In a major strategic planning effort started in August 1994, the Board of Regents, along with Chancellor Stephen R. Portch, his staff, and the presidents of various campuses, committed to make the University System of Georgia a world class university system. The Board stressed the necessity of making good academic use of available technology and equipment and of preparing an adequate human and organizational infrastructure to implement the System's strategic plan. The concluding paragraph of the reiterates that "The University System of Georgia will hold itself accountable to the citizens of Georgia for the effective and efficient use of every available material resource, new technology, and human insight and activity to achieve access to academic excellence for all citizens and to charge its collective intellectual power on behalf of the state."

To this end, the Board of Regents approved a set of budget technology initiatives: A Vision for One Statewide Library, renamed GALILEO - GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online; Connecting Students and Services; and Connecting Teachers and Technology.

• provides for universal access to materials and information services by all students and faculty in the University System
• enhances student learning
• enhances quality of teaching, research, and service
• provides for a responsible stewardship of system resources
• establishes an information infrastructure which will place the University System in the forefront of information technology

• improves student transitions from secondary school to college by providing easily accessible registration
• improves student transfers from one college or university to another within the University System, or from vocational-technical institutes to University System units, by increasing transfer articulation agreements and by ensuring easy access - for students and their advisors - to current information on those agreements
• improves student movement through academic programs and requirements into entry-level jobs with appropriate career-advancement potential and increases student access to advisors and advisor access to relevant student information
• improves the System's capability for tracking student transitions from secondary school to college, through college, and from college to work, by ensuring comparable data collection from unit to unit and compatible systems for sharing it

• expands the number of academic programs using instructional technologies
• increases the number of faculty and staff trained and the number of support staff available to deliver programs by distance education using instructional technologies
• increases the use of distance education to support the delivery of graduate and undergraduate education by System institutions
• expands the technology infrastructure within the University System
• enables faculty and staff to exploit technology and distance learning systems to deliver instruction in new ways and to previously unreachable audiences

Source: Office of the Vice Chancellor for Information and Instructional Technology