Choose your University president’s summer adventure:

Michael Adams can travel 11 days to three of Africa’s most burgeoning nations, approve federal funding to strengthen their infrastructure, meet with officials to establish a trusted relationship and provide agricultural and technological resources to benefit the nations’ governance, public health and agriculture.

Or . . .

He can fly to three of the University’s established study abroad programs in Europe, celebrate their anniversaries, plant two trees and give four speeches. As the first lady of UGA, Mary Adams will accompany the president during the 15-day trip and stay with him in a four-star hotel in London. While he’s there, he’ll extend his stay for four days of annual vacation leave before a $130 dinner with his wife and flying home.

Can’t decide?

In a budget climate of faculty furloughs and increased student fees, Michael Adams chose both adventures.

And the University paid for them.

Innsbruck, Austria

In 1992, the University became a partner with the University of New Orleans in hosting a summer study abroad program in the small valley city of Innsbruck, Austria. Since then, more than 1,800 UGA students have participated in the program.

“Because of President Adams’ high regards for international initiatives and the long-standing partnership between UGA and UNO, he was asked to be the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony,” said Peter Jorgenson, a University professor of Germanic languages and linguistics who taught at the study abroad program and attended the ceremony.

Adams flew into the Munich international airport the morning of July 3 from Atlanta (total air fare cost: $9,081.75) and drove 93 miles (total mileage cost: $458.64) to Innsbruck. He stayed at the Penz, a four-star hotel and bar for the next three nights. Although UNO paid for Adams’ stay, the only thing listed on his itinerary was the July 4 ceremony speech at 6 p.m.

“He’s been involved in that program for several years. He doesn’t go every year, but he decided to go this year because they invited him to come and make remarks,” said Meg Amstutz, assistant to the president.

Cortona, Italy

From Innsbruck, Adams drove the 373 miles (total gas: $135) on July 6 to Cortona and stayed two days and three nights at the Hotel San Michele, a four-star hotel and restaurant ($120 a night). His two-day visit included four events: a lunch with a UGA professor, a visit with Rick Johnson, director of the Cortona program, a tree planting and a special dinner.

This summer marked the 40th anniversary of the UGA studies abroad program in Cortona, and Eli Noblitt, a senior landscape architecture and political science major from Cumming, was one of 69 UGA students to attend the decadent ceremony.

“The opinion of President Adams in Italy wasn’t nearly as hostile as it seems to be back in Athens,” Noblitt said. “We had this incredible set-up behind our studio on one of the terraces. There were chairs lined up and a podium placed in the middle. There was dinner served outside later and then a DJ was hired. This celebration was combined with the Fourth of July so it was essentially a big party with karaoke and dancing.”

“The mayor of Cortona came and honored President Adams with an olive tree, to symbolize Cortona, and President Adams presented him with a Live Oak, the state tree of Georgia,” Noblitt continued. “Other contributors to the program and a world ambassador spoke about the importance of continuing [the Cortona program] and how fortunate we were to have it in such a well-preserved city.”

Oxford, England

It is no coincidence the 40th anniversary of Cortona and the 20th anniversary of Oxford fell close together on the calendar. Kalpen Trivedi, director of the UGA at Oxford program, moved the Oxford celebration to an earlier date to accommodate Adams’ travel.

“We had originally planned to have the Oxford events on a different date, but when it turned out that the president would already be in Europe at an earlier date, we switched our program to accommodate his plans so that he wouldn’t have to make two trips to Europe in one summer, especially at a time of budgetary problems,” Trivedi said. “This was done to save costs all around.”

After departing from the Florence Airport July 9 at 6:15 p.m. and arriving in London one hour later, Adams checked into The Rembrandt Hotel, another four-star hotel ($395.41 a night). At this time, his wife Mary joined him on his trip where that night’s stay was reimbursed to the president. The two following nights at the Rembrandt were not, as they were documented as two annual vacation leave days for the president and his wife. The cost of Mary Adams’ round-trip flight and traveler’s insurance between London and Atlanta was $10,810.88.

The following Sunday, July 12, Adams and his wife attended an additional tree planting on the campus of Oxford University in Oxford, England. This tree planting, however, was to honor Judy Shaw, founder and former director of the Oxford program who retired earlier this year.

“It wasn’t something big at all,” said Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, a Grady College professor who taught at the Oxford program this summer. “Just the students, the programs, Adams, the provost, it was a very small event.”

That evening, Adams had dinner with faculty members and checked into the Old Bank Hotel, yet another four-star hotel, ($311.97 per night).

The following Monday, Adams took a tour of the Oxford campus and The Bodelian Library. At 8 p.m. he attended the 20th anniversary celebration, which was in the form of the program’s weekly “high table” dinner.

“The students and the faculty have to dress a bit better and the faculty sit at a table that’s high [up], it’s like Harry Potter,” Acsota-Alzuru said. “This was a special Monday because we were celebrating. President Adams and some alumni were there. He gave a speech, it was just a speech about the program and how successful it is, being determined to give our students an international experience, it was very routine. I saw him at those two events. Never saw him elsewhere.”

The next three nights, Adams and his wife stayed at Old Bank, but two of the nights were not reimbursed for July 14 and 15, which Adams also documented as annual vacation leave.

