contents ]
 |
| Georgia Perimeter Tennis Teams are National Junior College Champs |
| Georgia Perimeter College President Jacquelyn M. Belcher (left) presented members of the GPC men's and women's tennis teams to the Board of Regents as the champions of the National Junior College Athletic Association, Division II. Pictured left to right are: men's team members Bartosz Koldej, Gilberto Alvarez, Brendan Zackey, Marcus Hurtig, and Mario Toledo, Assistant Men's Coach Chris Decker, Head Women's Coach Joyce Garrett, Chancellor Stephen R. Portch, and women's team members Cindy Delgado, Mayumi McDowell, and Mary Brooke Spearman. ¶ |
The American Council on Education recently honored both Gainesville College and Brenau University for a long-time collaboration that launched the Gainesville Theatre Alliance.
The alliance began more than 20 years ago when the two institutions pooled financial support and resources by combining their theatre programs. Students and faculty from both institutions work with theatre professionals and community members to produce three main stage and two touring repertory productions each year.
The ACE program -- Academic Excellence and Cost Management awards -- recognizes colleges and universities that have taken initiatives to improve the quality of higher education while controlling costs. Judges reviewed more than 120 entries and selected seven winners this year, most of them much larger institutions than Gainesville or Brenau. ¶
Two professors from Coastal Georgia Community College were recently selected to receive awards of excellence from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development.
Receiving national recognition for their outstanding contributions to teaching and learning were Surgical Technology Program Instructor Joyce Tate and retiring Professor of English Mary Freeman, both of whom also were named co-professors of the year at CGCC.
NISOD, founded in 1978, is an outgrowth of the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin, emphasizing the importance of teaching excellence and open-door policies for students. ¶
[ Contents ]
|
| Gov. Roy Barnes (right) with Regent Tom Allgood and his wife, "T" following Allgood's swearing in ceremony this June. Gov. Barnes reappointed Allgood to the Board of Regents this past January. |
Just four days after Regent Thomas F. Allgood and his wife, Thelma ("T"), were killed in a plane crash in Augusta on Aug. 4, the Board of Regents held a monthly meeting shortened from its usual two-day format to one so that board members, the Chancellor and a number of Regents Central Office administrators could attend the Allgoods' funeral in Augusta and pay their respects.
Chancellor Stephen R. Portch used his usual "Chancellor's Message" spot on the board agenda to deliver a heartfelt and eloquent tribute to the Allgoods and Tom Allgood's leadership of the University System of Georgia.
"We feel the loss of Tom and T as if they were family members," he noted, adding that "They were both larger-than-life characters." Portch went on to describe Tom Allgood's laid-back yet savvy, astute manner and the former state senator and senate majority leader's longstanding relationships with many of the state's most powerful politicians.
"Without Tom Allgood, we would not have MCG Health, Inc., up and running. We owe it to him to make sure it works. He put his heart and soul into that effort," Portch said, referring to the new non-profit operating company Allgood helped set up to give the Medical College of Georgia Hospital and Clinics a stronger financial footing.
In addition to being chairman of the University System's Teaching Hospital Committee and chairman of MCG Health, Inc.'s board of directors, Allgood was serving as chair of the MCG presidential search committee at the time of his death.
Dr. Lindsay A. Desrochers, Board of Regents treasurer and senior vice chancellor for Capital Resources, worked closely with Allgood on many matters that came before the board, including finding a solution to the financial difficulties experienced by MCG Hospital and Clinics. "Without him, I have no doubt that MCG Health, Inc., would not be a reality today," she said shortly after the funeral. "His very steady, wise leadership assured that we could navigate quite rough waters. He was the cool head and strong presence throughout [the process of forming the corporation]. He appropriately balanced the needs of the college and the community with the state's interests."
Desrochers echoed the words of many who paid tribute during the funeral to Tom Allgood's legal ability to quickly and shrewdly analyze a situation. "The other regents always looked to him for the right words to express the core of any issue," she noted.
Portch pointed out that, during Allgood's year as chairman of the Board of Regents (July 1, 1996 to June 30, 1997), the board "held the first electronic board meeting of any state agency in Georgia; implemented mission review and nomenclature changes; adopted our guiding principles for comprehensive planning; developed the workforce development strategy that catapulted ICAPP into prominence; approved laptop computer projects at Clayton College & State University and Floyd College; and had our very first capital outlay process with presentations by the presidents. It was quite a year," he said in summary.
Juanita Powell Baranco was appointed to the Board of Regents by then-Gov. Zell Miller in 1992, the year after Tom Allgood was named to the Board. During 1995-96, when Baranco served as board chair, Allgood was vice chair, and she counted him and his wife as close friends.
"I have the utmost respect for Tom as a lawyer, a legislator and, more importantly, as a human being," said Baranco, who also holds a law degree. "He loved the Board of Regents and was dedicated to it. He was very politically astute, and time and time again, he wisely steered us away from taking stances on issues that wouldn't have been smart." Baranco said Allgood was always sensitive to the needs and concerns of minorities. "He took some stands on minority issues while on the Board of Regents that I'm sure cost him, both personally and professionally," she noted. "But his shoulders were big enough and his ego was healthy enough to take it."
Despite any rifts brought on by having stuck to his principles, Allgood "was loved and admired, and he will be missed by so many people," Baranco concluded.
The Allgoods' Aug. 9 funeral was attended by an estimated 1,110 mourners, including Gov. Roy Barnes and former Georgia governors Zell Miller, Joe Frank Harris, and Carl Sanders. ¶
Regent Allgood
|
[ Contents ]
The University System has big plans for celebrating the fifth anniversary of having launched its Web-based virtual library, GALILEO (GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online).
The week-long, statewide celebration kicks off on Sept. 21, which has been declared GALILEO Day by the Georgia General Assembly. Gov. Roy Barnes is scheduled to officiate during a commemorative reception from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. that day in the Floyd Room of the James H. "Sloppy" Floyd Building in Atlanta. The staffs of many GALILEO libraries have planned open houses and other events during GALILEO Week, which will run through Sept. 27.
The celebrations will call attention to the wealth of information available through GALILEO and emphasize the fact that every Georgia citizen now has access to this resource through the Public Library System.
GALILEO was launched on Sept. 21, 1995, when the 34 University System institutions began sharing Web-based access to library resources such as periodicals, government publications and electronic books.
GALILEO was completed in 150 days with an initial $10 million in Georgia Lottery funding. The System was the 1997 recepient of a prestigious ComputerWorld Smithsonian award for GALILEO's "visionary use of information technology."
GALILEO's user communities now include K-12 schools, public libraries, adult technical institutes and colleges, and private colleges and universities. And now, a password available to registered public library patrons makes home access to GALILEO possible. ¶
[ Contents ]
| BOARD OF REGENTS | OFFICERS | ||||
|
Glenn S. White Hilton Hatchett Howell, Jr. Juanita Powell Baranco Hugh C. Carter, Jr. Connie Cater
Joe Frank Harris
John Hunt |
Edgar L. Jenkins
Charles H. Jones Donald M. Leebern, Jr. Elridge W. McMillan Martin W. NeSmith J. Timothy Shelnut Joel O. Wooten, Jr. James D. Yancey |
Stephen R. Portch Gail S. Weber
Lindsay A. Desrochers
|
|||
[ Top ] [ The System Supplement ]