Chair's Report on Highlights of the Past Year
Kenneth W. Cannestra
June 14, 2000
Thank you for your support and hard work, especially the Chairs of the Committees and the new Regents. Thanks to the staff. Together, we have maintained - built upon the momentum generated in previous years. It has been a year of challenges - but challenges met. Or to use an analogy from my professional life, we've got a great flight path mapped out. It has personally been very rewarding. I have enjoyed this opportunity and appreciate your confidence. When I began my term as Chairman, I proposed it was timely for the Board to undertake a benchmarking review of the System.
Our thinking - to better understand where we stand in relationship to our regional and national peers - coincided with the goal of the Governor to initiate management reviews of all State agencies. And so, I am proud that the Regents stepped forward and volunteered to work with the Governor and be the first State agency to undertake this management review and benchmarking process. We are now well into this process, and the results will provide next year's leadership with mileposts and challenges!
Just think of these challenges as the old barnstorming stunt pilots viewed wing-walking: all in a day's work. But the past year has been one of other significant achievements as well.
First our students. Last fall, the SAT [Scholastic Aptitude Test] scores of our freshmen students were not only the highest in the System's history, but matched the national average for the first time. Eight institutions reported SAT scores above 1,000, and the System average reached 1016. This is just one key piece of evidence that our actions to raise standards and promote academic excellence is paying off.
And this news came as the implementation of our new admissions standards came closer and closer to the fall 2001 implementation date. Coupled with news that the numbers of freshmen requiring learning support or having CPC [college-preparatory curriculum] deficiencies has dropped, this is good news.
We also learned that there has been no substantial decrease in the percentage of African-American students in the System. This is important in that it is a sign that our new admissions policy is not restricting access. We will need to remain vigilant, however.
The overall improvement in student preparation also demonstrates the importance of our partnerships with the State's educational agencies through programs such as P-16 and PREP [Post-secondary Readiness Enrichment Program]. Finally, it is a testament to the power of the HOPE Scholarship to drive academic improvement.
We continue to move ahead with the integration and expansion of technology throughout the System. Development of technology master plans for the System and our campuses is well underway.
The GeorgiaHIRE [Georgia Hiring Initiative for Recruiting Excellence] program, unveiled in the spring of 1999, has seen heavy use by both System graduates and Georgia employers; 500 employers used Georgia HIRE to review resumes this April alone.
More than 9,000 potential students have used GA EASY [Georgia Application and Electronic Advisement System] to apply to one of our institutions. This new online application service debuted just this past November.
The Georgia GLOBE [Georgia Global Learning Online for Business and Education] project is moving ahead, and we have strengthened this effort targeted at nontraditional students with a new partnership with the SREB [Southern Regional Education Board] Electronic Campus. I was pleased to participate in the joint announcement of this new collaboration at a recent national conference of education reporters.
Our efforts to work closely with the business community continue to strengthen the image of the System as a key player in the State's economic development.
ICAPP's [Intellectual Capital Partnership Program] latest survey of the State's business leaders, released last September, indicates the percentage of those ranking the quality of the System as "good" or "very good" continues to increase from earlier surveys. It is now at 94%.
Our participation in the Governor's Yamacraw Mission is on schedule and is already attracting top faculty to the State, as we heard from Dan Papp and Jim Foley last month.
We also have dealt with other - sometimes difficult - issues.
The Medical College of Georgia (MCG) has occupied much of our thoughts and time. Want to thank Regent Tom Allgood and Senior Vice Chancellor Lindsay Desrochers for their hard work. We have made the decisions that will enable MCG to continue to fulfill its mission of training the State's doctors and other health professionals. The transition of the hospitals and clinics to MCG Health, Inc. management has largely been completed.
There is still much to be done in this area, and we cannot be complacent. The healthcare environment is too unstable and competitive for us to relax our vigilance. I want to thank the Governor and General Assembly for their assistance on MCG issues.
And we are dealing with healthcare coverage for the System's employees. Again, no easy answers, no easy decisions. But we have taken the necessary steps to keep our plans whole, with considerable support from the Governor, legislature, and legislative staff.
We survived Y2K - again, thanks to the hard work and preparation by our institutions and our staff.
Critically, we continue to build our strong partnership with the Governor and General Assembly.
In the recent session, the System's budget as adopted by the General Assembly had a number of solid recommendations, including:
- Funds for the HBCUs [historically black colleges and universities] and for our Hispanic Initiative,
- Continued support for eminent scholars,
- Strong support for the Yamacraw Mission,
- Funding for our technology efforts, including GALILEO [Global Learning Online for Business and Education] and Georgia GLOBE,
- Money for 28 capital projects,
- And help for the formula.
The Chancellor's staff played an important role in the Governor's education reform process. We had visits here at the Regents' meetings by the Governor, Senator Jack Hill, and Representative Dubose Porter.
All of my work, efforts, have been supported by Regent Tom Coleman, who didn't let a few roads distract him from his focus on the System.
This is a great group - different perspectives, wisdom, experience - but I continue to be impressed by your dedication to the State and to providing quality higher educational opportunities to all citizens. Thank you for the opportunity to lead, for the opportunity to serve.
Kenneth W. Cannestra