Although Thursday, July 16 is documented as an additional annual leave day, his stay at the Hilton Airport Hotel in London ($324.65), was reimbursed to the president. A dinner ($127.41) on the same evening was reimbursed as well.

“Had he not have been taking the annual leave, even if [the flight] was two nights before, that would’ve been the night before he flew out anyway,” Amstutz said. “I mean, he would’ve been with people at the University probably getting up the next day and then having to stay the next night, and then go on to the flight. We’re very attentive to that.”

The total reimbursed expenses of Adams’ trip to Europe was $23,481.96. In 16 days, Adams’ itinerary contained nine appointments.

A month later, Adams was off on another cross-Atlantic excursion. In an 11-day trip reimbursed at $11,943.21, his itinerary included 21 events and meetings, but this time there were no tree-plantings.

Monrovia, Liberia

For the past 15 years, the Carl Vinson Institute, the University’s governance research and outreach resource, has carried out several projects to improve infrastructure across Africa. Through the collaboration of students, faculty, administrators and local government officials, the University is now extending this effort to West Africa.

“As part of University programming in nontraditional areas, we’ve tried to figure out and assess where the most successful partnerships exist. For a number of reasons we wanted to try and see if we could develop some relationships in West Africa, Liberia and Ghana,” said Steve Wrigley, director of the Vinson Institute. “[In Liberia], they just emerged from a terrible civil war, so there’s a lot of need there.”

Wrigley explained that as a land grant institution, UGA has government-funded programs in areas that are seen as beneficial to countries such as Liberia and Ghana, which are in transition.

“The civil war basically destroyed their food production capacity. One of the things they’re interested in is to get technical assistance from the U.S. and elsewhere to rebuild a lot of that capacity in a lot of areas that they lost: governance capacity, food production, I mean name an area,” he said.

So where does the president come in?

After two days of international flights, Adams arrived at Monrovia Roberts International Airport and went directly to a briefing with Wrigley and other administrators to discuss their itinerary. He spent that night and Monday night at the four-star RLG Kendeja Resort. The Red & Black could not obtain itemized records of accommodation costs through an open records request. The total accommodation costs of his 11-day stay was $953.57.

On Aug. 10, Adams attended six different meetings with government officials, including the minister of planning and economic affairs and president of the University of Liberia.

“It was a rigorous schedule because there was a limited amount of time, so we really wanted to pack in as much as possible,” said Jennifer Frum, deputy director of the Vinson Institute who was in charge of scheduling Adams’ itinerary.

“We ultimately benefited from doing that, because we got to meet the president [of Liberia], who is amazing.”

Indeed, Adams, along with Wrigley and Frum, met with Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first female president of any nation in Africa.

“The reality is, if only [Frum] and I go, we get to see a certain level of people. If the president of the University goes, it creates a different kind of visit. And as a result, it opens up doors to the decision-makers of the country,” Wrigley said. “But what it does, more than anything else, is it makes a statement to the Liberians that we care about it. And that he’s willing to take the time to make the visit. As charming as we are, we would’ve not met with the president of the country.”

Accra, Ghana

After one final meeting in Liberia, Adams flew to Ghana on Aug. 11 where, upon arrival, he met with a U.S. ambassador. He checked into the Holiday Inn Hotel for two nights and had four meetings with administrators at the University of Ghana the next day.

On Aug. 13, Adams attended four more meetings, including a 9:30 breakfast with Ghana’s minister of food and agriculture, before flying to Tunis Carthage Airport in Tunisia.

Tunis, Tunisia

“[President Adams] had had a long-standing invitation from Dr. Takoi Hamrita asking him to come to Tunisia to meet with officials, so they were separate trips, but a similar purpose,” Amstutz said. “We tried to see if we could coordinate all those trips together since he’d be on the continent. In fact, if you look at his itinerary to get to Tunisia he had to fly in the middle of the night at like 11 p.m., got in at nine and then had meetings that day, so we were trying to coordinate multiple stops on behalf of the University in a short time frame.”

He spent two nights at the Korinthia Hotel in Gammarth, a five-star resort, but spent all three days in meetings and at meals with Tunisian education, research and culture officials.

“[The expense] has already paid off in established relationships,” Wrigley said. “It makes a point when the top person comes and says, ‘You know, we really do care about this work.’ And gives us exposure about UGA programming that otherwise, might take a few years to develop if you don’t get the president there. We appreciated him going. He’s got a lot of demand on his time, and a lot of competition for his limited time. They just take everything more seriously if the president of the University is there.”

Back home

The day Adams returned from Africa, the start of the fall 2009 semester was in full swing. The news from the governor’s office in Atlanta wasn’t good, and the reality of budget cuts and furlough days were on the horizon.

Yet check requests and reimbursement forms to the “President’s Special Projects Support” and “Arch President’s Discretionary” accounts were filed, approved and paid. Those accounts are administered by the Arch Foundation, the University’s major arm of fundraising. Usually donors give money for specific purposes, but unspecified money is used for a variety of needs, including use by Adams at his discretion.

But when calling alumni to request donations, staff members have certain selection boxes to check if someone doesn’t wish to contribute.

One of them reads: “Unhappy with President Adams.”