Pinky promise? Univ. President Adams states his goals in the 2012 State of the University address
| • Increase salaries | “Second, we must-absolutely must-have help on faculty and staff salaries. I have made the case in Atlanta to the point that some members of the legislature turn away when they see me coming — but I chase them down. They need to know that we have lost ground to our peer institutions, our aspirational institutions and our competitors, both domestic and global. And when UGA loses ground, Georgia loses ground, and none of us can afford that.” |
| • Double endowed faculty positions | “Our most pressing need is a significant infusion of current and endowed funds to support faculty positions, with an equal commitment to student scholarships and fellowships. I am proud that over the past 15 years we have moved from 92 endowed positions to 219, but that is not enough. In fact, we could use twice that many.” |
| • Request full legislative funding | “While I am sympathetic to the legislature in its efforts to prioritize the allocation of scarce resources, another year without funding the formula will do significant damage to UGA and the system as a whole. I assure you that we will play strong defense to protect that effort throughout the legislative session. When the increase in the formula was not funded at all last year, it meant the loss of some $15 million at UGA. That pattern is clearly not sustainable.” |
| • Increase alumni donations | “As successful as we have been, we need yet more help from our alumni — now 280,000 strong, with thousands added each year — and friends.” |
| 1998 | |||
| Promise | Status | information | results |
| RESIDENTIAL HOUSING: | ACCOMPLISHED | Adams identified a need for increased on-campus housing. “We are facing increasing concerns largely caused by the continued growth in our student body, at a time when our last residential construction was completed in 1969.” |
In the first State of the University address, Adams speaks about a need for more residential housing. This is a promise that was repeated in later speeches and accomplished throughout the next 14 years. |
| ADMINISTRATIVE RESTRUCTURING: | ACCOMPLISHED | He proposed major changes to the administration, adding three senior vice president positions of academic affairs and provost, finance and external affairs. “I want an administrative structure that is team-based, non-paternalistic, understandable and efficient.” |
Today these positions are still around filled by Jere Morehead, Tim Burgess and Tom Landrum, respectively. |
| STUDY ABROAD: | ACCOMPLISHED | Adams said he wanted to see an increase in the number of students studying abroad as part of a liberal arts education. “I am told that the current number at UGA is about 2 percent, and I would like to see us aim for 10 percent of each undergraduate graduating class having a residential foreign experience by the first couple of years of the 21st century.” |
In 1999, Adams announced the first residential year-round program in Oxford, England. In 2007, Adams once again mentions study abroad with more than 25 percent of students going. |
| 1999 | |||
| ZELL B. MILLER LEARNING CENTER: | ACCOMPLISHED | Adams highlighted plans already in progress for the creation of the Miller Learning Center. “This facility, projected to cost about $43 million, will incorporate the most advanced technological innovations for classrooms, library access and teaching, as well as space for student gatherings,” he said. “This center will be a marvelous asset for our students and will be a model for instructional excellence for the state.” |
In 2003, the Miller Learning Center opened with a an electronic library and about 2,400 new classroom seats. |
| NEW SCHOOLS: | NOT COMPLETELY | Adams announced a proposal for several new schools to improve the University’s academic reach. These included a School of Public Policy, a College of Ecology and Environmental Science, a College of Communications to include speech therapy, rhetorical studies and a College of Fine Arts. | Though today we have the School of Public and International Affairs, the Odum School of Ecology, the University has yet to house its own “College of Communications” and “College of Fine Arts.” Today, these studies are part of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. |
| 2001 | |||
| STUDENT EXPERIENCE: | ACCOMPLISHED | Adams announced the construction of additional arts buildings in East Campus. “Those three projects will complete quite nicely the East Campus arts complex and be of benefit to both on- and off-campus constituencies.” |
The University expanded the Georgia Museum of Art, constructed a new facility for the Lamar Dodd School of Art and built a facility for our theater and dance programs. |
| RESEARCH: | NOT ACCOMPLISHED | Adams announces a push to increase the numbers of graduate students enrolled at the University by 1,200 over a decade to reach approximately one-fourth of the student body. “Another area of focus is the need for more and better graduate students. No university can aspire to the ranks of the elite institutions without a commitment to graduate education,” he said |
By 2010, graduate students made up about 20 percent of the student body — 5 percent less than Adams promised. |
| 2004 | |||
| ACADEMIC RIGOR: | NOT ACCOMPLISHED | Adams announced plans to increase the academic rigor at the University following a 2003 National Survey of Student Engagement, which found University students spent less time studying and produced fewer papers than students at peer and aspirational schools. “This university needs to be a place of even greater academic rigor where virtually all students accept the challenge of a full course load,” Adams said. |
The University ranked as the No. 1 party school by Princeton Review in 2010, and bumped down to No. 2 in 2011. |
| 2006 | |||
| MINORITY ENROLLMENT: | NOT ACCOMPLISHED | Although a 2003 Supreme Court ruling made it difficult to have race as a factor in admissions, Adams said he would continue to recruit underrepresented groups. “First is the issue of race. From my first day on this job to today, and probably tomorrow and well into the future, the issue of how to increase minority participation at the University of Georgia has been a pressing one.” |
In 2010, The Education Trust ranked the University in last place for minority enrollment. |
| FACULTY SALARIES: | NOT ACCOMPLISHED | Adams made salaries a priority this year, in 2008 and once again in 2012. “Despite all the progress at UGA over the past three to four years, one area where we have not made the progress we need to make is faculty and staff salaries.” |
Due to a struggling economy, Gov. Nathan Deal proposed a $31 million cut to Teaching program making Adams’ push to increase salaries unlikely. |
| 2009 | |||
| TEMPORARY INSTITUTIONAL FEE: | NOT ACCOMPLISHED | Adams noted the $100 institutional fee would be a temporary cost to students. “For the average student there was relatively little impact from the budget crisis in 2008. The imposition of a $100 temporary student fee does require our students to assist with the management of this situation as we have been asking faculty and staff to do at, frankly, a greater level.” |
In 2012, not only is the fee still around, but it more than doubled to — $450 per semester. |
| 2010 | |||
| SUSTAINABILITY: | ACCOMPLISHED | Adams said he would implement a $3 green fee for the establishment of the Office of Sustainability. “I began this speech with the idea of conservation — conservation of financial resources, conservation of mission, conservation of natural resources,” Adams said. |
The fee has provided for more than the office. In 2011, it funded grants for students to create projects that would make the University a greener campus — including recycling and water bottle fillers inside the Miller Learning Center, among others. |
