By Sharron Hannon
In his quarterly media briefing April 10, President Michael Adams announced two important gifts to the university and addressed several personnel matters that have generated media attention.
Adams announced that he had just received a verbal commitment from officials with the Woodruff Foundation to fund a university request for $3 million to help construct and equip the Applied Genetics Technology Resource, or AGTEC.
The core physical facilities will include a biotechnology sciences building, a connected business-incubator facility, and poultry and mammalian transgenics facilities--at a cost of $15 million.
With $1 million of university funding already earmarked for the project and another $11 million approved by the Georgia General Assembly, the Woodruff Foundation grant completes the needed funding.
Adams also announced that UGA has received a grant of almost $100,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to catalog substantial archival materials in the libraries--specifically, materials submitted to the Peabody Awards program, administered by the College of Journalism and Mass Communication since 1940.
Provost, law dean searches
Addressing several personnel matters, Adams said that the provost search committee is moving forward at a rapid pace. "The committee has met several times, and I expect them to identify a dozen or so finalists pretty quickly," he said. "It's a strong pool."
Adams said he expects the law school dean search to soon be narrowed to three finalists.
He praised the decision of swim coach Jack Bauerle, actively recruited by the University of Florida, to remain at UGA. "The credit for his staying goes to him and to Vince Dooley," Adams said.
Turning to the resignation of former Vice President for Legal Affairs Bryndis Roberts, who attended the briefing accompanied by local attorney David Sweat, Adams made several points:
Role of legal services
Adams said her decision may also have been influenced by "philosophical differences between me and my predecessor" about the role of legal services. "My philosophy is that attorneys give advice, they don't make policy decisions," Adams said. With Roberts's resignation, Adams has changed the position from a vice president to an executive director.
Roberts will be employed by the university as a consultant through next February. When her current contract expires June 30, she will be paid a fee of $90,000 for the remaining eight-month period. Adams defended the arrangement as "sound and sensible," noting that Roberts will continue to work on a pending lawsuit targeting affirmative action in University System admissions and on a broad range of environmental issues for which she has specific expertise.
'Time to move on'
Regarding local media reports of allegations about how Roberts managed the legal affairs office, Adams said it is "time to move on.
"I understand there are upset people on both sides of this issue, but this is a human being who has given extraordinary amounts of time and service to the university," he said. "It's time to put human disagreements behind and exercise some compassion."
Adams noted that he has found the general level of civility on campus to be high.
"I've never been treated with more kindness than here," he said. "I hope everyone is treated that way. I'm not much into stone throwing, epithets and lawsuits. I'm a firm believer in dispute resolution and people working out problems with each other."
